Scotland Autumn Dispatch - Saturday, 18th October 2014

Dear Everyone, I left you on Wednesday as we headed out into a chilly but dry 4° to walk to Holyrood Palace at the bottom of the Royal Mile. We arrived just as visitors were being allowed in and managed to get ahead of all the bus tours and have a much more enjoyable visit than 4 years ago, when it was crowded everywhere. We enjoyed walking through the rooms the public are allowed into, although Wes feels, quite rightly, that we could be given more information, which would give us a better idea of how the various Kings & Queens lived here and how they managed in times of turmoil.

The view of the ruined Abbey from the Palace Gardens

We had decided to visit The Queen’s Gallery as well this time, and after a very refreshing Jasmine tea for me and extremely decadent hot chocolate with whisky fruit cake for Wes in the Palace Café, we headed that way.

And we were so pleased we did.

The display is called Poetry for the Palace and celebrates the Poets Laureate from Dryden to Duffy, with particular attention being paid to Carol Ann Duffy, the first Scot and the first female Poet Laureate. We were absolutely blown away by her poetry, which she reads in a slow, husky tone and if we could have bought a CD of her reading her poems we would have. Most of the featured poems by the other Poet Laureates were read by Timothy West and one was read by Judi Dench. Another highlight was hearing Tennyson read the first verse of The Charge of the Light Brigade, which he recorded and which has survived until today. Carol Ann Duffy’s poetry has been represented by the textural artist, Stephen Raw, in works created for this exhibition.

We were hungry by the time we emerged into the real world, so headed up the Royal Mile looking for a suitable lunch spot. We rejected the pubs which seemed to offer exactly the same food as each other, and appealed not a whit, and ended up in Howies, which had an interesting menu. We walked in the door to discover the bar immediately on our left – the barman made eye-contact, asked us to sit while he finished pouring drinks and then took us to our table, where we were greeted by a smiling waitress. We were most impressed and even more so when the food was very yummy indeed and the Shiraz which promised a taste of white pepper, delivered! I went to the loo to discover a vase of Asiatic lilies in pride of place.

After lunch, we walked back to visit Gladstone’s Land, which is a surviving, National Trust-run 17thC high-tenement house situated in the Old Town. In 6 rooms split across two levels, the authentically restored tenement shows how people from a variety of backgrounds went about their lives. 

We still had a little bit of energy, so popped back into the Edinburgh Museum before heading back home, stopping only to replenish the red wine stocks with a bottle of Spanish tempranillo.

We survived another night in our double bed, although Wes was up at 4am and working on the laptop. Just as it reached 6am & I decided to get up, he came back to bed and got a couple more hours sleep with the whole bed to himself. I stripped the bed to the mattress and discovered the mattress protector and the sheets are both too small for the bed, which is why everything is rucked up and not tucked in properly. I did my best to get it shipshape and when we arrived back that afternoon, we discovered the cleaners changing our sheets, so I had to start all over again.

I had a long chat with Leanne before we went out and discovered she was thrilled with the Scottish socks we had posted her.

We spent the day doing the Water of Leith walk, which we found when we ducked into the charming little village of Dean, just outside of Edinburgh. We did a walk through the cemetery first, which is very orderly and very beautiful. Then headed down by the river accompanied by various dogs and their owners for much of the time.

Wes on a Chinese Bridge admiring the waterfall

We ducked off the path and found the Royal Edinburgh Botanic Gardens, and after a refreshing cuppa, we walked around the Chinese section; the Wooded Garden, the Rock Garden and finally the Garden for Organ Donors & Recipients. Such a lovely idea and typical of Scottish thinking.

Interesting gravestone in the Dean Cemetery

We made our way back onto the path and around 1.30pm found ourselves at the Leith Docks where there were a range of interesting and recommended restaurants to choose from.

We couldn’t find the highly-recommended Roseleaf, so settled for The Ship on the Shore, and what a delight that turned out to be. We enjoyed very yummy grilled scallops followed by fish pie and green salad, accompanied by a Venetian pinot grigio.

Dining Room where we ate under the oars

 We wandered down to the water, then tried to find the Leith Town Square, gave up eventually and caught a taxi back home, where we gave our weary limbs a well-earned rest. I sat here at the laptop to put down some thoughts and then tried to check my emails, but to no avail. When Wes woke from his rest I asked him what I was doing wrong and he said nothing, so I collected our little portable modem (one of the plusses of our suite) and went up to reception. Yes, up – we are on level -2, because of the slopes of Edinburgh streets. The receptionist smiled, took the modem and explained that they had changed their system this afternoon and from now on we would be using Wi-Fi over bitbuzz.com and wouldn’t need the modem. Glad I asked!

Yesterday we set out to Clarinda’s Tearooms in the Royal Mile and have a cooked breakfast as we weren’t planning on eating lunch. This place is a delight and we were first in at 8.45am. Our poached eggs on toast with tomatoes (me) and bacon (him) were perfect, but it was the tea from proper teapots drunken from fine china that really had us smiling. Each table has a lace cloth and a small vase of fresh rose buds and carnations. We ordered second pots of tea and were given the first scone of the day to try!

We decided to go to the Scottish Parliament to see when their first tour was on, but it took Wes approximately 10 minutes to get dressed again after we went through the security at the front door, so we thought we would take whatever was on offer. Tour 1 set off at 10.30am with a very knowledgeable, interesting and amusing Scottish woman, Barbara, as our guide. She interacted well with us all and especially the two young girls, who were the only children on the tour. We were amazed that the 10-year-old knew so much about Parliament and her father assured us that she had learnt it all at school – most impressive. The least impressive thing about the Scottish system is the thing that the Scots fought for when they came to Australia – one man, one vote. We really value universal suffrage, but voting is not compulsory here and it seems such a shame.

The new Scottish Parliament building is an architectural wonder and like the Sydney Opera House, will be admired for years to come, as its design is so imaginative and exciting. This is the view from the top where the roof looks like leaves or upturned boats. Our tour lasted over an hour and took us into the House, as Parliament isn’t sitting at present. It is a very modern and light-filled area with lots of public gallery space, which visitors are encouraged to come and use. You can even watch the politicians going into the Chamber through glass hallways, which gives such a feeling of accessibility.

Afterwards we walked part of the way up the hill to view Parliament from above, wandered back down to the Science Museum, which was crawling with excited children on school holidays, and about-turned out of there and into the Edinburgh Museum, which contains some wonderful historical artefacts including an amazing collection of silverware made by Scottish artisans. It also houses Greyfriars Bobby’s collar and water bowl and shows photos of him aged 16 being nursed by the Neill family, who looked after him in his old age.

We tried unsuccessfully to find the Police Museum, but on our way passed an empty hairdresser, so I popped in on the off-chance and had a cheap, good fringe trim from a smiling Polish girl. Wes immersed himself in beautiful prints in a shop across the road, and when we reunited we turned left (because it is always worth making a turn in Scotland) and found ourselves at the Museum on the Mound, the home of Lloyds with a fascinating history of banking from earliest times.

After that we decided it was time to come back home, and have a rest before Wes cooked a yummy pasta dinner with mushrooms and broccoli. We had washing to drape over the heaters, food to finish off and packing to think about so we could make an early get-away today. Wes managed to get chili in his eye, so with my pair of bloodshot eyes, we are a very attractive couple.

We are very relieved to be saying goodbye to our accommodation – sick to death of tossing and turning and disturbing each other in this amazingly uncomfortable and tiny bed, sick of having the temperature at 30° so we can dry clothes and completely over being in the gloom in spite of all the lights. So off to The Black Isle we go….