(Bonus points if you get the movie reference – it involves cheese!)
The weather this morning was particularly schizophrenic: sunny spells with intermittent showers and extreme winds. I believe “blowing a gale” would be the appropriate description. Not really fit weather for wandering about town behind a wheelchair and I have definitely had my share of mall time for the week. So we decided to postpone today’s visit with grandma until the evening meal and have a wee day out just the 3 of us who don’t care about the wind and rain.
So off to Edinburgh we go! Frank and I stayed there last time we visited as I was at a conference at the University so we had much more recent memories of the place than Jesse. We found an (expensive) carpark with a stupid self pay machine (woo hoo – 3 dodgy tenners all gone!) and headed to the most touristy of roads in the entire country: the Royal Mile. Throngs of foreigners in the streets taking pictures of the most bizarre things. Large groups of tourists swarming shops, gabbling in every language you can think of. We stopped for a coffee (read: to use wifi and the toilets) before setting out. The entire street is lined with keich shops (officially Scottish for shite but used like kitsch for descriptions of stores selling touristy crap) but Jesse managed to get a decent deal on a Scottish rugby strip in one. We tried to get up to the castle so Jesse could take a picture for the folks at Disney to see what a real castle looked like but it was not to be as construction in the courtyard to prepare for the Edinburgh Tattoo was well underway.
Wandering back down the street we stopped in St Giles Cathedral for a wee look round and so I could light a candle for my mum. (I haven’t missed an opportunity in 11 years of traveling. I hope she’s smiling on me. ) And then off to a few more charity shops on the side streets. Lunch was had in a small cafe off the Grassmarket before wandering up Victoria Street – which everyone now knows was the inspiration for Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter books. Every second shop has something to do with wizards or muggles so something HP related. {sigh}
We did take in a great street performance of a deluded juggler who managed to juggle machetes on an 8 foot unicycle in the gusting wind so that was 5 pounds well spent. Then the obligatory visit to Princess Street to continue the quest for hiking boots and any clothes that Scotland might sell which Jesse can wear in Florida. The intermittent sunshine was getting more scarce and clouds were threatening so it was time to head back. We got to experience Edinburgh traffic – it took us 70 minutes to do the same journey home that took 40 minutes when we arrived – so now we do feel like locals.
Jesse headed out for dinner and drinks with some cousins and friends so Frank and I picked up his mum for a quiet dinner at a local pub-style chain restaurant: the Highland Gate The food is nothing to write home about but there’s plenty of room for the wheelchair and mum thoroughly enjoyed her chicken dinner and half a shandy. The sun was back out at this point so we went for a lovely drive along the hillfoots out to Alva to see where Frank’s niece’s new house is being built (gorgeous view BTW). On the way back we were treated to a rainbow.
Data for today:
Steps: 13,915 (6.3 miles – that’s more like it!)
Wind speeds: 30mph with gusts up to 55mph
Cost of first fuel fill up: £52 (that’s £1.29 per litre or about $8 US gallon)
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