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Cycling Through Central Edinburgh - A Photographic Narrative Of Sight & Sign

Cycling Through Central Edinburgh - A Photographic Narrative Of Sight & Sign

July 2018 · 5 min read · Edinburgh

I had arranged to meet up with my friend 'A' in town and decided to cycle in. Having recently fixed the brakes on Bicycle, I had the pleasure of no longer needing to use my feet to stop and I could also pick up a bit of speed. I took my camera with me and had these two themes in mind:

  • bicycles and cycling
  • signs and signposts

I present this selection of photos as they were taken, in chronological order. There is some accompanying commentary.

This is the first time I am using the #cyclefeed tag. The #travelfeed tag is already one of my main go-tos and my experience using it has been excellent. These two tags flow from a similar space of good vibes - here is cyclefeed's introduction.

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Photos taken with a Nikon D200 + Nikon AF-S 40mm f2.8 MG lens.
All images are sized to a width of 1680 pixels, so if you'd like to zoom in, you can use the right-click (CTR-click) options to 'view image'.
Thanks for stopping by.
🚣

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I set off under an alternating sky of sun and cloud, no rain on the horizon. I go past some signs. The first one is friendly

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...then two more hugging a post. One passively aggressive, the other actively so

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...before cocking my head at this one!

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I followed the sign down the hill and through the park where the Braid Burn flows, until it disappeared under a stone bridge

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...and I hit the road again, Edinbugger castle perched on the hill in the background and a church steeple sticking out of Number 23's doubled-up decker

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I don't need to ride with the traffic for long, and soon turn off onto another of Edinburgh's many green spaces

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I descend gently to the Meadows where I meet up with A. We sit on the grass, catching up and enjoying each other's company, fulfillment of sign #1's prophecy 🌞

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After a while, A goes back to work and I head into a town that is getting ready for the month-long Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

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I park Bicycle near the University, good girl that she is....

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...and walk through one of my favourite graveyards

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....and out, past a gent mirrored in the wall

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...and someone spying on the cyclist

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...before bursting into the Grassmarket, bowels of Edinburgh, cleaned up a couple of centuries ago and now buzzing with humanity. Cyclists are exceptional sez the sign on the right :)

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And cycles??? Whatever guys, whaaaaa tever!

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Stonewalled with a rusty old caution....

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...and dumped!

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Oh the facade, the promise of bright skies - yet entrance is blocked and parking forbidden!

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Where else to go pushing the load but into the unknown eh?

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Aha! Now you're talking, although pleeeeze consider adding some THC to mine. Patience friends, the time will come when the leaf will roam free again. And yeah, vegan too btw 😉

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...regardless of official ridicule and what they may say!

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Right, heading back now, with a stop in a secluded, walled-in, little-known, concealed and overgrown graveyard. I sit and have a smoke

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Bicycle's chilled and waits patiently with the Peaceful Dead

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I decide to go along the Union Canal, which starts at this very point, and carries on out West to Glasgow, 50 odd miles away. The cycle/pedestrian path runs the entire distance.

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...no swimming apparently!

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Some local stats and figures

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Barge! You here? Now fancy that and who would've thought it?

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Cycling is much quicker than barging. I move on to the acqeduct, where the canal goes over the Water of Leith, and a cyclist is bracketed between two blurred stalks of grass that bomb the photo

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What, yet another barge wtf? How??

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Right, getya, it's Area 51 and all sortsa weird shit's takin' place....I see!

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Well hello there Sir! Smiles of such Utter Delight as yours are seldom seen, thank you and good day to you!

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I leave the canal and take the old railway line through the woods, now a cycle path that runs alongside the Water of Leith

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Bicycle flirts with some wild red flowers. I don't mind!

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I cycle through the tunnel, my whistling echoing back and forth

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Down to the water's edge for another smoke, nicely timed with the lighter, 50-50 with the auto-focus :)

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Nearly home, farewell shot of a cobweb I saw on a bridge - fascinating reminder of the inter-connectedness of it all.

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...and finally, welcomed back home by the Sunlit Princess, who doesn't like being left out of anything 🔆.

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