June 15, 2013 - Saturday
We had a nice leisurely breakfast at
the apartment. The plans for the day
called for Petros and Florine to go shopping and for Irene and I to find
Kathy’s Knits. After breakfast, Irene and I went up to have a quick look at the
castle before heading out on our quest for Kathy’s Knits, a yarn store.
Although it was only around 9:30, the road leading to the castle was already
very busy with tour groups and other tourists.
Irene and I walked as far as we could without actually having to
purchase tickets and then went into the castle gift shop. We looked around for a while and I picked out
a couple of souvenirs and a whiskey book, Jim Murray’s Whiskey Bible 2013, for
Petros. I thought he should have a
little treat for doing most of the driving.
Driving on the other side of the road requires a certain amount of
concentration and focus and that can be tiring.
We heard music as we left the gift shop and went over to the side of the
castle wall to join the mass of humanity.
We looked down and saw the band in full Scottish dress uniform and the
guards in their red tunics going through the ceremonial posting of the guard at
the entrance to the castle. So, we
stopped to watch the ceremony. We left
at the end of the ceremony and headed up Ramsay Lane to the Mound and then
across Rose Street to St. Andrew Square.
We then went across York Place before turning onto Broughton
Street. We walked until we found the
store, which was down a flight of stairs.
We spent quite a long time in the store before Irene finally decided on
a number of different skeins of yarn.
She picked some St. Kilda lace weight yarn, which is supposedly very
rare as the Soay sheep on the island are protected and the fleece can only be
gathered after the come off the sheep.
They are generally spun with Shetland yarn to increase supplies. We asked Kathy for recommendations for a
light lunch and she suggested Casa Angelina, which she said, was owned by a
Michelin star rated pastry chef. The tea
room was not far from the store, around the corner on London Street, and we
walked over and after studying the menu, decided to have the afternoon tea. We got a selection of 4 savory and 4 sweet
treats with a fruit scone. We chose a
pot of chili rooibos tea to start; after we finished that, we ordered a pot of
big red Rooibos tea. We agreed that the chili rooibos was the better tea. Everything was very tasty and we enjoyed it
tremendously. Sitting behind Irene was a
Chinese woman making arrangements with another Chinese woman and her daughter
about using her flat in London – not that we wanted to eavesdrop, but the
tables were close and she was loud. After our meal, we walked back towards the
apartment. We walked by St. Mary’s
Catholic Cathedral just off York Place, St. James Place to Princes Street
before deciding that we should go to the Marks and Spencer Food Hall in Rose
Lane South to buy some fruits. So we
headed up to George Street, past the Assembly Rooms before realizing that we
had gone too far north. We then headed south to Rose Street South and found the
Marks and Spence Food Hall where we bought pork pies, blueberries and
raspberries. From there, we walked past
the Royal Scottish Academy and the Scottish National Gallery. We went by the
Black Watch Memorial and when we got to New College, the door was open so we
popped in for a closer look. After that,
we walked down Ramsay Lane, by the Camera Obscura & World of Illusion,
along Castle Hill before heading down the Patrick Geddes Steps to the
apartment. We met up with Florine and
Petros and decided to have dinner at Hanam’s a Kurdish and Middle East
restaurant across the street from the apartment. We did not have reservations and the guy at
the counter turned us down. As we walked
along the street, contemplating dinner at the neighbouring Thai restaurant,
another person from Hanam’s came running after us and said we could have a
table for about an hour. He said we
would be able to have dinner within the hour so we went back into the
restaurant. I haven’t had Kurdish food
before but enjoyed the offerings in the restaurant. We had Soujuk which is spicy Lebanese
sausages sautéed in tomato, green pepper, garlic and chilli; a Mushakal starter
with a selection of starters with hummus and fresh bread, chicken biryani, Qosy
lamb; two different shilah sauces I
think we had Bamya, a tender okra cooked with tomatoes and garlic, and Tapsi, a
Kurdish favourite of aubergines, green pepper and sliced potatoes in a spiced
tomato sauce) and a bottle of Braes o Gowrie sparkling non-alcoholic
elderflower drink. We did not have room
for dessert at the restaurant but instead went back to the apartment, where we
had the cherries, blueberries and raspberries that we had bought earlier from
Marks & Spencer. They were all
really nice and sweet. Eric called and
made arrangements to come over in the morning, but said that we could leave the
rent on the table if we wanted to make an early start.
Where we stayed: Apartments by Castle
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