A day in Edinburgh - Tuesday

So. Off we set, out into a lovely, sunny Edinburgh morning. There was some discussion about whether or not to take jumpers. I did not join in this discussion. I had my fleecy cardie tied around my waist. Eventually it was decided that Lindsey and Ian would not require jumpers. It was, after all, a lovely, sunny day and we were intending to walk about.

Two minutes after we left the flat, I put my cardie on!

We had a lovely walk through broad, tree-lined streets towards the city centre. Reminds me a bit of some of the most expensive bits of Fulwood. But I’m curious why Scottish cities have such lovely, wide streets and English ones don’t.

Anyway. We found ourselves in the city centre absolutely surrounded by other tourists and crowds and hordes of people coming in on buses. The Edinburgh Festival proper doesn’t start for a few more days yet, but the Fringe is in full swing and I think the tattoo is underway. Plus, of course, it’s August. And the queue to buy tickets to the Castle was about three hours long. We decided that we didn’t need to see the Castle quite that much and went off for an amble around the parks and shops and laneways and things.

Then we had lunch in The Advocate. I haven’t been in there before and was a tad worried by the fact that Pizza Hut and the Italian chain restaurants and so on had queues coming out of them and The Advocate did not. But I think that might just be because the queued-for places are international chains which everyone recognised and overseas tourists may not think about eating in pubs. Whatever the reason, it was a good choice. The food was lovely, there was at table service and the pub was great.

Then we strolled back to the flat. Ian had an appointment to talk with someone at the Royal Infirmary. Lindsey and I walked to Waitrose instead. Bought the makings of a fish pie and came back by what turned out to be a much shorter route. We had followed the directions out which are meant for cars and walked back following a footpath through a little hospital. Much, much quicker.

And so a pleasant evening eating fish pie and drinking wine and watching Coast on DVD. Ian had seen advertising for series 3 when he was visiting the Open University earlier in his trip and was curious. I don’t have series 3 yet on DVD but I do have 1 and 2.

It’s another lovely, sunny day today. We are hoping to go out on a boat trip