Edinburgh

We got into Edinburgh around 1:30 pm Thursday and had to kill some time before checking into the hotel, so we climbed the monument to Sir Walter Scott. It's 287 steps, but there are several stages you can step out onto platforms and savor the views while you catch your breath and let professional grade mountaineers go ahead of you.

Here's one of the veiws - this is looking toward Arthur's Seat, which overlooks the town. You can see our hotel too, it's the castle-y looking one to the left of the bridge. All the shed looking things are the train station.

And here's a view of Calton Hill. It's to the left of the clock tower. 

We later hiked up it. Even though John came down with some kind of cold/flu virus and basically passed out Thursday at 7, he was feeling well enough to do the hill on Friday. Here's his long shadow.

Somehow he managed to persuade me to accompany him. It actually wasn't a bad climb at all, and the views were amazing. Pretty much all of Edinburgh is just gorgeous. It all looks like a fairy tale, just tons of gothic stone buildings and tiny streets and cobblestones.

We're having a quiet evening tonight, catching up on blogging and watching bad UK television. John is already addicted to Top Gear.

An Evening of Contrasts in Glasgow

Oh, The Ubiquitous Chip was so nice. John had the roe deer and the cheese plate, and I had the crab bisque  and also pan fried sea bream with cauliflower gazpacho. And their famous oatmeal ice cream. Here's John with his cheese plate:

And here's a shot of the restaurant:

There's tons of greenery inside and the roof is like a greenhouse - that's a koi pond to the left. It's such a beautiful place.

Then we wandered around the University of Glasgow before heading back to the hotel. The buildings we saw were all very different - the roundish one is a reading room. I'm not sure what the one with all the greens and blues is. I liked the benches for the students with the ceramic head rests. They're all inscribed with drawings of different plants. Come to find out, it's actually an art installation, although students use it as benches.

Then we got ready to go dancing. Here are some shots of me wearing my sparkle top, posing for my life:

You can see the lighting effects possible in the hotel. The remote control for the bathroom light (yes, you read that right, the remote control for the bathroom light) has a color wheel and you can pick any color you want. This brought limitless joy and amusement to John. 

Here's a photo of the interior of The Arches. Yes, that is a bouncy house. I may or may not have sustained minor bouncy house-related injuries -- We shall draw a veil over that part of the evening and my inability to confine myself to amusements appropriate to my age. Although, honestly, it was John's idea. 

Merchant City Accidental Art Walk

I was obsessed with going to a pop-up shop called "All that is Solid" and so we walked all the way down to Argyle Street. The pop-up was a little underwhelming, but we stumbled on so many things on the way there and back! There are a lot of galleries around Merchant City, with everything from video installations to collages to printwork. We went down an alley following a sign for a (defunct) Jacobean Corsetry and came across a gallery in the basement of a store that could have been taken right out of the Castro.

The owners were adorable and recommended we hit the store at the Gallery of Modern Art for gifts, which we did.

The GOMA is an amazing space - the contrast between the modern exhibits and the classic architecture makes your experience of the art very unique to the place.

Then we stopped in for a few oysters and champagne (and beer for John) at Rogano. It was a perfect little break, with music to match the beautiful art deco bar.

Somewhere in there we managed to go to The Lighthouse and climbed all the way up to the very top and looked out at all the views on the terrace.

The Lighthouse was originally designed by Charles Rennie Macintosh as the warehouse/printing office of the Herald newspaper. The tower had a huge water tank, intended to be used in case of fire to protect the building. I think my favorite shot of the day was looking down the staircase of the tower:

To me that is even better than the views from the top.

Tonight it's on to The Ubiquitous Chip for dinner and dancing at The Arches! I think the 60's beaded top will do very well for the theme there tonight.

First Whisky

Ah, the Pot Still was everything we hoped. Towers and towers of scotch.

The bartender was of course so helpful when we told her what we've tried and asked what else she would recommend. She poured us some Kilchoman, which we loved. It's very peaty but very carmel-y too. So . . . kind of like Bi-Rite salted caramel ice cream with some band-aids. Uh, it tastes better than it sounds. I think the first bottle of our excursion's collection has been chosen. 

I think I love the West End

So far, Glasgow is not as cold as I thought it would be. It's not Iceland. And it has amazing food in the West End. At least it does at Hillhead Book Club.

I had a cocktail named Heart of Darkness and parsnip soup and a Greek Salad. One of the bathroom stalls was out of order:

We also found a place that does Pho. 

Further down the alley John discovered some jumble/vintage stores, one of which had this:

SPARKLE. Sparkle MINE.

Update: The store is called "Starry Starry Night" and it's on Ruthven Lane. When I was circling the beaded top like a snow leopard after a chiru, a bumblebee was circling me, although very sedately. I nervously let the shop owner know he had a (large, docile) bee in the store, to which he replied, "Oh, ay, he's been coming in here for years." 

We also had a couple of pints at Oran Mor, walked about a mile down the Great Western Road looking at amazing terraces and flats, nipped briefly into the Kelvingrove Museum, aaaand went to The Pot Still - more on that in the next post. 

Arrival

Scotland is under those clouds. 

The nice man who set me up with a UK SIM card. You can't touch me now, AT&T. 

The Night Before

It's midnight, so I guess we're finally on vacation. Flight leaves at 8:30 am tomorrow - After so much preparation, I can't believe the actual trip has almost started!

What kind of preparation, you ask? Well, aside from my usual near-obsessive planning, we have been taking riding lessons to get in shape for the "riding across the Scottish Highlands" part of the trip. Yes. Riding.  On Horses. For four days.

 

 

 

Meet Max, John's leg-strengenther for the last 7 weeks. And here's KC, who got me used to cantering again:

 

 

 

 

 

We took lessons at Trillium Farm with Etsuko and Susi. They were just fantastic instructors, always encouraging but tough enough to get us into shape in just 7 weeks! We haven't ridden for over 20 years, so they had their work cut out for them. Etsuko, Susi, we miss you already!

 

OK, off to check one more time that I packed the right socks and electronics chargers -- and get a few hours of sleep.