Scotland 5 - North Berwick: Tantallon Castle

[sashura]

North Berwick is a small coastal town about 30 min train ride from Edinburgh. It just happened that we went there twice - first time to see the castle and then a few days later for a boat tour to see the puffins.

Tantallon Castle
The directions said to take the train to North Berwick, then take a bus. We are not big fans of busses, so we figured that if we see the right bus when we get there, we will take it, if not, there is an uber. Well, we got to the North Berwick station, didn't see anything even remotely looking like a bus stop, and tried to call an uber. There were NONE available. Not like we would have to wait for it for 20 min (which under the light rain wasn't ideal in itself), there were no uber cars at all anywhere in the area!

OK... We looked at the map again and went to where the bus stop might have been. It was there, it even had the right route number, #20, listed on it, but it didn't say anything about the direction. And there was no stop on the other side of the road either. Hm... There was only one person waiting for the bus besides us, so we asked if this was the right direction to get to the castle. Turned out she was from Texas, so she knew not much more than we did. While we were trying to figure out the schedule or any details at all, the bus #20 came!

Next step was to talk to the driver to figure out the correct direction. His English and mine were so far from each other that I could understand maybe every forth word, if that. But after asking every question three times we figured out that it was the wrong direction, but he offered us to take that bus to the end of the route and then return back on the same bus. OK, sounds good! Better to sit in a bus than wait under the rain.

Ten minutes of riding narrow one-way streets and the bus came to an end stop. The driver left to stretch his legs, and the Texas girl asked if we were going to pay for the tickets again.
- No... He said the tickets are good for the whole ride.
- I *think* he told me that I would have to pay again.
- Hm... Let's sit tight and see. If he wants another payment, I am sure he will let us know.
He didn't say anything, so we didn't pay again. But when we were finally leaving, I *think* he said something about letting us ride for free out of goodness of his heart. Well, this is my interpretation of what I heard, and I stand by it! If he was cursing us, that's on him :)

The Tantallon Castle was the least restored of the ones we had seen. And it was gorgeous! Rain or no rain we climbed on every tower and got down to every basement that was available.













The rock island in the back is one of the islands the boat tour took us to later on. At that time we didn't know yet that we were going to see that lighthouse up close.











The weather:




And then it was time to get back to the train station. The bus stop was easy to find, but google maps said that the next bus was coming in 50 min. And the walking time to the town was about the same. So, we figured we might walk just as well.

View of the castle over the oats fields:


Cold sea:


Potatoes in bloom:


Wheat:


After walking for about 40 min we got to a bus stop, still outside of the town. Someone was waiting there for the bus, google said that the bus, the same #20, was supposed to be there in 5 min, so we decided to wait for it. In 4 min google said that the bus just left the previous stop and was arriving on time, in 7 min it said that the bus ... just departed. Oops! It must have been an invisible bus! Good thing we didn't stay to wait for it by the castle! As it was, we were almost back in town by then.

North Berwick:




The train!