Slower Day

Friday, October 31

Today was a bit of mental and physical regrouping, which was long overdue and very welcome.  I got up early-ish and had hoped to run on the treadmill before heading out for the day, but it wasn’t to be.  I got the pass to the gym and there was already someone on the only treadmill.  I didn’t want the bike or elliptical, my whole purpose was not to lose the progress I had made with my PT for my foot.  Never mind, I pivoted, showered, had breakfast (same as yesterday) and headed out.

Today was also the day I had to change rooms.  The photo tour doesn’t include the castle view room, so I was able to switch to an interior room further down the hall from my original room.  It may end up being better, although smaller, because it’s not on the front of the building overlooking all the bars (and tonight being Halloween, probably a good thing) and I like that the shower is not the huge climb out tub but rather a walk in shower.  I can also open these windows a hair so it won’t be so warm.  The move taken care of, off I went.

The only thing I had left that I wanted to do here was to visit the National Gallery specifically to see its Vermeer.  It was about a 15 minute walk up and over (literally) the Royal Mile to the museum. I stowed my coat and my bag in a locker and headed to the European collection.  There were some surprising little gems, like a da Vinci I hadn’t seen and a gorgeous couple of Botticellis.  I’d forgotten that Sargent’s Lady Agnew (which I think I’ve seen 4-5 times at home in the last few years!) lives here when she’s not on loan for an exhibition.  There were a couple of interesting atypical Monets, one that was all shades of black, which was surprising.

I wrapped my visit up around noontime.  I decided I’d climb back up to the Royal Mile and try to do some photography.  The weather was a bit overcast but it was comfortably warm even with the wind.  Ultimately though most of my attempts were thwarted with the densely packed crowds.  I’m not sure why today was so much worse, maybe being Halloween? I’m not sure.  I didn’t love it and was growing frustrated so I started heading back toward the hotel.

At the top of the mile, I came across two street performers who had birds of prey (a tawny owl and a raven) they were showing off to crowds, and letting visitors hold one for a price.  The obvious animal welfare concerns aside, I was blown away by how gorgeous the owl was.  I have never seen anything like it, a gorgeous pattern and the most intense orange eyes.  I almost felt as if it couldn’t possibly be real.  

I finally gave in and was back at the hotel just before 2.   I was desperate to work out to fight off the anxiety of the crowds and just be by myself doing what I need to do to relax.  I managed to get into the hotel gym and no one else was around, so I did a run, a good session on the foam roller and some yoga and felt human again.  So after a shower and a quick protein bar and a gin and tonic at one of the pubs across the street, I was ready to meet the rest of the photography group and head out to dinner.

There are 11 of us total.  I don’t recognize anyone from previous walks I have done, but many have been with Don on other walks/trips.  He took us to a pub about a mile away.  It was a fairly good meal.  I got fish and chips and felt the fish I had at the hotel the other night was probably better.  We walked back and I caught up with the nice gentleman who works the reception desk before heading up to bed.  I’ll wrap up my blog and watch more safari tv.  We need to be ready to drive on to Glencoe by 10 am tomorrow, so I’m planning to get up to do yoga first.  I’m mostly packed since I had to move this morning anyway.  Not the most exciting day after how good yesterday was, but still a decent day on vacation!

One of those days

Thursday, October 30

Sometimes on vacation I just have one of those days when it’s happening I just know it’s going to go down as epic, a day I will want to relive again.  Today was one of those days.  And I’m mentally noting to myself how lucky I am that it happened.

I slept reasonably well, although I did wake up to Safari Live a few times, which I was on when I fell asleep each time.  I felt human again when I woke up (although my Garmin was telling me I still needed to recover from my stressful day yesterday…always an excuse with that thing!)

I was up and showered and headed down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast, which was included with my room rate.  I had smoked salmon (amazing!) with scrambled eggs and sourdough toast (with orange marmalade, is there really anything better?). I also wanted more protein to help me get through the big walking day ahead of me, so I also had greek yogurt with berry compote and a couple pieces of fresh pineapple.

The morning was sunny with blue sky and no rain to be seen, so I wanted to do most of my photography and walking around today.  I did that and then some!

I grabbed a cappuccino at the coffee shop next door and headed to the Ross Fountain which is in Prince’s Street garden and right underneath the castle.  I have photos from there on my last couple of trips and was hoping for some nice foliage there, which I think I got.

I then made my way about 15 minutes further along to Dean Village, which is a hamlet within Edinburgh which used to be a milling village (~800 years or so).  It’s been redeveloped and now is a quaint, but tourist overrun village.  It is really pretty and quaint but I feel bad for the residents who have all of us traipsing around their neighborhood.  I was there early enough that it wasn’t too thick with tourists but it was getting there when I was leaving.  

My next stop was back closer to my hotel, Greyfriar’s church yard.  It’s a small cemetery and church within the eyeline of the castle.  Apparently the author of the Harry Potter books came up with some of her character names by walking through this cemetery and reading the names on the stones.  That means a lot of fans are here trying to find them all.  But again, I think the timing of my visit and that this isn’t the most popular time of year to be here cut down on the worst of the crowds.

As it was approaching noon, I started walking down the Royal Mile towards Edinburgh Gin Distillery where I had my gin making experience scheduled.  I grabbed another vegan sausage roll despite not being super hungry only because I wanted something in my stomach before I drank gin all afternoon.  I also stopped along the way and bought my sister and myself each a cashmere scarf in a typical tartan pattern.  I’d not been able to find my maternal grandmother’s tartan but I think that may be because her family was from Glasgow, not Edinburgh.  So I chose different tartans for us.

And finally my long awaited gin experience.  This was just so amazing and I learned a lot.  It was run by two guys who work for the distillery.  Basically we spent the first 45 minutes or so reviewing dozens of botanicals, most in plant form but some in liquid too.  The guys helped us choose what might pair best together and also made sure we were making a balanced gin.  They had made the base alcohol spirit with the juniper and other base botanicals overnight, we were just choosing and adding the flavors that would make it shine.  In the end, I chose bitter orange, basil, cassia bark (smelled like cinnamon) and lapsang which is like a smoky pepper.  Once we helped set up our still, we went off for a tour of the distillery.

All of the products are made here in one of three stills.  The largest can turn out 2500 bottles a day.  They create about 300,000 total  annually, of all flavors and including their non-gin liqueurs.  It was pretty impressive.

We went back to the gin lab and did a tasting of 5 of their gins (Classic, Seaside, Cannonball (navy strength), Old Tom and Strawberry Pink Peppercorn).  They were all pretty good but I think I liked the Cannonball the best.  I was surprised to see that they still have my favorite Fever Tree tonic here, which has been discontinued at home.  The guys gave me a good idea though, they said I could make my own tonic with a soda stream or something similar.  That’s something to consider!!

Once our gins were ready, they cut them with water to fall well below the 90% ABV that they were.  They had a tool to measure the alcohol in the gin which let them know how much water needed to be added to get it closer to 45%.  Then we capped and sealed the bottles with wax.  But not before we got to try our gins, and mine was pretty good.  Granted I was pretty gin weary at that point, but I liked how it tasted at least in the sample!  We also got small tastes of what the gins tasted like at each phase of the nearly hour long distillation.  Eye watering strong and varied strength of botanicals as the process continued. Very interesting.

Too soon the gin experience was over and I was still standing!  It was a lot of fun with a fun group of like minded gin aficionados.

I headed back to the hotel, dropped my stuff off and quickly ate an impossible burger and fries at the hotel restaurant again because I’d purchased a ticket to see Depeche Mode M movie down the street.  It will only be played worldwide this week and I’ll miss it at home.  It was a nice treat and of course a great movie, I’m glad I went.

As I walked back to my hotel I reveled in the thought of a dry, sunny day here filled with many of my favorite things, photography, gin, music, retail therapy, walking and being outdoors.  I don’t think I could ask for anything more.  Tomorrow I’ll try to fit in a museum or two maybe!

The getting there

Wednesday October 29th 

No one said first class is promised good sleep, I suppose.  Let’s just say I’m not a Virgin fan.  I’d like to say I got no sleep, as that is how it feels right about now, but it also seemed like the flight went by much faster than the 6 hours it turned out to be.  But my Garmin tells me “no discernible sleep” for last night and I have a body battery of 7.  So Virgin has some ‘splaining to do.

I won’t belabor it, as much as that is not like me.  But I told the flight attendant I wanted to sleep.  No meals. No drinks. I laid down the mattress, pulled up the blanket and went horizontal the minute we were at 10,000 feet.  Because the flight was so short (50 minutes shorter than usual) I wanted to hit it hard.  I had no alcohol so I could sleep.  And yet, it did not happen.  Woken once for a meal I didn’t want, again when the sliding door on the pod across from me was stuck shut and they brought the construction team in to loudly deconstruct the whole thing, and again for a breakfast I said I didn’t want.  And it was bumpy pretty much of the fight, so constant ding-dinging of the bell.  So yeah, I was not pleased.  I’m hoping there’s a customer survey at the end of this somewhere.

I then had a 3 1/2 hour layover in Heathrow, and even having to change terminals didn’t eat up that much time at all.  I stopped and had breakfast at the Giraffe Bar in terminal 3; the best avocado toast of my life with poached eggs and iced coffee.  A full flight to Edinburgh loaded fairly quickly and it was 55 minutes in the air.  We landed in full sun and blue skies and it managed to stay that way most of the afternoon.

Since I was hauling a 30 pound duffel, I opted to skip the far less expensive public transport and grabbed a taxi to the tune of $60 (which is really a bargain since my Ubers to Peloton in NYC are regularly over $100!) and I arrived at Apex Grassmarket Hotel by 1:15.  A quick shower and I was out walking the streets by 2:00.

I splurged on a castle view room here and it lives up to its name, with a full on view of Edinburgh Castle right from the bed.  That’s pretty nice.  The Vennel, a steep staircase up from Grassmarket, is right around the corner from the hotel.  It has an Instagram-worthy view of the castle from the top of the steps, so I headed there first while the sun and sky were still behaving.  I then looped back through Grassmarket (down those Vennel steps) and up another very long set up steps to the Royal Mile.  It runs from the castle down to Holyrood Palace.  I popped up to see the castle then walked about 3/4 of the Royal Mile, realizing the further down I went, the more of an uphill slog I’d have on the return.

My next stop was Greggs for the vegan sausage rolls.  My sister turned me on to these ahead of my trip to Brighton last year.  They are essentially pigs in a blanket.  And ridiculously good and ridiculously cheap.  Two vegan sausage rolls and a water was less than 5 pounds.  I then meandered around a bit more, stopping into a bunch of wool/cashmere shops for a scarf (I never decided on one) and LO AND BEHOLD A GIN SHOP!

Yes, I stopped, and yes I got samples.  They are all locally produced so I’ve never had them before.  The owner was willing to keep pouring me samples as long as I stood there.  With jet lag and only two sausage rolls in me since breakfast, I went easy but have earmarked two I’d like to take home if my duffel allows on the back end of this trip.

By 4:00 the skies were growing thick and heavy with clouds and it was getting much colder (I’d estimate it started around 50 but was definitely in the lower 40s and windy once the sun went behind the clouds).  So I headed back towards the hotel.  I finally found an ATM (very hard to find now that almost everything is paid for with card or Apple Pay!) and returned to my room in time to take some photos of the castle at sunset.  My plan is to get up to the Vennel for sunrise tomorrow if the clouds allow for it.

I was trying to stay awake as long as I could, so rather than be tempted by a nap too early in the room, I went downstairs to have a G&T (Edinburgh Raspberry gin) in the hotel lobby bar while I pondered what to have for dinner.

Dinner ended up being in the restaurant at the hotel and it was quite good. I had fish and chips and sticky toffee pudding right in the shadow of the castle.  I also had a Rubi spritz, which was rhubarb and ginger gin with ginger ale and prosecco.  I could have that a few more times!

I got back up to my room and the castle was floodlit now that it was dark (sunset at 4:40!) so I set up my tripod and remote control and took some night shots of the castle.  Might as well make use of the location!

I dozed for a while and woke just before midnight so am flipping through tv and have found a “Safari Live” show and they are in the Mara on game drives and have found one of Nashipae’s daughters Nasieku, and they seem to think she is pregnant!  I’m so excited to see her. Small world…I guess I can try to get away from safari but it’s never far from mind!

And away I go…

 Tuesday, October 28

Despite not leaving for the airport until after 5, I took today off from work.  I got to sleep in, do a long workout and take care of all the last minute things, not the least of which was spending quality time with the kids.  Before I knew it I was in the car on the way to Logan.

It’s been so long since I’ve checked a bag and this duffel turned out to tip the scales at 30 lb.  Sure it’s got the tripod in it, but once I committed to the duffel, all bets were off and I was throwing everything in there.  I was glad to turn it over to someone else to handle.

I enjoyed another visit to the DeltaOne lounge since Virgin doesn’t have its own lounge here.  I had an amazing dinner.  The starter was hummus with baby vegetables.  The main was salmon a la plancha over black lentils and creamed spinach.  Dessert was sweet potato cheesecake on a Biscoff cookie base with warm marshmallow topping and pickled cranberries and caramel drizzle.  Yowza.

I finished dinner with about 20 minutes before boarding so I hit the shop for a bottle of water and headed to board.  I’m enjoying the legroom and potential for this lie flat bed, but bummed to hear it’ll be a quick trip of just 6 hours.  Wah!  I’ll do my best.

Off I go again….Highland fling —loading—

 Day Zero - Highland Fling >>loading<<

How is it that I haven’t picked up with this blog since my journey home from Kenya?  It’s not that I haven’t been thinking about travel.  I have.  There have been a few jaunts to Philly and NYC and one to Nashville.  But nothing that really rises up to the level of blogging about it, I suppose.

Back in April, my camera shop posted a trip for October to Scotland, with an eye towards doing landscape photography in the Highlands, specifically the Isle of Skye and Glencoe.  Now I’ve been to Scotland before and even dipped my toe a bit into the Highlands by visiting Stirling, Oban, and Loch Ness on a jam packed day tour.  Any further afield though almost requires a car to access the most scenic parts, and I’m not up for driving on the other side of the road.  So this seemed to be a great way to both learn more about landscape photography and get to places I wouldn’t get to on my own.  I signed up and now I find myself the day before take off!

I’m going a couple days early to spend some time in Edinburgh, which I love, and to burn off my jet lag.  I booked my flights on Virgin and BA, mainly to get the points I need on a Delta codeshare to keep my status next year (already accomplished that but I didn’t know I would back in April).  Last week Virgin offered the opportunity to bid on upgrades to upper class on the flight over, so I did and now I’ll be sleeping (hopefully) in a lie flat bed on my way across the pond.

Packing has been a challenge since the weather has the potential to be so cold/rainy/windy/changeable.  I have layers and fleece lined rain paints, a lined rain coat and waterproof hiking shoes.  I’m not packing sunglasses.  I am hoping this means I won’t need any of the rain gear.  Maybe?  And then there is the tripod I will need, which almost certainly should be packed in a checked bag.  I went against all that is holy to me and broke down and packed a bag I will check.  There is just TOO.MUCH.STUFF to go carry-on only.  I can do it for 2 weeks on safari, but not 2 weeks in Scotland.  Ah well.

I’m not terribly uptight or wound up about this trip.  It will be strange being with such a large group (10 of us plus two guides in two vans) but it will also be really neat to be learning so much with my camera in a place that I can only imagine is breathtakingly beautiful.  I have taken quite a few local photo tours with Don, our guide, and always come away with mind blown from how much I learn.

So I wrap up this work day, throw a few more things in the duffel and I should be ready to go.