Day 20: Edinburgh

Last full day in Edinburgh, so spent almost 17,000 steps making the most of it.

First stop of the day was the tram down to Haymarket, basically the closest laundromat. They apparently do pick up laundry from my hotel, which reception failed to advise me late night when I asked them where the nearest laundromat was, and they also do free delivery to my hotel so at least I could arrange that. But they only take cash, which had me wandering down the road, first to the post office, but my card wasn’t compatible, and then to a cashpoint a bit further down. I did manage to get a set of the Blackadder stamps at least.

The next mission was breakfast, which I got at a quaint little pink painted cafe just off the Royal Mile called Zebra, not even pink zebra. A decent cooked breakfast and coffee, along with the waitstaff enthusiastically telling everyone who stayed still long enough that she was soon off on holidays to Tenerife, to go climb a volcano.

The Scottish National Museum currently has out on display the Declaration of Arbroath, for the first time in 18 years. It’s the original copy of the 700 year old letter sent by a number of Scotland’s barons to the Pope to ask him to declare Scotland to be a free country. I don’t know if there are any copies of the Pope’s reply in existence, but I’m led to believe it went along the lines of, “Thanks but no thanks, you and your southern neighbours should sit down, have a nice cup of tea, and talk about this”. It’s pretty impressive how a 700 year old sheet of sheepskin has held up over this time, though it’s very well sealed in a case and the lights are kept low to avoid further damage.

I had a wander through some other parts of the museum, there were the usual: stuff about BPC; stuff about James Watt; stuff of dubious foreign provenance that were probably “found” by Scottish Lords while on holidays overseas; dinosaurs, some interesting science things, and some really interesting fashion through the ages items, from bustles and huge gowns through to modern day, shoes by Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood, and a bunch of stuff on fabric print making.

I have to say that Scotland’s galleries and museums all seem to suffer from having crap gift shops. The Portrait Gallery doesn’t have one at all, and the museum’s had very little, I walked away with 2 postcards, and that was a struggle to get that much. I found two gift shops, and neither had much at all, one seemed to only have merch for the Lewis chess set, while the other seemed to be leftovers from previous special exhibits. Nothing on the fashion stuff, nothing on dinosaurs, nothing on the Declaration of Arbroath.

Popped into the Transreal bookshop, which specialises in f&sf, and had some nice limited editions among the shelves. Sadly my luggage isn’t going to fit any more large books. I’ve just done a repack ahead of tomorrow’s flight and while I haven’t opened up the extra expansion bit, the weight feels like it’s getting close to 20kg. I’ll find out for sure tomorrow.

Also popped into Cadenhead’s Whisky shop down the Royal Mile, and that’s changes, possibly not for the better. What used to be a bit dusty, with wooden casks, a random selection of bottles, enthusiastically opinionated yet grumpy old men doing the selling, a decent amount of Springbank, a full chalk board of all the Cadenheads bottlings available, and a wonderful dog that might greet customers before heading back to sit in the window, is no more. Now it’s all painted (and still smells a lot of paint), with organised bottles on the shelves, many bottles of the same product, enthusiastic young men doing the selling, a large amount of shelf space devoted to a rum, and the wooden casks are now large glass demijohns. It just didn’t feel the same, and instead of being an eclectic shop to visit, now seems understocked compared to the 432 other whisky shops on the Royal Mile. Sadly Maggie, the dog, passed away in 2019 at the decent age of 14, and her picture hangs on the wall.

Headed up to Leith where M & P had organised a booking at the Scotch Malt Whisky Society’s Leith Vaults. The SMWS are an interesting bunch, generally putting out single cask bottlings, at one time or another from most of Scotland’s distilleries. Each month they put out a list, and only society members can purchase these. At their vaults (members and guests only) you can sample these by the glass, or do what we did, and get a flight of 3. They use a numbering system based on distillery and cask, so my first dram, 78.69, is from the 69th SMWS bottling of distillery number 78. Back in the old days there was mystery to this, but now google will take you to any one of a number of sites that will tell you which distillery 78 is (Ben Nevis). This was an 10 year old from a bourbon cask, gloriously full of flavour and depth, light fruits. Second dram was 35.353, an 11 year old sherry hogshead Glen Moray (obviously the SMWS have a lot of casks of Glen Moray) that was full of dry sherry flavours, dark fruits, a hint of leather on the nose, I’ve had some less than impressive Glen Moray’s but this wasn’t one of them, vert decent. To finish I had a 53.455, an 11 year old bourbon barrel Caol Ila (seems the SMWS have even more Caol Ila, but given they make over 6 million litres per year that’s hardly surprising) that was wonderful, all the good oily notes Caol Ila delivers, plus multiple waves of peat on the finish. Three very good whiskies (FYI the SMWS also does a great cheese platter).

Then it was time to say bye to M & P, they have a bit more time in Edinburgh before heading home via Singapore. I had a quick stroll around Leith, while it’s somewhat improved and commercialised/gentrified now, there are still little bits that seem to have retained it’s previous character, the hipsters haven’t completely taken over it yet. Though that might have been my impression based on it generally being overcast, which always makes these worn urban buildings seem gloomy. Funnily enough, while we were there, the sun did come out, so I have now seen sunshine on Leith.

Dinner was back to the Auld Hundred, as no where in my immediate vicinity appealed and I figured I should go for something Scottish on my last night. Starter were haggis bon bons, balls of flavourful haggis lightly battered and deep fried, with a wonderful whisky creamy sauce, kind of like the Ikea gravy that I like far too much, but with a Scottish twist. Then I had the beer and beef pie, which was presented basically as an overflowing chunky beef and puff pasty sandwich, rather than the usual ramekin with a puff lid. The pie filling was full of flavour, and it came with more of the wonderful chips.

Back at the hotel I’ve repacked, gently wrapping the valubles, sorting things that can go into hand luggage, and it’s just a case of get up, do some final errands, check out, and take the tram to the airport. Next stop, Amsterdam.