The weather forecast wasn’t as good for today, so we had come up with a more inside plan. It turned out to be another lovely day, but we stuck with our plan. The girls were needing a bit of shopping time, so we left the boys behind and caught the bus to Princes St. It was fun visit all the stores I remembered from living in the UK, but I didn’t spend a thing. Anna had a bit more luck, but was fairly restrained.
Andy had an extra little place to visit in Edinburgh after one of his fillings fell out. What is it with us and dentists? He went off to get patched up and Matt caught the bus to join the girls. There’s a fair on beside the Christmas Markets and we were keen to ride the “High Flyer”. We wouldn’t normally get excited about a ride like this, but the chance to get up high and enjoy amazing views of Edinburgh was too good to miss. The ride was brilliant and the views were impressive. My only regret was not strapping my camera to my wrist and getting a few shots. Flying past level with the Scott Monument made the ride way more fun than if it had been somewhere ordinary.
The Royal Yacht “Britannia” is moored at the Leith Docks in Edinburgh. We had never visited before so thought we would check it out. We caught a bus from the city and managed to coordinate Andy catching the same bus a bit further along from the dentist. Our first stop in Leith was a gelato shop. We had eaten very little ice cream so far (partly due to cold, partly because we just hadn’t been in ice cream mad countries), and cravings were setting in. Crollas Gelateria was just what we needed, and although it was branded as an Italian Gelateria, the flavours were very Scottish. There were flavours on offer like Malteser, Fanta Sorbet and Tablet (a Scottish fudge). Matt had been introduced to tablet that morning and couldn’t resist ordering tablet ice cream – the guy serving was very surprised that Matt knew what it was!
Our visit to the Royal Yacht was really interesting. The yacht was built in 1953 and decommissioned in 1997. In between it travelled more than one million nautical miles around the globe. It definitely wasn’t as posh as we were expecting. Some of the common areas were very nice, but the bedrooms especially were really quite ordinary. It did have a pretty homely feel about it, although Royal etiquette was very much observed and I doubt it would have felt like a relaxing place for an ordinary person. The audio guide was really good and gave us all sorts of fascinating trivia. Some of the working parts of ship were especially interesting, like the kitchens, laundry and hospital.
We were able to get a bus all the way from Leith back to Jo’s place, and lucky enough to get our favourite seats. There is no better place to sit than front row upstairs in a double decker bus. Dinner tonight was an eclectic mix of all the leftovers in Jo’s fridge, washed down by a yummy sponge made by Anne. She really is the most amazing 97 year old!
