EDINBURGH & THE LOTHIANS
have three trikes now and, although I still take out the majority of our tourers, we have other drivers who are knowledgeable about the areas they are touring and are extremely safe riders. We have ten different tours in and around
Edinburgh. They include the whistle stop tour, which is perfect if you have just arrived in the city and don’t know anything about it. We’ll show you everything from the stylish shops, to beautiful churches, to the coolest bars and restaurants. We will even stop and let tourers have a browse around classic shops like deli and wine merchant Valvona & Crolla. So it’s a great introduction to the capital and the perfect way to get a feel for the city. The perfect tour for people who live in Scot-
land will guide you through some of the city’s world-famous architecture. We also have a fi sh and chip tour and a cocktail tour. So, I’ll do two classic cocktails at a nice location – that involves ice, fruit and all of the mixers. You will be sipping a cocktail just like those served up to you in the most stylish bars on George Street. I think customers are always surprised that a ‘biker looking’ chap like me can create a deli- cious cocktail at the side of the road. All of our customers get tea, coffee, short-
bread and a nip of Monkey Shoulder whisky as part of the tour. We use Nikon D2X profes- sional cameras to photograph customers and will email the pictures to customers to keep for posterity. We have integrated helmets so that we can speak to each other. It’s not really neces- sary in Edinburgh, but as soon as you head out to the Lothians – and if you are going a bit faster – it becomes impossible to hear one another, even for the customers who are sitting beside
each other. So the headsets are great. We also supply helmets with hygienic liners, leather jackets and gloves. Tours range from one hour twenty minutes through to three hours and we always stop regularly at scenic locations. One of the nice rides that we do outside Edin-
burgh is the coastal tour, which goes down to Gullane and Yellowcraigs in East Lothian. This is a particularly pretty part of the world and the trike is a great way to see the beautiful beaches. All of our journeys start in Edinburgh but
one of our most popular tours and one of my favourites heads out to the Forth bridges. We tour around Edinburgh before heading out to South and North Queensferry. From here you get great views of the iconic Forth Bridge and the road bridge, as well as getting the chance to see the new bridge, the Queensferry Crossing, being built. There’s lots of information on the history as well as great photo opportunities. We see lots of wildlife while we are out and
about on the bike. Plenty of raptors – hawks and buzzards. I’ve also been privileged to spot some red squirrels. We had just passed a sign letting us know that there were red squirrels in the area, and there was one sitting on a log. We see plenty of Highland cows, and we’re happy to stop off and visit them when we can. My absolute favourite tour is the bacon roll
tour. We buy bacon rolls from a great little deli in Leith and stop off at a little place across from Malmaison. There’s a fair bit of history going on down there with the swing bridge at the docks, but there’s also a whaling gun from the days when many of the world’s biggest whaling ships were based in Leith. I believe that this tour works because, as
WWW.SCOTTISHFIELD.CO.UK 209
‘One of our most popular tours heads out to the Forth bridges’
Above: The Forth Bridge carries trains between Edinburgh and Fife.
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