Scotland At Last

 We have finally arrived at the final leg of our journey; Edinburgh, Scotland!  After moving from city to city, and country to country every couple of days, we decided to spend the last 6 days in one place. We chose a charming Inn outside the city center that has a pub attached. 

This turned out to be a fantastic decision. There is a bus stop on a main road, right outside our door. We can have supper or drinks here, if we like. We made a lovely friend, Katrina. She Scottish, but lives in Bergen - we were actually on the same flight! She comes here once a year to visit family. We have had breakfast together every morning in the pub, which has been so much fun.

Across the road is a trail that follow the Leith River for miles and just beyond that is farmland. It's a beautiful place to walk and get some fresh air. 

Our first full day, we took the trusty #44 bus down to St. Andrew's Square, in the heart of Edinburgh. We were fairly confident that we would find the Hop On Hop Off there, and we did. This time we splurged on a combo pass, which gave us 48 hours on the busses, which have 3 routes and passes for 3 places. The tour bus guide suggested we pre-book our "Skip the line" passes for Edinburgh Castle, which we did.

It was an overcast, but mild day. We chose the bus route that went further afield and our first stop was at the Royal Botanical Gardens. Scottish spring in all it's glory! The gardens are free to everyone, and we saw many people who looked like they were just out for their morning walk. The garden has a huge Chinese plant collection and helped China reintroduce some varieties that has been lost in their homeland.

There was a wonderful art exhibition in one of the glorious stone buildings about invasive plant species. Did you know that eucalyptus was invasive? I didn't. I also learned that many invasive species travelled in the wool of sheep that were sent raw to be processed in other places. This is where we saw the cactus hooked up to biofeedback speakers which played sounds from the plants electrical activities. You may have seen the reel I posted.

The second stop, and the first of our passes, was the Britannia Royal Yacht. It was decommissioned a few years ago, but was used regularly by Queen Elizabeth for most of her reign. The tour was extensive, about 90 minutes, with an audio guide. There is also a tea room on board for visitors. The ship was awe inspiring. It is one thing to see it from a pier or see photos of the interior. It's quite another to traverse each deck, back and forth. From the Queen's bedroom and formal dining room to the lowest barracks and laundry room. Even royalty sleep on a twin bed, on board (with silk damask linens, of course). There wasn't a double bed on board until Charles and Diana's honeymoon. So that room is now referred to as the honeymoon suite.

The friendly clerk at the gift shop encouraged us to visit the local gin distillery and gave us walking directions to get there. I will be honest. What I expected was a tour of the facility, lecture style, and a couple of tiny tastes of gin. Informative, something to cross off the list, but not too exciting. Lind and Lime exceeded every one of my expectations.

The staff member who signed us in said we could join a group that was due in about 15 minutes. Perfect. Then she took our gin order, with tonic, water, lemonade, etc. The other group arrived, 6 delightful Norwegians, who were so friendly and so much fun.

Fraser, our guide (who didn't look old enough to drink), led us into the distillery where a table was set up with a beautiful array of botanicals and our drinks - a tall glass with a double gin! Fraser proceeded to tell us the history of gin and the area and it's connection to treating scurvy. We sampled the botanicals (the edible ones!) and enjoyed our drinks. By the time we finished at this station, we were a pretty jolly group!

Then we proceeded to the machines and the technical part of the explanation, as expected. On to bottling! We all got to fill, cap and label our own mini bottles to take home! So we are done, right? We got the history, the drink, the tour and the take home give away. Nope.

On to another table, where Fraser teaches us how to make Gimlets - gin, lime, sugar and ice. Now we feel like 20's socialites! And a little tipsy. We head into the shop portion of the building - makes sense, they are hoping we buy, of course. 

Wrong again. Here we are served samples of their sherry and port! It's a really good thing that the way back to the Hop On Hop Off bus is simple! Before this trip, I would have said that I don't like gin. Turns out I was very wrong about that!! Hats off to Lind and Lime (available in Canada!) for a delightful and entertaining afternoon. I hope the Norwegians made it back to their bus OK!