So that was Edinburgh. On the last morning I just walked around, having once again spoken firmly to my blisters, and found one or two spots I have never visited before. I went all the way down Canongate to the Scottish Parliament – when I was living in Edinburgh it hadn’t yet been built. I’d followed all the stores about it (the costs, the delays, etc) with some interest and was looking forward to seeing it, but in practice it seems difficult to get a good impression of the building from the road. Also, security seems to be very tight – lots of fences around it, for example. I also had a peer through the gates of Holyroodhouse Palace, and that looked attractive. However I gather it’s not open to the public.
On the way back up into town I called in at the Museum of Edinburgh. This seems to be a bit of a mixture – displays of various articles and objects that had a link with Edinburgh, including glass, silverware and brewing! Actually, the brewing exhibits were the most interesting. Edinburgh was a great brewing town at one time, and it was interesting, and not a little scary, to see example of cans and bottles that I remember popping or opening years ago. For me the best exhibit was a display of the original plans for the proposed new Town by the architect, James Craig.
Then there was time for a final walk round the New Town. I had a coffee and a cake at Lowdown Coffee, George Street (they don’t seem to have a website) before calling into Jenners. That now seems to market itself much more as simply a House of Fraser store than I recall – in the past it was just Jenners, and gave the impression of being proudly independent (even if it wasn’t). Then onto a branch of Waterstones for this book about the New Town.
By this time it was getting late, so I bagged a taxi at the bottom of Hanover Street, went back to the hotel, picked up my bags, and continued in the taxi to Waverley. I was comfortably sat on the train and resting my blisters about 15 minutes before departure, reflecting on an excellent 48 hours and looking forward to being some First Class pampering from Virgin East Coast. They didn’t disappoint.
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