Hey everyone!
Once again I've been too busy having fun to blog too much! This is not a bad thing! :)
I guess I should tell you about Scotland! In Newcastle we picked up a hire car, a very cute little merc, and hit the road north. I'm the designated driver, and was a little nervous at first! So Toshi and Lynne (friends we were staying with in Newcastle) drove in front of us to get us on the highway - thank god! But all was fine and the roads were great.
I bought the iPhone TomTom app for UK/Ireland before we left Australia and it is awesome! It is so much better than my sat nav, and I think I have to upgrade to this TomTom app for Australia when I get home.
Anyhow, after awhile the TomTom told us to exit the highway and start going through lovely country towns.. Which was all very pretty until that sinking feeling of "where the fark is this phone sending me" kicked in... So after a pit stop in a tiny village and mum asking at a shop it turned out we were on the right road and all was ok.
It was the first of my driving on the narrow windy roads but it seemed easy enough.
We got to Edinburgh and found the hotel was in a perfect spot in Old Town. Booking all of this holiday late at night I can't remember the how and why of the locations I chose.. But it seems to be going a-ok so far!
Edinburgh Castle was right out our front door and there were lots of nice shops and pubs a stones throw away.
There was a magazine about local restaurants in the lobby of the hotel and I was very happy to see a larger number of veggie places than I had previously found online.. I like going on adventures to find veggie places because you end up in different areas you would never have gone to, and at the end of the rainbow is a giant pot of lentils.... My kinda adventure!
My two faves were David Bann, a fancy gourmet veggie restaurant, and The Baked Potato Shop... with vegan fillings to die for!! We also had a pit stop at a bar called Brew Dog, which is famous for selling very high content booze! As beer is full of wheat and wheat is evil I settled on a glass of rose, and Mum had a ginger beer. I was a little surprised that they didn't sell cider. I asked and the guy said "we brew beer, not cider, aye".... But they did stock wine...?? Not sure if he saw the irony..
I really loved walking the streets of Edinburgh. And boy o' boy did we do lots of walking there! Old Town is great, lots of great little shops with local designers, and lots of little antique shops. There were many things we wanted to buy but resisted on more than one occasion! New Town was so beautiful as well. Each way you turn there is amazing architecture.. rolling green hills, and more places to see and things to do.
Edinburgh Castle was fantastic. Reading the history as we went along, and going through the galleries and museums onsite made me think - war war war. So much war and still, more war today. Has no one learnt from the past yet? :( and so often it's about religion... I just don't understand it.
I did however all in love with the stories of Mary, Queen of Scots.... What a fabulous bird.
Looking out at the rolling hills that surround Edinburgh it is amazing to think of the battles, the men charging each other... And the walls around the city! All so very interesting. Mum was in awe, I think I will have to buy her a copy of Braveheart when we get back!!
Mum went to the underground city / vaults on her own. I was unconscious in bed and she gave up on me. She reported back that it was dark and scary (stairs and uneven ground, not ghosts!), so I think it was for the best that I slept through it :)
It did however sound amazing.. Built in the late 1700s and there were taverns and tradesmen, cobblers and the like. Serial killers also used it as a hunting ground :-/
Apparently it was pretty feral, no fresh air or sewerage system etc, and all the businesses eventually moved out and all the poor people moved in and lived there. During the plague it was in full slum swing and basically the powers that be shoved a bunch of rocks to block it off and trap all of the sick poor people there to die. Fark!
It wasn't discovered again til the 1980s!? Lots of people think it's haunted... Mum said that was crap but she never worked at the Zoo.... I'm a believer!!!!
Overall Edinburgh was a great city, and we loved it. But in no time at all we were back on the road again....
The driving was getting easier. Mum is really not that into maps, or road signs - unless they say "SLOW DOWN" which she is very happy to say to me loudly and on a regular basis....! So the TomTom has paid for itself many times over already.
Next stop Loch Ness! Will write about it soon!
miss P