One of the fondest memories from my childhood travels to my mother’s home country, England, is going to Great Yarmouth and playing on the penny machines in the arcades. I loved the atmosphere and the thrill of winning little gifts before eventually losing all of the two pennies. Great Yarmouth has always been a magical place to me, and I still love going there, even as an adult.
When I visited my brother in Edinburgh a month ago, we decided to spend my last day walking to the seaside village of Portobello, hoping to find a nice ocean view. But Portobello turned out to be much more than just a pretty beach. We found a bit of Great Yarmouth in Scotland!
Our new friend Dave decided to join us, so all three of us set off to the beach an hour after sunrise. The sun was already high on the sky; it was one of those rare sunny days in Scotland, and it was even quite warm. Like summer in February!
The 5 km walk from the city center of Edinburgh to Portobello took us past Arthur’s Seat and our favourite pond, where we ate our breakfast while feeding the many birds. We continued through a beautiful neighbourhood, where we were met by the friendly cat Lily.
The ocean was right ahead, so it wasn’t hard to find our way, and soon after, we stood by the shore at Portobello Beach.
Happy people and dogs were everywhere and the atmosphere was great. It immediately reminded me of Great Yarmouth, although in much smaller scale. There were cute restaurants and coffee houses, in one of which we enjoyed our morning coffees and hot chocolate while people and dog watching.
All that was missing was a funfair and an arcade, the latter being waaaaay more important to us, hehe. Thankfully, we didn’t have to walk far along the promenade before we found the one and only arcade in Portobello!
The next hour or so was spent on the penny machines, trying to win terrible sugary candy and other more or less useless gifts. I’m not sure what attracts us to these slot machines, but Brandon and I both agree that we could spend hours doing it (if it was free…). I’m not one for gambling at all, but I don’t really consider penny machines gambling; it’s juuuust a bit of fun!
When we figured we had spent too much money, we pulled ourselves away from the arcade and went for a stroll down the promenade before heading back to the city. It didn’t take long to walk the promenade as Portobello is very small, especially compared to Great Yarmouth. But the childhood memories and the amazing atmosphere can be found in Portobello too. It’s now officially one of my favourite places to visit in Edinburgh!
Leave a Comment