The Peebles sidewalk view.
Over the weekend, I entered a 10k night run followed by a half marathon the next morning in Glentress Forest, near Peebles. My friend came with me and we decided to stay in Peebles for the night. We set off for Peebles midday on Saturday, walking to North Bridge to catch the bus to make the one hour journey. After passing through Penicuik, the drive became pretty scenic, with mountains already topped with snow in the distance and green flats and hills just outside with the occasional small farmhouse and sheep. We weren't entirely sure where to get off and so left the bus a little too early, which meant we had a nice walk into town. Peebles is a very pretty town in the Scottish Borders, cut through by the River Tweed. We walked through town, stopping for a meat pie from an outdoor market, and then strolled over Tweed Bridge (which, as the name suggests, crosses the River Tweed). The bridge is a "wooden bridge, clad in stone and later widened", according to a plaque on said bridge, and built in the 15th century. Very cool. We checked into Lindores guest house, where we were staying, and then headed to Glentress for the the run. see the run recap here. The woman who runs the guest house was very nice, and I would really recommend staying there. The rooms are nice, clean, warm and inviting, and we got a full hot Scottish breakfast of toast, eggs, bacon, sausage, black pudding, beans, mushrooms, tomatoes, a potato pancake, and tea or coffee on Sunday morning. Perfect way to start a cold day!
Sunday morning was frosty: here are some frozen spider webs.
And some rozen berries.
As we walked around Peebles, we were stopping every few minutes to take pictures. It's a very cozy feeling town, nestled in between rolling snow capped hills you and forests you can see from almost every direction.
Views between the stone buildings.
Peebles is a very pretty little town, with a cool churches and spires in among the regular shop fronts. We walked around until it started raining, and then sought refuge in a cafe to look at the views from inside. We spent most of our short time in Peebles walking around the River Tweed and over the bridges spanning the water.
Views across the River Tweed.
On Saturday evening, we took a bus from Peebles to Glentress for the run, getting out at Glentress Hotel stop, then looked for the Peel Cafe, where the registration was. We found the hotel instead and walked up to get directions. There we struggled mightily to enter the building, much to the delight of those inside. The cafe has two sliding glass doors facing the stairway leading up to the hotel, so we walked up and alternatively tried pushing and pulling at the doors, not realizing they were SLIDING doors, until the (very friendly and understanding) waitress came and slid the doors open. Then Mae walked in and I was about to follow suit when I saw a black spider was propelling down from the doorframe and hanging directly in front of my face. I motioned to Mae and we both waved our hands at it ineffectively (inadvertently letting the freezing air seep into the cafe) until Mae finally swiped it aside and we both made it in. We then struggled to close the door, and explained that we were looking for the Peel Cafe. Armed with directions, we headed back out the door, once again struggled with opening and closing it, and once again the waitress cane to help us. We finally made it to Peel Cafe, I successfully ran part 1 of the race and then we headed back down to find the bus station. We couldn't find a timetable, so decided to once again head into the hotel to ask for directions. We managed to get inside without too much trouble this time, found the same waitress, and told her we were, again, there for directions. She told us to find the "stone shelter past the dog kennels" just down the road and, after thanking her profusely, we were on our way. We stood in the pitch dark on the side of the road under the stone bus shelter in the freezing cold (32F) looking up at the infinite stars and wishing we could feel our fingers and toes for 15 minutes until the bus came, then headed back to Peebles for dinner.
Next morning, we headed back to Glentress for the second stage of the run. We stopped by the same hotel again, but didn't go in this time - just took some pictures of the views. After the run, we headed back to Edinburgh for a well deserved pizza meal. Overall, it was a short but sweet trip to Peebles!
Views from the hotel.