JOGLE Day 50 – Edinburgh to Dunfermline 19.48 miles. Cumulative 908.42 miles.

Our original plan was to walk to Dunfermline and stay at The Premier Inn, however they were charging over £200 for the night when we tried to book, not even including a hearty breakfast.

Instead we chose plan B, which was to walk to Dunfermline and catch the train back, two additional advantages being an extra evening in Edinburgh and another day of walking without the rucksacks.

We picked up National Cycle Network route 1 again and soon left evidence of the city behind us, following a former railway line, before passing by some very nice housing in the suburbs.

Lynn is a closet airplane spotter and as our route went directly under the flight path for planes going into Edinburgh Airport she took a few photos of the incoming jets. Very sad.

We left the cycle way to follow The John Muir Way which took us along the bank of the Firth of Forth, through Dalmeny Estate and past Barnbougle Castle to the charming harbour village of Queensferry.

We passed under the impressive rail bridge which we crossed on our trip back to Edinburgh.

We felt obliged to stop and have a coffee in Queensferry and the proprietor made the mistake of asking how far we were walking. Ten minutes later we were on our way having signed up a blog follower.

We rejoined NCN 1 to cross the Firth of Forth on the Forth Road Bridge, quite a surreal experience as the only traffic allowed on the bridge now is public transport and small motorcycles, so the cyclists and pedestrians outnumbered vehicles. Just after leaving the bridge we entered our 14th county ‘The Kingdom of Fyfe’.

We continued on the cycle route to Dunfermline East and the train station. We had to put a bit of a spurt on near the end to ensure we caught the 1500 train, when we spotted the next one had been cancelled.

It was a shame we didn’t get to visit the centre of Dunfermline, given that it was announced in the morning that it had been awarded City Status as part of the Queens Jubilee celebrations.