September 15 - Where are my Sunglasses?!?!

We have been blessed with a sunny, sunny, not-an-iota-of-a-cloud-in-the-sky sunny morning!  I'm wearing-sunglasses-in-my- room- while-I-type-this-sunny.  Looks like a great day to go walking in Edinburgh.

Breakfast Stop

Met up with Casey and Alison for coffee at Cafe Nero waiting for the restaurants to open for breakfast.  On Saturdays most places don't open for breakfast until 9:00 am.  Starbucks doesn't even open until 8:00 am . . . on weekdays.  I don't think I could survive here.  Portland has definitely spoiled me for early-opening or even 24-hour coffee-shops.  For breakfast we went to the Urban Angel and had a delicious breakfast of free range eggs, bacon, sausage, homemade bread and organic butter.  Our charming  server, who wanted to make sure that we drank water because it was healthy for us, informed us that everything was acquired locally, making us feel as though we never left Portland. 

Edinburgh Castle

It was then off to Edinburgh Castle.  It was quite the education.  I've been a bit narrow in my understanding of castles, thinking it as primarily a fortified residence complete with spires, but Edinburgh Castle is really a fortified community complete with a dog cemetery.  We focused on investigating the oldest parts of the castle, David's Tower and St. Margaret's chapel and then proceeded to the Scottish Crown Jewels - I should clarify, the sword scepter and crown seen as a symbol of Scottish identity, the Scottish Memorial, built to honor the 148,000 men and women who have died in combat since WWI, and the the prison facilities. I was surprised how well prisoners of war were treated, receiving more food a day than what I can normally eat, including meat, bread, and dairy products among other things.  There was an exception for the Americans who were considered pirates.  They were treated somewhat more poorly receiving only a pound of bread a day :-)  Criminal punishments were rather severe though, with some offenders receiving up to 2000 lashes of the cat-o-nine tails until it was limited to a more humane 200 lashes. 

A small portion of the Whiskey collection

From there we proceeded to the Whiskey Experience which was very touristy and kitchy, even consisting of something akin to a carnival ride in a "whiskey" barrel, but it did a great job of explaining the making of single malt whiskey and blended whiskey, the character of the whiskey from different regions and we tasted whiskey in the room containing the largest collection of single malts and blends in the world.  Interesting information I learned includes, peat is burned during the drying process to give some whiskeies their flavor, whiskey ceases to change in flavor once it is bottled, unlike wine, due to the removal of all organic elements during the distillation process, 2 percent of whiskey in the barrels and bottles evaporites a year (called the "angels share"), 90 percent of all whiskey sold is blended, they recommend mixing a little water with your whiskey to open up the flavor.

The Closest we got to traditional music

The rest of the day was spent walking the streets, taking in the sights (including a territorial smackdown between two street performrs, a guy playing a guitar consisting of wooden lathe attached to a piece of luggage, and another guy playing the bagpipes - the guy with the gerry-rigged guitar won), souvenir shopping, and "nipping into the pub for a pint or two".  Decided that I'm not a big fan of Scottish beer.  It is much lighter and thinner than other beers I've had on my travels.  Since single malt whiskey is fairly inexpensive here, I think I'll stick to that.

For dinner, we went to a nice restaurant picked out by Rick called The Honours.  This is appropriate given that we just viewed "The Honours", another phrase for the Scottish crown jewels, at Edinburgh Castle.  The meal was delicious, the best part of which was the apple and caramel souffle.  After debating how much to tip and, consulting "Trip Advisor,"  tipping the recommended 10 percent, we left in search of traditional Scottish music.

Monument to Sir Walter Scott

Despite my online research (and the hotel concierge's bad, bad, bad, advice) we were having no luck until we spoke with, what I guess is a bar bouncer.  He informed us that it was going to be real hard to find traditional Scottish music in Edinburgh, but he directed us to the bar, Ghillie Duh, saying that we could find such music there, and,  what luck, it was just around the corner from our hotel.  After conferring with the bouncers of Ghillie Duh, we were informed that not one but two bands were playing, and yes, indeed, it was traditional Scottish music, and he recommended the band, The Charlie Woods Duo, that would be playing in the basement.  So we proceeded on down and sat at one of the many available tables (Casey thought this was a bad sign) and settled in for the 1 and 1/2 hour wait for the band to begin at, glory be, 10:00 pm, occupying our time sampling more whiskey including a 12-yr old blend, a 10-yr old McCallen, and a 14 yr-old Oban.  We knew things weren't quite right when the "band" consisted of two guys wearing tight jeans and t-shirts and carried two acoustic guitars.  No bagpipes, no fiddles, no kilts.  When they began playing the Beatles "Saw Her Standing There" we knew that either we had not been clear on what WE meant by "traditional Scottish music" or we had been snookered.  Alison and I thought that they were not bad; the boys weren't so charitable characterizing them as "tolerable".  We stayed to sing along to a half dozen songs (by popular British and American artists), and taking in the Scottish nightlife consisting of many pretty girls in extremely high heals and short dresses and decided to call it a night.  Not quite what I was hoping for, but entertainingly nonetheless.