Edinburgh, the Reivers & those Northern English Hoards

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Spent a couple of days in Edinburgh from 30 – 31 May. Pretty easy city to get around and we managed to wear out a bit more shoe leather seeing all the sights. Thought all this walking would have an impact on my weight, but I think the full english breakfasts each day and my insistence on trying at least one pint of the local ale, is counteracting the weight reduction potential any exercise affords. Oh.... and I have been a little partial to English pub meals which invariably are served with chips. Now I haven’t made comment on the quality of English beer in any of my blogs, so I may as well give you my precis given we are nearing the end of our visit. All those readers who start to glaze over when I start discussing anything beer related can skip to the next paragraph. Being the connoisseur I am of fine ale, I decided that as part of this trip to the UK I would try a local ale in each place we stayed. Now England has had a revival in the last 10 years or so to return to cask conditioned ales and so most small pubs are now offering 2 – 3 local or regional brews which are pumped by hand from barrels in the cellar. Now I've always heard that pommy beers were flat and warm.... and I have to tell you that these cask conditioned ales are exactly that. While not strictly room temperature they probably sit at about 10 degrees C (or whatever the cellar temp is)..... and while not flat, carbonation is very low. So I had to convince myself I was drinking something different and try not to compare them to the ice cold fizzy lager that is mostly served in Australia. I have rated each ale out of 5 and only one of the ales has scored 4 with the majority only achieving 2 or 3. I have to admit that these brews were more appealing on those couple of days when it was a little cold and rainy rather than a 22 degree day.
Well that was a bit of a side track. Edinburgh is an interesting historic place to visit and we enjoyed it immensely. The only downside for me was the incessant bagpipe playing. There were at least 3 - 4 pipers and I am sure they were strategically placed so that no matter where you were in the main city area, you could always hear them. I was hoping they would at least take a lunch break or run out of puff in order to give my ears a rest..... but alas it was continuous. I now know why England never fully conquered the Scots as those bagpipes are enough to make you run away. Truly an instrument created by Satan himself! But I suppose the average tourist thinks its quaint, particularly the older American visitor...... they all line up to get their photos taken with the piper wearing their tartan sleeveless parka or scarf. Looking around none of the local Scots wore tartan knowing that such attire lacks all fashion sense and if they did they would be called a “big Jessie”. The whole experience must have impacted me at the subconscious level as that night I woke up in a sweat dreaming that I had turned into a Celt complete with bagpipes and red scruffy hair stuffed under a Tam O Shanter
On Wednesday we headed south toward the English border and by chance stopped at a little place called Jedburgh. This had an old Jail and also a castle where Mary Queen of Scots stayed and was it seems a strategic border town for the Scots. An interesting thing I noticed was that most of the museums and historic sites we saw in Scotland where free to visit, unlike similar attractions in England....so I have to agree with the Scots about those thieving English *@%%%#$$*!#. We stayed just outside Newcastle last night just as a place to break the journey south. My time living in Whyalla SA came in handy as this English accent was the hardest to understand. I even commented to Jane that as we’ve travelled around the UK, we have been the only ones that don’t have any accent.
Next Report Yorkshire.

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Photos

Outside an Old Graveyard
Well.... the sign above the door says it all

Isn't this old news??
Outside a news agents in Edinburgh. Didn't think the Scots were that behind with world events.

Black Friar's "Bobby"
Outside Black Friars Abbey Edinburgh. Not a dog expert, I think Bobby is a scotty dog who apparently hung around his deceased owners grave for days (google it if you want all the story). Only the Scots would immortalized a dog in Bronze!!