After a good night’s sleep we woke to mostly clouds but so far no rain. We had a leisurely and delicious breakfast with the other couple staying at the Dynamite Club, Dominique and Yves, who were visiting from Toulouse. The four of us spent nearly an hour helping each other with the other’s language while sharing stories about travel and our respective lives.
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| breakfast in the front parlor |
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| exterior of 2 Cambridge St. |
We bid adieu to our breakfast comrades and packed our kit for the day.
Since our location put us square in the shadow of the Castle, that landmark followed us nearly everywhere we went.
First on our agenda was to exchange some old pound notes and coins for new ones.
On our previous days’ drive north we learned, much to our chagrin, that the currency we had leftover from our 2014 trip was in fact no longer legal tender. So, we tried the Royal Bank of Scotland and were told that since the notes we had were English and not Scottish we needed to try a Bank of England facility. We stopped at an HSBC branch, made the swap and was soon back on Princes Street heading for the National Gallery.
While the museum, which is free by the way, is in the throes of major renovation we still got to see works of a few of our favorites, especially Sargent, Degas and Morisot. We passed on the featured exhibition in the nearby Royal Academy.
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| Royal Gallery |
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| front of the Royal Academy, Princes St. |
From the museums we continued our walk east in the direction of the Balmoral Hotel and our rendezvous with the first of our three afternoon tea experiences. We were a bit early and as we strolled around outside we noticed across the street a sign for Rabbie’s Tours. We popped inside and asked to speak with someone about a day trip to St. Andrews and a few minutes later we had two seats reserved for a Friday day trip north.
And then it was time for tea — or I should say tea, coffee, champagne and plenty of scrumptious food at the
Balmoral Hotel's afternoon tea.
Check out the menu.
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| Princes St. entrance to the hotel |
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| pouring the tea |
Two hours later and we were back on Princes Street, soon crossing the North Bridge heading for Old Town and the Royal Mile.
As we worked our way up the gentle incline in the direction of the castle we came across the tail end of Detroit native Todd Various’s bit of street theater. His gimmick, being placed in a straitjacket and then chained up, was really only the hook in his schtick: it was all about audience interaction and participation as he worked his way to the end. It was really quite funny and a pleasure to spend a few minutes surrounded by strangers all sharing a laugh together — which was a point he was at no small pains to make.
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| the Royal Mile, east |
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| the Royal Mile, west |
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| Todd Various street performer |
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| looking toward the Esplanade and entrance to the Castle |
A few minutes farther up the Royal Mile we walked inside the Scotch Whiskey Experience. Granted, the initial portion of the “experience”, riding in a whiskey barrel as you pass along a series of animated stops explaining how Scotch is made, might seem a bit lame, but in fact it was rather fun. For the subsequent portion our group was teamed with a knowledgeable guide who walked us through the hows and whys of tasting Scotch.
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