Day 22 – Edinburgh
Today was a designated shopping day, looking for interesting shiny things as well as tacky souvenirs for all you folks brainwashed by capitalism to expect more from out travels than the experience of reading our journals. Fortunately, another thing Scotland does well is its ability to stick some tartan or a St Andrew’s Cross on almost anythingand flog it off to tourists, so you can rest assured we’ve found the tackiest pressies for you.
Breakfast was a fruit and yogurt smoothie, almost a shock to the system. From here we hit Princes St, getting a good dose of Edinburgh weather, bright sunlight and bitterly cold wind probably express from the North Sea. Not for the first time I’m glad I haven’t shaved for a while, as it’s probably saved my face from turning blue on a number of occasions.
I’m finally travelling with a book! Found a Rebus omnibus of both short story collections plus a bonus story, it had been kicked around a little so the lovely Waterstones man sold it to me for a tenner (down from 12.99). Wandered into a pub for lunch, where a solid crowd were watching the City derby. The crowd seemed fairly evenly split between Hearts and Hibs, but I was fairly sure that they don’t take their derbies as seriously in Edinburgh as they do the Old Firm Glaswegian games. Continuing my healthiness, Had a pint of First Foot, the guest ale, and the club sandwich and chips. The game was fairly evenly matched, and while we watched Hearts scored only for Hibs to get a goal 80 seconds later.
From Ryan’s bar we wandered around the back of tthe castle, heading back to the Royal Mile. Our friendly brisk breeze was back, making the long gentle incline a bit of a challenge and we were glad to reach the top. At our first stop we caught the final score of the game, we’d missed a couple more goals and Hearts won 3-1.
More shopping ensued, leading to a different whisky shop, a small bottle of Kilchoman to satisfy my curiosity and a Blair Athol Flora and Fauna expression. The staff were geeks, discussing plot points of the Mortal Combat game/movie, with one proclaiming, “And this is why we’re single”. Saw some special whiskies I would have loved to purchase had the budget stretched some, and was stunned to find that the Ardbeg Very Young, a bottle of which I’d bought and consumed on the 1000 Miles of Whisky tour in 2005, is now worth over 300 pounds! Crazy stuff — a fine dram that sadly it now looks like I won’t taste again, until I become incredibly wealthy.
Dinner was back at the Conan Doyle, where I had a Macallan, Lagavulin and a Singleton — a light Speyside that I hadn’t tried before. All went well with Cullen Skink, Haddock and chips, and vanilla icecream. I almost went for the lamb shank pie, but passed as it was of the put a top on a bowl kind of pie. Others in the pub had this, and it smelt fabulous. My mission for London is to find a good, old fashioned pie, rich and fully encased in pastry.