We got up and had a nice full breakfast before heading out to explore Crail a bit. Crail is built around a harbour and features many buildings from the 17th to 19th centuries, many of which have been restored by the National Trust for Scotland. Crail once had a royal castle above the harbour and though little or nothing of the structure survives above ground, the site is still visible as an open garden. A Victorian ‘turret’ jutting out from the garden wall is visible. We walked along the harbour walls and looked at fishing boats. There were colourful lobster traps all over the harbour. After we left the harbour, we went into a very cute tea shop, the Crail Harbour Gallery and Tearoom that also sold artsy crafty gifts. The little outside café had a great view of the sea. As we walked up the hill towards the car, we went into Crail Pottery store. Irene and Florine bought a couple of nice pices – Florine was looking for more of the puffin themed items that she had purchased in 2011 but they did not have any in stock. From Crail, we drove to Anstruther for a walk around the harbour. Eric did show up eventually.
After that, we took the road to Edinburgh. It did not take very long though it got busier on the roads as we got closer to Edinburgh. We finally found our way to Castle Wynd North & Johnston Terrace. Petros parked outside the apartment and then rang the doorbell to get hold of Eric, who was supposed to be waiting for us in the apartment. It took a couple of tries, but Eric finally came down from the apartment to meet us. He then told Petros to park further up the road which fortunately, had a spot available. He took us up to the apartment and was very helpful and chatty. We did not get to meet his wife, Moira, who was busy dealing with the wedding arrangements for their son, who was getting married in the Algarve in Portugal the following week. Eric and Moira were planning on flying to the Algarve the day after we leave the apartment. Eric offered to accompany Petros and Florine to the Laundromat to get some of our dirty clothes laundered and folded. They dropped the dirty clothes off and came back to the apartment with instructions to pick up after 3:30 pm.
After that, Eric left and we walked up
the stairs to the street leading to Edinburgh Castle. We decided to go into the Whiskey Experience
and have lunch at the restaurant there. We had an interesting lunch at the restaurant,
Amber, which included Scottish dim sum (which included spiced pork belly and
black pudding, salmon and langoustine, smoked haddock and rarebit, chicken and
wild mushroom and vegetarian haggis), steamed Orkney mussels with Islay Whiskey
cream sauce and a seafood platter with smoked salmon, North Atlantic prawns,
sweet-cured herring, gravalax, salad, soda bread and lemon crème fraiche. Petros
had lamb stovies, which is a traditional Scottish dish with lamb, onion and
potatoes; Florine a roast beef sandwich, and we also had an order of soup. After lunch, Florine and Petros went to get
the laundry while Irene and I went for the whiskey experience tour, which
included one sampling of whiskey. The
tour was okay – you sit in a barrel and watch and listen as it moves through
the various exhibit. After that, we each
picked a whiskey from one of the 4 (one for each region – Islay-very peaty,
Highland, Lowland and Speyside) offered.
We picked a highland and a Speyside whiskey, which we both tasted. We
then spent a bit of time looking at the world’s largest collection of whiskies
under one roof. After that, we went back
to the whiskey shop for a while before going back to the apartment to meet up
with Florine and Petros.
We climbed back up the stairs and
walked along the streets, which were filled with old and elaborate
buildings. I think Irene was so entranced by the various
buildings that she walked right into a post in the middle of a crossing and
broke the frame of her glasses. She also
dropped the lenses as we were crossing the remaining street. I thought we were going to be run over by an
oncoming taxi but she was able to pick up her glasses and we finished the
crossing safely. She thought she could
live without her glasses for the rest of our vacation, but I said we should
find an optician and replace the frame or something. Fortunately, she had Silhouettes and the
frame should be easy enough to replace.
So, we went in the first store on the street and asked a young woman if
the store for directions to the nearest optician. She took a couple of minutes to think about
it and then said there should be one if we continued further along the
street. We started walking along George
Street and I had to double back after we passed Black & Lizars as they did
not look like an optical store. We went in, and the staff in there were really
nice and friendly. It would cost GBP 250
to buy a new Silhouette frame. Irene
said she did not want to do that because she was going to replace the lenses
when we got home. The woman, who looked
like she was 8 months pregnant, was very nice and found Irene an arm which
could be installed for GBP 25. Irene
opted for that, and the lady set to work.
She fitted Irene and made as many adjustments as Irene wanted. She said Irene could come back the next day
for additional adjustments if she needed them as her cheek had swelled up a bit
from the impact between her glasses and the post. After Irene got her glasses fixed, we asked
for recommendations for dinner. They suggested the Dogs, which was not too far
away, on Hanover Street.
Florine wanted to show us the fabulous
and innovative fitting rooms in The White Stuff so we made our way over to the
store. The rooms are really cool, and
they each have a theme from the door into the actual room itself. As it was close
to closing time, it was not busy and the salesgirl did not mind us opening the
doors and taking photos. After that, we
decided to head over to Hanover Street and the Dogs for dinner. We had a great view of the castle as we
strolled along a path in the West Princes Street Gardens on our way to Hanover
Street. We did not have reservations at
the Dogs but because we got there fairly early at about 6:30 pm, they were able
to accommodate us albeit until 8:00 pm.
We were happy to take the table and got down to the business of ordering
our food. The waiter recommended that we
order a bottle of Montenero Trebbiano D’Abruzzo to go with our food after we
placed our order. We ordered braised
lardon and prune stuffed lamb hearts on toast, confit roast duck with broad beans
on a grated red onion and beetroot salad for starters; for mains, we had
braised rabbit (surprise) with mushrooms and broccoli, ox tail casserike with
champ (mashed potatoes) and I am guessing at this from the photos, roasted
beetroot with horseradish and fat chips cooked in dripping ; for dessert, we
had fruit jelly with sponge and citrus cream and pears poached in white wine,
with vanilla and caramelised rhubarb and Overlangshaw farmhouse ice cream. The food and wine was great, and we enjoyed
our dinner.
After our dinner, we walked by the
National Gallery of Scotland and had a look at the East Princes Street Gardens
and Waverley Bridge. We ended up on
North Bank Street, where we went into the Whiski Bar & Restaurant to sample
a flight of whiskies which included an 18 year old Dalmore, the Glenmorangie
Signet, the Highland Park 18 year old and the Glenfarclas 21 year old. They were quite enjoyable. After our heartwarming whiskies, we walked
down Ramsay Lane to Castle Hill before making our way down the steps and back
to the apartment.
Where we stayed: Apartments by Castle, 16/4
Johnston Terrace, Edinburgh, EH1 2PR; 44 131 620 5511; Moira & Eric
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