A Trip To Edinburgh

Rob and I spent Monday and Tuesday in Edinburgh to celebrate our 19th Wedding Anniversary.

We started off in North Berwick, a seaside town to the East of Edinburgh. Lunch was at The Buttercup Cafe, a small establishment, where the food was good and the staff were very friendly.

We stayed in the Murrayfield Hotel, quite near to the centre. Our room had a comfortable bed, a good selection of toiletries, soft towels, nice teas and coffee available, and Tunnock's wafers! The downside was that some sort of machinery (a pump?) kept going on and off all night and meant that we didn't get much sleep. Another room might have been better, though.

Monday was taken up with shopping in Princes Street and George Street, a meal at Wagamama and watching 'Whiplash' at the cinema (all to be recommended!).

On Tuesday, we went to The National Museum of Scotland in Chambers Street, where we enjoyed coffees and cakes in the cafe, then had a look round. I enjoyed the small exhibition of contemporary jewellery. [Please click on the picture to see a larger version.]

My favourite item was this neckpiece by Geoff Roberts made from steel, metal leaf, and paint c. 2000.

The main atrium of The Museum, with Buddha statue in the foreground. Lunch afterwards was in Mother India's Cafe, which is just a few minutes walk away. They serve tapas-style small dishes of curry. We had chana daal, vegetable samosas with chickpea curry, okra with tomatoes, potato, cauliflower and green bean curry, coriander pickle and rice. Very tasty!

On a different matter, I was pleased to find that my latest Pinterest board, For My Love, had made it to the front page of Folksy.com today!

Trip To Glasgow

Brock spent the day with Lisa, his - and our - trainer, who runs a dog sitting service from her home. So Brock had fun with three other dogs, two cats and six ponies, having walks and training sessions before coming back to us at 9.30 pm - exhausted and happy.

Meanwhile, Rob and I went up to Glasgow for an outing. We started off with coffee at an independent Italian cafe, followed by lunch at The 78, a vegan cafe/bar in Kelvinhaugh Street. The interior is decorated with wood and tiles, music posters and comfortable furniture. There was a fire burning in the fire place near our table, which was very welcome on this cold day.

The food is excellent: Rob had the Quesadillas with refried beans, vegan cheese, marinated tempeh & jalapenos served with salad.....£5.25 and chips £1.60. He was a bit worried about the vegan cheese because all of the brands we have tried at home have been horrible, but this one was really tasty. The chips were cut from whole potatoes in their skins and were perfect, and the bean filling in the wraps was nice and spicy. Rob also had a pint of cider, while I had a bottle of Peroni.

 I ate Chilli and maple glazed tofu with caramelised sprouts, quinoa & winter slaw salad.....£6.50, which was equally delicious.

The bill came to around £20, and the service was very friendly - highly recommended! I wish this restaurant was near to me as I would want to eat there every day. They also have live music nights, which sound entertaining.

 

After that we  headed to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum and wandered around the Egyptian section and the art galleries and the gift shop.

  

We had a look around the shops, including The Princes Square Shopping Arcade, which has cafes on the top floor, then several floors of designer shops. It has a beautiful Art Deco feel to it with wrought iron work everywhere.

 We also stopped at The Lighthouse, Scotland's Centre for Design and Architecture where we were interested to find an exhibition about sustainable materials for architecture. 

 (The two photographs above are taken from The Lighthouse's website.)

After some more window shopping, we had dinner at Roma Mediterannean Restaurant. The restaurant has a low ceiling with subtle lighting, and individual 'booths' with bench seating. The food was quite good, but the meal was spoilt by a rather miserable waitress service. I ate vegetable risotto, followed by an ice cream with chocolate centre and chopped nut coating. Rob had vegetable calzone, then amaretto cake. With two soft drinks and two espressos the bill came to around £40.