.: MENU's UK Adventure 2. Days and nights in Edinburgh

A day in beautiful Edinburgh with soft weather (rain) on and off all day

It started to rain, quite hard, while we were shopping in Prince's Street, so we bought ponchos,
expecting to need them at the Tattoo that evening but, as soon as we opened one the rain stopped, never to return
- it’s called Sod’s Law

The Walter Scott monument with David Livingstone guarding it. Maybe he should give it a wash

Sir Walter Scott wearing an unaccustomed hat

The Ross Fountain below Edinburgh Castle

Lynne, whose family is part of the Ross clan, was keen to see this, as it has recently been restored

A rain-washed Peace rose in the gardens

Another view of Edinburgh Castle

The graveyards at the end of the park

Reminds one slightly of Harry Potter and Hogwarts

This is the road we took to walk up to the castle and into town
If you are an Ian Rankin fan, one of the murders Rebus investigated took place near here in the NCP car park...

No climbing that sheer rock face in a hurry

Festival time, so there were many buskers

and all sorts of strange acts in the streets as part of the Fringe. You have to avoid getting tied up with them

If you want to buy tickets to any of the Festival shows, this is where you come

During the one month festival, Edinburgh turns into a major tourist city

Lots of interesting buildings, lots of turrets

and great looking pubs

Down the bottom of this hill (and Edinburgh is built on several) is the office of the Tattoo
where you change your prepaid online voucher for real tickets. It is very near the railway station

"It's that way and NO WAY am I climbing back up these stairs...." (Before FitBit)

Greyfriars Kirk

Lynne's Great Grandfather was a minister in both Glasgow and Edinburgh

Lovely stained glass, some from the preRaphaelite movement

The tombs and catacombs

Scottish thistles are everywhere

and fat bees gathering pollen and nectar

Greyfriars Bobby, a West Highland terrier who accompanied his master's body to its grave in Greyfriars Churchyard in 1858

He guarded the grave until he died in 1872. Read the full, touching story here

There is a similar story about the Faithful Hound at Mulderbosch in Stellenbosch

His statue is in a nearby street and people think it’s good luck to touch his nose

A child touches Bobby's statue's nose for good luck

Queen Victoria Street, reputed to be the street on which J.K. Rowling based Digon Alley. There is a Harry Potter magic shop here

It twists and turns and has a few interesting shops

We were taken with The Whisky Shop which sells a huge range of whiskies, not only Scotch, and we even saw some bottles of Bain's from Wellington. They sell small bottles, decanted from these casks. Don't ask the price, good single malts are less expensive at home. A 30 year old Macallan in the shop was £3950 per bottle, but that is an extreme example. It costs less at the distillery, but that is part of a later story

Sadly, we were not offered a taste of anything

The Little Magician shop; a mecca for Harry Potter devotees

You could buy a wand, had you quite a lot of money

We were recommended this pub in the Grass Market, The Last Drop, and assumed that the name meant that you don't leave anything in your glass

and enjoyed a pint of this for John and a half of Tennent's Lager for Lynne

and then saw the real, macabre, meaning of the name

It was the site of the Gallows, where heretics, thieves and murderers spent their last moments
and had their last meal before they experienced The Last Drop

It is one of the pubs in the Grass Market, an elongated, historic square below the Castle

That evening we met up with Fiona and Clare, two of Lynne’s old friends from London days, at Zizzi's, an Italian restaurant, and lots of catching up was done over a bottle of Sicilian white wine

with large Mozzarella, artichoke, prosciutto, rocket, pesto and olive pizzas

Lynne could not resist the crayfish risotto
Crayfish are a fresh water pest in the UK and rather small, but have good flavour
It was made with orzo, a pasta shaped like rice