The Weather In This Blog … and Thursday

 In the introduction to one of his books Mark Twain wrote:

"No weather will be found in this book. This is an attempt to pull a book through without weather. It being the first attempt of the kind in fictitious literature, it may prove a failure, but it seemed worth the while of some dare-devil person to try it, and the author was in just the mood. “

Twain actually continues for two more paragraphs and it is well worth looking up (for one thing he tells readers where to find weather if they really need it). I will stop the Twain quote there however, for fear of losing too many readers and hence, advertising revenue. But I intend to imitate Twain and try to faithfully(ish) record our adventures without referencing rain, heat, or meteorology in general. A friend of ours before we left helpfully informed us that Scottish weather “can be, and usually is, pretty awful”, so just assume she was right and focus on the more exciting parts of the trip.

(In retrospect, I suppose I could just omit everything I’ve written so far, but I really like the Twain quote and would like to share it with my [redacted number] readers.)

Ok, back to our regularly scheduled broadcast.

Thursday (yesterday) we spent most of the afternoon at the National Museum of Scotland. It’s a museum of history, and science, and culture, and technology, and … All museums have a high “things you want to see” to “time/energy you have to see them” ratio but this one’s is as high as any I’ve been to. Just a couple photos.

A rooftop terrace gave us a panoramic view of the city and the Pentland hills.

On the walk home from the museum we climbed Calton Hill, a UNESCO world heritage site. It has more great views as well as an unfinished copy of the Parthenon. This was intended to be a memorial for soldiers killed during the Napoleanic Wars but the funds dried up and it was never finished.

After a short rest we went to dinner at Edinburgh Street Food. This is a LARGE venue with seating surrounded by a bunch of food vendors, equivalent to street carts . There was Lebanese, Mexican, Indian, etc. Most of the seating is at long tables that accommodate multiple parties. We were sitting directly opposite a young couple so we were essentially eating with them. Each table has QR codes you use to order the food from whichever vendors you want and servers bring them to you as they’re ready. So my tacos got to the table from one server and Victoria’s chicken wrap came later from a different server. Helpfully when you place your order they give you a time estimate for each vendor so if the wait for barbecue is too long you can opt for chicken instead. It was PACKED (two to thee hundred maybe?) and LOUD and a ton of fun.

After dinner we stopped at our bookshop which made us consider ditching the tour and spending the week reading instead. We got back to the hotel around 8:00 and I was out by 9:00. This afternoon we meet up with our tour group and the character of this trip will change. I’ll be very interested to find out how we like group tours!

PS: For whatever reason and in sharp contrast to our Cotswolds trip last year I seem to be experiencing no jet lag whatsoever. I’m very happy about that.Victoria has not been so lucky alas.