Sunday 24 March 2002
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I got up at 0900, Catherine didn't get up until 1000, and then only because I woke her. Frank made me and himself an omlette when I got up (he'd just got back from a run), and then did it again for Catherine.
I'm in a flat in the Stockbridge area of Edinburgh. The stairs up to the flat are just as nasty as you always read they are - and Frank says this building is doing well. Then you step into the flat itself, and it's very nice. The explanation for the stairs is simple: the people in the building each own their own flats, and they all have to agree on what to do with the stairs, so nothing ever gets done.
The view from the back window is also classically British: a small green space surrounded by more three storey buildings of flats (we're on the third floor) and a view for several hundred yards of gray buildings, dozens of chimneys, and bunches of TV antennaes.
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Holyrood House Abbey. More pictures here. |
Frank drove us up near the Royal Mile where we parked and walked to Holyrood House. The Royal Mile is amazing: it's the Old Town and nearly every building is several hundred years old. All the roads coming off the Royal Mile are narrow and twisty and fall away quickly as the Royal Mile starts at Edinburgh Castle which is on an extinct volcano, and I think the road must have followed a ridge. We'll see the Castle later, but today we walked most of the length of the Royal Mile to the other end, which is Holyrood House. Holyrood is still the residence the Royal Family uses when they're in Edinburgh. It was £6.50 each to get in. The ruined Abbey is very nice, but we weren't allowed to take pictures while we were on the tour (you're allowed in the Abbey). The inside tour reminded me a lot of Biltmore Estate - old oak-paneled rooms with clutters of priceless paintings and tapestries on the walls. The paintings, despite their value, were pretty boring - mostly portraits, dulled by age. Biltmore has a much more ... dynamic feel to it, if only because of its marvelous glass-ceilinged day room and huge sweeping spiral stairways.
We ate lunch at "The Tun," a very modern looking pub near Holyrood House. Our chef stepped from behind his counter at one point, whereupon I discovered he had violently cow-spotted pants and clogs. They didn't have a big selection of food, but what we got was good. I had a red pepper and stilton wrap, Catherine had a chicken salad wrap, and Frank had "bangers and mash" (sausages and mashed potatoes). He thought the sausages were quite good and gave me part of one. I was disappointed (I hope I didn't offend him) finding them bland and fatty (even compared to other sausages). My favourite is Bratwurst, and they sure weren't Bratwurst.
We moved on to the National Gallery which Frank says has a very good "one of everything" collection. The hanging is almost salon-style - one above the other in places, unusually cluttered by modern standards. I rather liked it in that sense. But I found the only painting I really liked was a Monet, close in time period and style to the Group of Seven. Frank and Catherine fairly flew through the exhibit, which was fine with me.
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The rail bridge over the Firth of Forth. More pictures here. |
We walked back to the car and drove to see the bridges over the Firth of Forth. This seems to be one of Frank's favourite places to show visitors. We were in the town of South Queensferry, which is very quaint. The road bridge is big and impressive but not enormously unusual. The rail bridge on the other hand is a huge masterpiece of Victorian engineering, quite spectacular. I took several pictures. We also collected some driftglass from the beach.
We were intrigued by the whole whisky thing having seen the "Whisky Heritage Center" near the castle, and we asked Frank about it. He suggested we should try some of the Laphroaig he had at home. It turned out that what he had was Famous Grouse, a blend. The best selling brand in Scotland is Glenmorangie, but we bought him a bottle of Laphroaig (700 ml for £24), figuring he'd enjoy it given the way he had rhapsodized about it. We also wanted to try it.
We came back to the flat and Frank began preparing dinner. He left in the middle (around 2000) to go get Evelyn from the train station. We both did some writing, and tried out the bottle of whisky we bought Frank. I'm not sure I like it, but wow, what an experience. Fairly smooth, and the peaty smoky aftertaste lasts nearly a minute. The aftertaste is wonderful, but the actual taste is only okay to me.
Evelyn and Catherine were very happy to see each other. We had dinner - smoked salmon on bread, lots of it, followed by a good pasta.
We tried some more Laphroaig after dinner (except for Evelyn who is quite pregnant - her doctor says "one unit of alcohol per week"). We ate late, we stayed up late, both of us had trouble sleeping, we got up early.
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