Day 19: Edinburgh
Basically a day of wandering around Edinburgh, seeing pretty things, buying a few things for me and others, and eating things.
Kicked off with a bit of a wander through New Town, and by new, we’re talking only built up around 250 years ago. It’s a chunk less touristy than the Old Town, there are odd spots but generally the tours don’t stray far from Princes St. Was able to grab breakfast at a little local cafe, a “triple” bun with egg, bacon, and haggis, and a decent serve at that, with coffee (a decent flat white), and paid less that 10 pounds. There seems to just be the one guy running it, but he’s got everything worked out with a system in place, so he could churn out foods and coffees fairly promptly.
From here I took a wander down some of the little streets, in order to do my sad fanboy visit and selfie out front of The “Oxford” Bar, as made famous in Ian Rankin’s Rebus novels (there’s a bunch of fan debate around this, as while Rankin has referred to this bar as being an inspiration, and the sort of bar he imagined Rebus drinking in, it’s also a fair hike from Rebus’ apartment in Marchmont, so it’s likely Rankin has reimagined the bar in a slightly different part of Edinburgh, as well as taking inspiration from other bars in Edinburgh. I can say it’s unlikely Rebus would have too many quiet conversations in the back room, as the sound travels pretty well — I could hear the entire conversation happening at the table at the other end of the room.). The “Oxford” is an interesting small bar, a few beers, some whiskies, no jukebox, poker machines, or food. Other Rebus inspired locations visited today included Fleshmarket Close, a little path off the Royal Mile just next to the Albanach Bar, and The Caley (now the Waldorf Astoria, but still known as the Caledonian Hotel by locals).
I stopped by the rather large pylon with the statue of Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Lord Melville on top, and read with interest how a new plaque has been commissioned, that mentions that he was a bit of an arsehole, delaying the abolition of the slave trade in the UK, doing his bit to supress indigenous people throughout the world, and being a bit dodgy with money. The new plaque will do the right thing.
Not satisfied with the tributes to dodgy folks such as Lord Melville and others along George St, I headed for the National Portrait Gallery. Here the top floor basically dedicated to dodgy old white men, from various members of the House of Stuart (including a wonderful etching of BPC in drag), to other lords and such, folks who could afford to be painted way back then, including various lords who seemed to swap allegiance between BPC and Government more often than they changed their underwear, plus slightly more modern dodgy folk like General Haig. There was also a bust of Byron, which apparently he hated because it was too accurate a representation and didn’t make him look emo enough.
Once through the old folks, there’s a section that is more contemporary, including interesting portraits of Tilda Swinton, Billy Connolly, Charlie and Craig Reid (The Proclaimers), some sports people, lots of poets, and a guy called Tommy Robertson, who I’d never heard of but noted that the description mentioned he owns a secondhand music and games shop called Backtracks, so I made a note to check it out.
One thing the Portrait Gallery doesn’t have is a gift shop, which I think is pretty poor form. When I was told of this, I asked the attendant if that was even legal, which got a laugh.
From the Portrait Gallery I wandered some more (total step count today 21K, or about 16km, so not 500 miles), and stumbled across an interesting shop and event space called the Blunt Knife Co on Thistle St, that is all about LGBTQIA+ works, so I popped in and got a few interesting bits and pieces. It’s full of both mainstream published works as well as all sorts of zines, the staff are friendly, and I recommend folks in the neighbourhood check it out.
Other shops visited included HMV on Princes St, reopened and with three floors of pop culture, dvds, cds, vinyl, t-shirts etc.
I grabbed a simple lunch of a tuna and mayo roll and coffee, from a little corner deli type shop, which I had sitting on a bench on Princes St. Then I headed off in search of the elusive Backtracks, in the Tollcross Area. It was about a 15 minute stroll from my hotel.
Backtracks is a very interesting store, and by interesting it is basically floor to ceiling with stuff, and only the narrowest path to navigate around. At any minute I wondered if I was about to accidentally knock a tower of stuff over. Organised chaos is a good description, as while Tommy Robertson might know where everything is, to an outsider looking for cds in at least three different locations (in alphabetical order, but still scattered throughout the shop) it’s basically a one-person system. Backtracks did have many interesting finds, including a signed 12″ of Pet Shop Boys “West End Girls”, interesting original vinyl, Joan Jett picture disc, some wonderful vintage computer games, but I made do with cds by Deacon Blue, Prefab Sprout, and a UK compilation by My Friend the Chocolate Cake (that basically reproduces the cd artwork from the Live at the National Theatre release). I’m sure there were many more to be found, but it might take an archaeology degree. Definitely a shop like no other.
I took an afternoon break, and read Driftnet by Lin Anderson, a crime novel set in Glasgow. It was generally pretty good, a few bits were clunky, but as this one is the first in a long series I’ll be seeking out others to see how the series develops.
My stroll seeking dinner took me into the Old Town, as I was feeling like something fairly unchallenging and recalled having some decent fish and chips along Grassmarket many years ago (I’m pretty sure it also used to have grass, rather than being all paved, but I might be mis-remembering that). As luck would have it, my path crossed with M and P, on their way to dinner, so said a quick hello and swapped suggestions of places to check out. We’re likely going to catch up again early afternoon tomorrow to head out to Leith, before I head off on Friday.
Couldn’t find the exact chippie I remembered, there was one still there, but it just didn’t appeal and by this stage I was well aware of the large numbers of tour group folk around so decided to head somewhere quieter. did a quick stroll of bits of the Royal Mile, before heading over to New Town, including checking out the big new St James Quarter building. Couldn’t see anything that appealed, so headed back towards the pub end of New Town, where I thought I’d give the Auld Hundred a go. I managed to charm my way into the dining area, as it looked like there were getting close to wrapping up the kitchen, but also being a table for one rather than a large group worked in my favour. I had the mac n cheese, with chips and bacon, and they were some of the best chips in Scotland; crunchy, not too oily, not heavy, and quite large. The mac n cheese was good, as was the half pint of Edinburgh Gold, but the chips were really really good.
Tomorrow’s my last full day in Edinburgh, so will probably check out another gallery, see Leith, walk, eat, do some shopping, might get some laundry done but it seems that there aren’t many laundromats over my way. We shall see.