The Union Canal

On the west side of Edinburgh begins the Union Canal. This man-made waterway, a true engineering feat, flows from downtown Edinburgh all the way to Glasgow. It opened in 1822 chiefly as a way to ship fuel from the Forth & Clyde Canal. It has a small lock at Fountainbridge (Edinburgh) near Akva, a restaurant we frequent for our friend's Scran Salon (a gathering of foodies), but we'd never followed the path alongside it. The weather has turned gorgeous here, so we recently decided to go exploring. One of the most noticeable things about the canal is the adorable canal boats. Many are available for hire, some are day trip excursion boats, and a few are actual homes. They are very steam-punk looking and I would love to live in one! But the canal runs a long way, so you see lots of other things on the lovely walk alongside. Like the real swans who live there. And the ducklings. I saw a muskrat or some such critter too, but he was too fast for me to get a photo. The canal meanders by a church. And a canoe center. Where you can indeed rent canoes for the day. How fun—we'll have to come back for that! Eventually, we left the path to get some lunch in Jashans Indian Restaurant. (There's a ton of Indian food in the UK.) Back to the path afterwards, we stopped at nearly every bench to soak up the sunshine. Truly, the walk back was just as lovely as the walk out, and we needed it after that enormous lunch. All said, we walked about 9 miles that day. The legs were sore, but it was worth it.