Saturday October 10

Our first day in Scotland where we are on our own.....no tour agenda, no bus to catch, just us doing our own thing and a nice day too! We got caught up on some sleep and no agenda/schedule to have to follow. Breakfast this morning in the restaurant room where were supposed to be in yesterday....much nicer and cosier than yesterday's experience.

Our hotel while in Edinburgh has been the Roxburghe, quite an old establishment (but everything here is old!) and well enjoyed by us. Walking by it, the only identification is a small brass plaque attached to the iron fencing along its front stating 'Roxburghe Hotel'. No lights, no drive-up, no big fancy entrance (the entrance way looks like someone's front door). But one looks up and sees the castle!

We packed up and set off to find 'Edinburgh Fabrics'. It was a couple of miles to walk, and of course, all the surfaces here are stone. By day's end, one's feet are telling you that they have had enough. This store had some tartans on a roll, but very few and of course, no MacRae tartan, so we ended up returning to the shop we found yesterday and purchased some there. Deb got some Harris Tweed swatches for a project.

The return walk took us by the pizza place we discovered yesterday.....guess what we did? They remembered us from yesterday, and even gave us a dessert treat after our pizza. The name of the place is 'Dough', on Rose Street, almost at the west end, and if you are ever in Edinburgh, we recommend it for a quick, delicious bite.  It was about a 5-10 min walk from the hotel. This is definitely not your fast food chain type of establishment, all fresh ingredients, stone oven, excellent choices....and delicious!

Dough Pizza Shop

This afternoon we were going to go to the National Museum of Scotland, but on the way, Deb got sidetracked at the public library, archive department, where she spent most of the afternoon, while I went on to the museum for a couple of hours. The public institutions, art galleries, museum, etc are free. Unfortunately (for me) the museum was quite crowded....it is good to see public institutions like this being well used, especially by families with children. They have a special display on at the moment about The History of Scotland. The problem with exhibits such as this is one needs more time to do them justice. The other problem was it was easy to get into the Scottish display....but difficult to get out of. I almost became a part of Scottish history!

View out hotel window

A long walk back to the hotel afterwards and we had had enough for one day. Time for a beer and a burger at a nearby place.

Innis Gunn Scottish Beer