Holiday in North Berwick: Edinburgh

It was Rob's 60th Birthday, so we decided to have a day out in Edinburgh. Brock was booked in to a local kennel for 24 hours.

Morning coffee at I J Mellis in Morningside... excellent coffee!

Our next stop was the Royal Botanic Gardens. The cafe there was very busy. There was no gluten free cake listed on the menu, but the waiter said they could provide a chocolate brownie ... and here it is. Very nicely presented, but I got a nasty shock at the till when charged £5.75 for this fancy tray bake!

We visited the Natural Selection exhibition at Inverleith House in the RBG, which was quite interesting.

A Bower bird's nest, made at human scale

A ceramic re-creation of a confiscated egg collection

We went on to the National Museum of Scotland.

 The Grand Gallery looked wonderful in the dappled sunlight

I always enjoy looking around this museum as there is such a variety of things to see, plus interactive installations for those of us who are still children at heart.

Mother India's Cafe was our lunchtime venue. It serves tapas-style curries, and we chose four of them to share with a rice, peshwari pitta bread, coriander chutney and poppadoms: chana aloo (chickpeas and potato); okra and tomatoes; aloo gobi and green beans (potato, cauliflower and green beans); and vegetable samosa. With two soft drinks, the bill came to £30.45.

We caught a bus back to Bruntsfield and walked back to where we'd parked the car, all the way though Morningside, stopping along the way to look at some of the more interesting shops and charity shops.

We decided to pick Brock up early from the kennels and went back to the flat exhausted after a very busy day.

Holiday In North Berwick: North Berwick

After yesterday's exertions and 4-hour-round-trip, we decided to explore locally in North Berwick today.

 
We gave Brock his second walk of the day in the Lodge Grounds Park at North Berwick, then headed to the dog-friendly Steampunk Cafe for morning coffee and cake. It was so warm that we were able to sit outside. The coffee was excellent and the staff were friendly, so I would definitely recommend giving this small cafe a visit if you are in town.

Mural at Steampunk Cafe

After a look around the town - there are lots of small independent shops, cafes, restaurants and five charity shops to explore - and lunch back at the flat, we headed out for a walk along the beach as far as the golf course.

 The Law: a volcanic plug that you can hike up, and handy landmark for locating North Berwick!

One of Brock's many new friends: Sula (left)

We had another delicious double espresso ice cream from Gelateria Alandas back in the town, and chips for dinner from the nearby North Berwick Fry.

Holiday in North Berwick: The Journey Up

We set off from home, leaving my brother, Philip, in charge of the house, Minnow Cat and Connie Chicken. The rain was pouring down, not boding well for the week ahead!

Our first stop was at Alnmouth in Northumberland. It is an attractive village with a long area of sandy beach, with a few small shops, cafes, hotels and pubs. We parked at the beach car park and walked along to the dog-friendly cafe, The Village Tea Rooms. Brock decided to jump into several very deep pools of stagnant sea water for some reason. He doesn't like water normally, so it was quite a surprise to all of us. Although it was misty, the rain had passed over and it was dry for our walk.

Brock running on the beach at Alnmouth

Alnmouth main street

Our next stop was the wonderful Barter Books at Alnwick Station. It has a cafe, and thousands of books: new, second-hand and antiquarian. There is lots of comfy seating scattered about; a train runs around the top of the book shelves in the first room, where there is often an open fire burning; and dogs are allowed in (apart from the buffet area). Parking on site is limited and very busy.

Barter Books - main room

Display of antique childrens' books

Berwick-upon-Tweed was our next stop of the day. We walked all around the city walls, enjoying the views of the sea and town.

 The allotments at Berwick-upon-Tweed

The house that L S Lowry stayed in on his visits to the town

 Views over the Tweed to the railway viaduct

We drove on to the flat we were staying at in North Berwick and were glad to have a rest after our busy first day.

View from the holiday flat's sitting room window: a minute's walk from the sea!

Holiday to Inverness 2016: 24 - 25 September: Dunkeld, Inverness and Chanonry Point

Rob, Brock and I have just returned from a week's holiday in Inverness.

We stopped off at Dunkeld on the way up. It is a very picturesque town with hotels, cafes and small shops. Palmerston's Cafe was where we had lunch (jacket potatoes with hummus and salad). The food is pretty good, but one of the waitresses is rather on the abrupt side, which is a bit off-putting, so I couldn't recommend it.

There is an excellent deli in the town: The Scottish Deli. We bought a bag of food there to take with us for the week: muesli, almond milk, cheese, butter, olives, wine, stuffed chillies, bread, hummus, strawberries etc.

We arrived at Rookery Nook, our accommodation for the week, at about 4.00 pm. It is a 'compact and bijoux' apartment with a tiny, private garden area (complete with bird feeder, rockery, washing line, seating area and plants). The apartment is in a very quiet area of Inverness, but only a few minutes drive to the centre or the ring road, so suited us very well. It has an open-plan kitchen/dining area/sitting room, with a bedroom, and a shower room.

Brock made himself at home on the duvet we'd bought for him (no pets on the furniture, please!).

On the Sunday, we headed into the centre of Inverness to do the Ness Islands Walk, only to find that there was a marathon and fun run taking place.

A view from one of the islands. We managed to complete the walk before the main race began.

 Warming up before the race starts.

Just before the race began.

The event was sponsored by Baxters soup and it was quite amusing to hear the commentator trying to work 'his favourite soup' into interviews with the competitors.

Rob and I had a walk around the town, but most of the shops, and the museum were closed. We did manage to get some postcards in The Works!

Chanonry Point near Rosemarkie on The Black Isle was our final stop for the day. The sat nav took us on the scenic route around the Beauly Firth, which is absolutely beautiful.

It was a bit windy on the point, but the beach that runs back to Rosemarkie was quite sheltered. You can see dolphins from here if you arrive in the late afternoon.

Chanonry Lighthouse.

Walking back along the beach towards Rosemarkie.

Brock enjoyed the walk and met some friends along the way.

By the time we approached the community cafe on the beach, the sun had come out and it was hot enough to sit outside for lunch.

The popular community cafe in Rosemarkie. Good tea, and GF egg roll, but very dry cakes :o/

We had a couple of hours rest at the holiday home before visiting a nearby pub for dinner: The Fluke. It was quite lively, with a mixed age crowd, and music from a jukebox. We ate the cauliflower and red pepper curry, which came with rice and poppadoms - quite tasty, washed down with some cider! They had quite a few other vegetarian meals on the menu: most centred around halloumi cheese.

Holiday In Yorkshire - Day 1 - Journey Down & Skipton

First stop of the day was in Unthank, Cumbria at the UpFront Gallery for coffee and cake. We were just about the first people there. This great cafe, gallery and puppet theatre is well worth a visit if you are in the area. They serve mainly vegetarian food, and also cater for gluten free diets. There is a gift shop and regularly changing gallery of paintings for sale.

Skipton was our main destination for the day. We walked around the town with Brock and had lunch in the dog-friendly Coopers Cafe. I had toasted goats' cheese/veg/walnuts with salad and GF bread. Rob had hummus, olives, salad and bread. There was more than I could eat: a very generous portion. There were lots of interesting shops in Skipton - would have been nice to browse around if we hadn't had a small dog in tow!

[Photo from the I love Skipton website]

We drove on to Blacksmith's Cottage at Askham Bryan near York. The traffic was horrendous, especially around Harrogate. We also stayed at the cottage in October, and it was much as before: a little bit old fashioned, but it has a garden, and plenty of room inside, and there is a great pub in the village. The most annoying thing was to find not one sheet of loo roll in the place. Good job I'd bought some with us!

Holiday in Fife September 2013

Rob, Brock and I had a lovely week in Fife recently. We stayed at St Monans in the East Neuk.

Two half days were spent walking on the Fife Coastal Path between Cellardyke and St Monans; and St Monans and Elie.

We visited all of the small and picturesque fishing villages: Crail, Pittenweem, Elie, Anstruther; and also enjoyed visits to St Andrews, and Dundee.

Here are a few of the highlights of the visit. [Please click on any photo to see a larger version.]

 St Monans harbour

 St Andrews harbour

Ruin on the coast between St Monans and Elie

 McManus Art Gallery, Dundee

Brock at Camperdown Park, Dundee

 Pittenweem Harbour

Beautiful stonework, Pittenweem Harbour

 Lunch at the Pillars of Hercules Farmshop/Cafe

 

 Autumn Colour at Cambo Gardens

 The Bass Rock

 Brock on the beach at Leven

Happy Christmas!

Happy Christmas everyone!

 Our Christmas tree this year.

 My favourite decoration - a tiny mouse with his hobby horse toy - bought many years ago from The Christmas Shop in Lechlade.

A lovely new decoration this year, courtesy of my Mum, who bought it at a craft fair in Edinburgh. It is a little handmade tartan teddy with green bow tie and button joints. So cute!