Edinburgh, Scotland, United KingdomFalcon Crest Guesthouse Edinburgh Scotland
I woke up shortly before 4 am and was awake on and off until suddenly it was almost 7:30 am, past time to get up.
I was ready to take my shower. I had checked and the switch outside the bathroom door was on, but when I turned on the shower apparatus, I only got cold and colder water. I tried all sorts of things - there were two knobs to turn and one button (on and off) to push. Finally, I went downstairs and asked for help. Kathryn started to explain and then her husband volunteered to show me. It turned out that the top knob had 3 settings: cold, hot, hotter. The second know had a red swoosh on the right side and a blue swish on the left side, but, in reality you turned clockwise to make it hotter. I still do not understand the logic of the red and blue swooshes, but better to follow the instructions and forget about logic. Mr. Kathryn went on to explain in great detail - some of which I took in and some, not. I then had about 10 minutes to shower before breakfast, but it came a little later giving me time to finish showering.
Mr. Kathryn asked if I wanted breakfast left on the tray table outside the door or for him to bring it in - I elected to have him bring it in which was good since it was quite heavy, laden with large cafetiere, huge banana, two poached eggs, salt, pepper, ketchup, brown sauce, 6 half slices of toast, a half pint bottle of milk, half pint bottle of OJ, and small glass. WoW! I ate the eggs, and 4 halves of toast plain (no butter or jam - maybe I should have checked them off somewhere). I saved the banana for later.
I used yesterday's milk and drank half the OJ, putting the rest in my water bottle. It was a hardy breakfast.
I then prepared for my visit to the garden. The weather said rain at 10:45 am so I packed my raincoat. I decided to go with skirt and no leggings today and tough it out if I had to. I still had my sweater, linen jacket and beret to keep me warm. I thought my sneakers would be best, but, in retrospect, perhaps not. Even though my walk yesterday to the pier was not so bad, the extra walking over uneven surfaces today exacerbated my blisters. The toe seems to be slowly recovering. It was already 9:45 am before I was out the door.
I found a sign for the west entrance to the garden on my way down the main street the taxi brought me in on. Somehow I assumed the entrance would be on that side street, but no, it was on the actual west side - opposite the east side - which was on that main street I was on, so I needlessly walked around the garden to get into it, but I would have to go there eventually so I guess it was not that bad.
I bought a garden map for 1 pound and donated 9 pounds because there was no admission. I checked out the gift shop before going in - not intending to come back this way, but found nothing I wanted that I was willing to carry home. I turned toward the greenouses and looked at the trees and plants along the way. There was a monster beech hedge that enclosed the vegetable gardens with peekaboo archways. It was very impressive. In fact, the garden was extremely impressive - the size of the trees, the neatness, the lushness of the plantings, the glowing health of the plants.
As I approached the greenhouses, I found all the paths to them closed and then I read the sign that they were being redone. This was disappointing in itself because they looked extensive and probably would have also been very impressive, and also because they would have provided shelter since it had just started to rain. I put on my raincoast and continued touring the gardens. I saw the pond, the Scottish heather section - which was hard to find or rather to identify as such when you were in it.
I met a couple with North American English accents who were also still looking but had been where the map said it was as had I. Then I went through the rock garden - or most of it - there were tons of paths and sections so I may have missed a bit, but I have never seen a more extensive rock garden!! Maybe it has something to do with how rocky Scotland is....
At that point I was beginning to enter the woodlands gardens, but I was getting hungry so I kind of zipped through them to the terrace cafe where I had potato-celeriac soup with a scone and latte. While I ate, I reviewed my photos on the cell phone - stunning - all of them! I tried to figure out which parts of the garden I had missed and concluded that it was only the SE corner that I had entirely missed so I headed in that direction and saw the great slate wall. I did miss some of the sculptures. Oh, at some point I went to the Inverleith House with the special exhibition - on Palestinian loss of plants - which had some very visually original pieces. I thought some of my photos of the exhibit came out well. After I had seen the SE corner, I walked back slowly and tried to fill in parts of the woodland garden that I had missed. The trees were all so impressive - the beeches, the birches, some of the conifers as well. I don't know that I got a much better knowledge of Scottish flora but there were some specimens identified as Scottish, like Scots pine.
Too soon I was back at the East Gate - my natural departure exit - I was loathe to leave but my toe and blisters were giving me some trouble and I thought it was probably best to call it a day for the garden and go back to the guesthouse, rest my feet, and do some computer and photo chores before heading out for dinner.
It will still be too soon to eat but I must organize for my flight tomorrow so I need to leave time for that.
Sooo, that's it for now.
So around 6 pm I left for the Old Chain Pier. I changed my route a little to see something new and to get more familiar with the arrangement of the various streets since South Trinity did not go through to the seafront or riverfront, or firthfront, as it may be. Once there, I was told to go to a small tall table along the wall perpendicular to the bar. My waitress later told me that it was her favorite table and the best table. I don't know if I have become paranoid, but, even though I thought the table had an excellent view through the windows to the water, I was suspicious of why she was telling me this. Anyway, I enjoyed the view without customers sitting at the window table and even when they arrived and sat in front. I was high enough that it didn't matter. I ordered the grilled tuna rare and a half pint of one of the local beers (and I messed up, because I forgot to get the name).
This was also the favorite of the three guest beers per same waitress. The tuna was not quite as rare as I would have liked but it was pretty good and came blanketed by a generous rocket salad and pineapple salsa with chips on the side. The chips were good but I was focused on the tuna and didn't have room for a lot of them. When I asked for my check instead of coffee and/or dessert, the waitress became less friendly. I guess I probably passed by her favorite dessert. Or maybe she was just busy.
I wanted to see a bit more of the waterfront, so I walked past my usual turning point and found that there were no more turns back for quite some time, so I returned to my usual corner and then again managed to overshoot by a block and need to compensate before finding Stirling Road that turned into South Trinity. There is a lot of name changing on this bunch of streets. As I walked south on South Trinity, I got a bit worried because I did not recognize a block of shops, but then going farther, I saw the two red cars in their driveway side by side and knew I was heading toward the guesthouse.
I met Kathryn when I came in and she told me that the taxi had quoted a fare of 30 pounds to get to the airport, and she mentioned how the prices just seemed to be going up and up, but, rather than mess around with walking, taking a bus and transferring, I chose the more expensive, but easier way. My foot issues have not resolved as quickly as I would have liked and also factored into the decision.
I packed up as much as I could and then found I still had time to watch some Midsomer Murders, but was taken aback when I realized the program was going on to 11 pm rather than 10 pm, but since I had been waking up so early, it might not be a problem, so I went to bed later than I had really wanted to....since tomorrow would probably be exhausting.
2025-05-23