2019 UK Trip Wrap-up

Princes Street, Edinburgh

Accommodations.

We used Sawday's Special Places. They put you in touch with the owner of the home or hotel and you take it from there. We used Sawday for our stay in Paris in the fall of 2016 and had a simply fantastic experience. We weren't disappointed this time, either. Beats Air BnB, hands down. A strong recommendation.

Edinburgh. 2 Cambridge Square, AKA the Dynamite Club.
Notwithstanding the wonderfully and yes quirky space itself, three things the traveler will most likely find important in considering a stay at the Dynamite Club: (1) The breakfasts by Virginia were as good as any meal we ate in Edinburgh;.(2) Our breakfast companions -- there are only two rooms -- were fascinating and a genuine pleasure to spend an hour with in the morning.  (3) And last but by no means least is the location. I mean, you are right at the base of the castle and within walking distance to just about everything and anything of interest in Edinburgh.

Bath. The Queensberry Hotel.
Three things to bear in mind here: (1) The hotel itself is wonderful; four Georgian townhomes wedded together, the original space once being the home of the marquess of Queensberry, yes that's right the guy who codified the rules for boxing; and our room (no. 14) was lovely with an enormous bathroom and two sinks, which was a nice touch. Also there was a Nespresso machine right outside our door. (2) The food was superb -- we ate at the bar for dinner the night we arrived (fish pie was scrumptious) and in the restaurant for breakfast, which was delicious: pitchers of smoothies next to the orange juice. I can only imagine what dinner must be like. (3) The staff were incredibly friendly and always willing and available to be helpful and of assistance. (4) And lastly is the location. The hotel is a ten-minute walk from the Roman Baths and the abbey and almost around the corner from the Circus and the Royal Crescent.

Food.

Ripon. 
Royal Oak Inn. Fish n chips x 2, ham and eggs x 2, wine and beer for four £45.

Edinburgh.
Wagamama, noodle bowls x 2 £31.00
Balmoral Hotel, tea x 2 £110
Cafe Andaluz patatas gratinadas, albondagas and pollo rebozado, 2 glasses wine £31,00
Royal Yacht Britannia, cream tea x 1, cheese and chutney sand, 2 glasses rosé £43.00
the Grainstore, scallops, beef, fish 2 glasses wine £91.00
Amarone, pennette pomodorino, linguine polpettine, insalata, 1btl wine £54.00

St. Andrews. Nando's, sand x 2

Bath.
Pump Room, tea x 1, fishcakes, 2 glasses wine £71.00
The Chequers, fish n chips, burger, wine £56.00
The Circus, 2 x fish of the day, veggie starter, creme brulé, glass dessert wine Samos, 1 btl Assyrtiko £93.00
Queensberry Hotel Bar, £35.00

London.
Dorchester Hotel, tea x 2 £171.00
Le Pain Quotidian (St. Pancras Station), 2 tarts, 1 half soup-tartine, 2 glasses wine £46.00
Trafalgar Tavern (Greenwich), whitebait large, 2 sand of the day, bangers n mash, beer/wine for four, £68.00

St. Albans.
Chez Momtaj, 2 lamb shank, 2 seafood biryani, btle chablis £126
DavVero,
Prae Wood Arms, £67.00

Things seen and done.

Edinburgh. National Gallery, Princes Street Gardens, Royal Botanic Gardens, Royal Yacht Britannia, Edinburgh Castle, Rabbie's Day Tours, Scotch Whiskey Experience.
St. Andrews. Castle and abbey.
Falkland. Palace and gardens.
Bath. Royal Crescent, The Circus, Jane Austen Centre, Abbey, Roman Baths, Bertinet Cookery School.
London. Cruise on the Thames, Greenwich, Kew Royal Botanic Gardens
St. Albans, Saturday market, the Old Town Hall.

General

Use the city tour buses to get a feel of the space.
Use your iphone  or buy a local SIM card when you first arrive. SIMLocal is a chain that's in all the terminals at Heathrow.
Check your CC to see if you have the swipe 'n go feature -- if so, using the Tube is a breeze.

Edinburgh 27 September

Today we focused on going out of the city into the countryside, and to do that we signed up for a day trip to St. Andrews with Rabbie's Tours. This particular tour would take us to the fishing village of Anstruther on the North Sea then up to St. Andrews where we would spend the bulk of our time. From St. Andrews we would go to Falkland and the head back to Edinburgh. The tour was scheduled to last about 8-and-a-half hours, which proved to be about accurate.

The tour groups -- there were three of us -- congregated outside Rabbie's Cafe on Princes Street and at just about half past nine were ushered to our waiting bus vans.

After an hour and a half or so we pulled into the quaint old fishing village of Anstruther where public restrooms were available as were a few lovely views of the harbor and town. The town also boasted a kebab joint and a Turkish barber.

From Anstruther we drove up the coast to St. Andrews where we left the bus near the British Golf Museum. The Dunhill Golf Classic was underway but the inclement weather had us doubting whether anyone was playing. The important thing was were weren't scheduled to play so we could just enjoy the town. And, as our guide Martin said, if people stopped playing golf in Scotland due to the weather, people in Scotland would never play golf.

So we strolled up Scores Street to the ruins of the St. Andrews castle and from there to yet another set of ruins, but this time it was the St. Andrews Cathedral.

side entrance to the castle

view of the ancient cathedral from the castle

From the castle it was less than five minutes -- in the rain mind you -- to the cathedral. It's possible to climb to the top of the tower but we skipped that portion, thank you. Still, the little museum inside the visitor center held a wealth of old tombstones that had been recovered and preserved from the very earliest burials here.

while this wasn't a terribly old burial it nonetheless had a wonderfully poignant inscription

lots of the burials were blocked off because of unstable ground

inside the museum - reportedly St. Andrew's sarcophagus

After leaving the cathedral we walked up Market St. to find a place for lunch and opted for Nando's, a chain specializing in grilled chicken.

Sadly, the rain was still falling quite heavily by the time we got back to the bus and arrived in Falkland. Equally unfortunate, however, was the Falkland palace turned out to be a waste of time. Poor signage, confusing layout and an ambiguity over which particular century fell into which part of the palace -- much of it renovated and/or recreated elsewhere on the property -- made this a very perplexing place to spend any time.

But we were soon back on the bus and heading south once again to Edinburgh. Our guide kindly stopped at a lovely overlook on the south side of the River Forth to let us take some wonderful photos of the bridges, both the new Queensferry Bridge and the older Forth Road Bridge, the latter heavily restricted to most traffic because of problems with the infrastructure.

Near St. Cuthbert's kirkyard along Princes St. we caught sight of a bit of street graffiti that seems to sum up the state of things in at least three countries:

Tomorrow it's time to meet up with Richard and Pauline for the drive back to St. Albans. Don't click around!