Edinburgh

Our hotel - The Walton...

Fraser was delighted there were stores named after him...ha ha.

Veg haggis - at Henderson's Bistro

I confess I really fell in love with this city..we were staying in the "New Town" - well, new for that part of the world...it's mostly Georgian era. The planner was a young man who won a competition for a planned city and this part of Edinburgh is laid out on a grid, like New York or Edmonton...fun.

Our tour guide Fergus, and no I am not making that up..

As you will note on the left, another great discovery was Henderson's - a veg institution in these parts and only a few blocks from where we were staying at the Walton Hotel. Henderson's has a quieter bistro, a shop and take away, a cafeteria style place and a wine bar - which features jazz in the evenings all on the same block!

In my distinctive pink Modrobes jacket walking up on Edinburgh castle....

Fraser at Cadenhead's Whisky shop...so much whisky so little time.

We took a bus tour around the city too just to check out all the monuments and places of note including the new Parliament buildings, very modern and a little controversial..and of course did some shopping on the Royal Mile.

I think we at at Henderson's four times, one of which I recall was in the basement of a church just down the hill from the castle...

The wonderful singer Freddy King and his daughter Nikki who just happened to be home visiting from New York! Talent definitely runs in this family. He had one of the most beautiful bass voices but also an incredible range..plus he sang "My One and Only Love" ...sigh.

Before we left Scotland we visited Craigmillar Castle - which had yet another association with Mary Queen of Scots..





Too soon we had to bid farewell to Scotland..until next time and head back down to England..our first stop there was Newcastle where we had a lovely room just outside of town and a delicious dinner at the Sky Apple Cafe. A yummy curry, some kibbeh and soup plus a Summer Berries kind of pudding. The place was hopping and one disgruntled dinner kind of spoiled things for a bit..he objected to a table bringing a baby to the restaurant and told them so as he left...our waitress gave him what for and told him not to return..of all places a vegetarian restaurant..perhaps he was not a regular customer. Of course the father explained what had been happening earlier and the rude customer's comments - everyone was on his side and cheered after the nasty man had left.

On a blustery late afternoon, as I'm sure it would have been for many a Roman soldier - we visited Hadrian's Wall

Doing my Roman sentry duties...

The sheep stand guard...

The next installment: down to York then a race to London to return the car and take the "chunnel" aka Eurostar train to Paris!