Kathleen
Edinburgh, Scotland – 7/2&3/2013
Ah, Edinburgh….it is a stunning city. The hilly terrain makes it in some sense reminiscent of San Francisco, but the buildings are more gothic than any place we have ever been. Fabulous, curly spires poke out from every viewpoint and the view from Edinburgh Castle is inspiring. Of course, this is Scotland, so the weather is not always perfect, but as in other travels thus far, we had our share of sunshine and blue skies along with a bit of rain.
It was raining when we arrived and Steve had to take himself off to an internet cafe to do some work, so Joan and I walked down the high street (this means, from what I can tell depending on where you are, either high in terms of elevation (it was, or became so as we walked up), high in terms of the ratio of shops, restaurants, and souvenir stores to any other sorts of economic business (yes, again), or high in terms of the prices of said shops restaurants and souvenir stores (check mate, definately the high street) in the rain and just sort of took in the town while doing a little tartan window shopping. We stopped by the palace and discovered that the queen was actually in residence in Edinburgh and that might have been the reason it took us about an hour to cross the small distance to our hotel when driving in (apparently she was having a soggy garden party-I will say that seeing so many women walking the streets with fantastic hats on, however, was well worth a little traffic snafu).
After getting pretty thoroughly soggy, we gave up, rescued Steve and went for a pint & some fish & chips at the closest pub to our aparthotel.
The next day we walked to the castle and took in a few tourist attractions in the morning. That afternoon, I had an appointment (long overdue) to get my hair done. Now although I am not the most high maintenance of people, I do try to listen to my long-time hairdresser who insists that I use a specific type of hair color when getting my color done (shhh…don’t tell anyone I color my hair), which means searching on the internet to find a salon that uses that specific product. I actually found this to be relatively easy in Edinburgh, which was surprising to me because it seems very difficult when I am in the US, but away from CT., and was able to make an appointment by communicating with the salon on-line. I found a place a mile or so from our aparthotel and Steve offered to drop me off. It was a lovely little salon and the woman who cut my hair was just as nice as she could be. She had a son who was about 8 years old and liked to listen to and play the bagpipes (poor woman). Anyway, she got me fixed up in a couple of hours and when I came out the sky had cleared and it was the most glorious afternoon! I walked back at around 5:30 PM amidst the bustle of the commuting public and was able to spend a little time enjoying how beautiful Edinburgh is when the sky is blue with puffy clouds. Highly recommended! That evening we had a belated birthday celbration for Joan which gave us an excuse to book a table at a recommended downtown seafood restaurant. We were all thrilled with our dinners (I have found that you can’t go wrong with the whole fish in Ireland or Scotland, so I ordered up the days’ offering) and were introduced for the first time to a desert called sticky toffee pudding which became everyone’s favorite after one forkfull. It seems to be a common Irish “pudding” (meaning desert of any variety) and consists of a chocolaty, spicy cake soaked in a kind of buttery caramel sauce and served with whipped or ice cream…..delicious. This would not be our last stiffy toffee pudding and upon leaving Scotland, Steve’s Mom, who is a very good cook, promised to find and perfect the recipe for the next time we came to visit!
I was sorry to leave Edinburgh the next day…but ever onward!!