The Scots! The food, the weather and some whisky!

 The Scots are supposed to be a warm friendly bunch! They definitely have my empathy having to live in the shadow of the Brits! Scotland's history as I understand is also dotted with a number of religious wars like the Jacobite rising and the religious persecution of the past! Their history is very much like India's with the constant struggle for Independence with the union of the crowns happening in 1700's. Finally as late as 1999, The Scottish Parliament reconvened and the Parliament Building opened at the foot of the Royal Mile in 2004.

We will talk more about architecture later, but this building was quite the anomaly! At the end of the Royal mile that is dotted with historic building and right across from the Holyrood palace, this modern looking structure looks very out of place!

The entrance, they have a visitor gift shop and I believe daily tours as well

The pool with Holyrood park and the crags in the background! We will explore that beauty in a subsequent post!

I cant say I know enough of Scottish history to share anything at all! I am still learning and to speed that up I start with this book! A bit of outlander influence here but am looking forward to my read (I bought this book on a down day in Scotland when I explored what claimed to be Edinburgh's oldest bookshop! Although it hardly looked the part!) This was Blackwell's on South Bridge!

I can tell that my Scotland account is going to be all over the place, so I am going to try to reign it in a little bit! So first we will start with a scottish breakfast! For breakfast we head over to Loudons on Sibbald Walk at Royal Mile

A cold day in Scotland! See how the modern blends with the history here! This is a walk off the royal mile with all of its historic architecture!	Ready for a Scottish breakfast at Loudons!
Cappuccino! Both in London and Edinburgh the cappuccino's hit the mark and were just delish!	The full deal but vegetarian style! Haggis, Black Pudding and Tattie Scones! With the bean and eggs!
Even the Avocado toast with the poached egg looked so appetizing! And tasted amazing!	Tattie Scone (Or a Potato Scone)

The Scottish breakfast typically has Bacon and eggs with Black Pudding that is a fried/ baked sausage cut into rounds. I assume the vegetarian version has some black beans and some mushrooms and other veggies. Haggis is usually made out of animal left overs and oats and spices. The vege version was made out of Lentils. The Tattie Scone (a triangular potato patty) is a staple! I later had it on bread and these are served with grilled mushrooms, tomato's and what I believe were grilled Parsnips rounded up the meal! We also devoured a roasted cauliflower soup that we forgot to click a picture of that was just heavenly on the cold, chilly morning!

Food wise I have always been happy with food in Europe! Everywhere we have been so far (with the exception of Greece) we have been able to find good, delicious food! Scotland was no exception! We of course tried the Scottish staples including their famous Scottish pies. They have adapted to people like me and had a lot of vegetarian options! There was a lot of other cuisines we tried as well. here are a few shout outs!

Pakora Indian on Royal Mile - Has a lot of different types of Pakora chat! Very interesting taste on Pakora and some other Indian comfort food! We loved their traditional Dal Chawal!

Kampong Ah Lee - Malaysian food! This little hole in the wall place had amazing food! Hands down you need to try this! We had a soup that we were all fighting over! And some spicy noodles that was just heavenly!

Cafe Andaluz - Spanish food! This is a Tapas place, and we weren't big fans! But the food is pretty authentic spanish! So do try if you like the cuisine!

Kalpna - This Indian food joint came recommended as well. It was decent food and chat!

Noodles and Dumplings - Best Chinese food in town!

Pho on St James Quarter Shopping Mall - Best Viatnamese Pho I have tasted! We ofcourse got their Spicy bowl and loved every delicious sip of it! Location is fantastic too! Great shopping mall near St Andrew Square! Multrees Walk right next to this has a lively luxury shopping district!

The Royal Mile also had a number of quaint little shops for Pastries, wraps and such which were all yummy! And there is a Pizza express on North Bridge which we had come to enjoy! [Tip: Tap water is of great quality in Edinburgh! We didn't know and bought water the first couple days after which we started just drinking from the tap! Bring a bottle, fill and enjoy!]

[Tip: Tipping in UK is generally not mandatory but is welcomed. We did tip in most places. But you have to remember to ask to tip. If you use card they will just bring you the machine and key in the $ amount. So let them know you would like to tip! UK wages are on par so tip is not an expectation. But we like to when we like the service and it was welcome.]

Shopping in Scotland is interesting. Everything closes between 7 and 8. So you better get your shopping in fast! On the Royal Mile lots of Souvenir stores but they are all chain stores owned by non locals that the 3-4 locals on the mile detest! Be on the guard! I bought a couple of kilts for Tootsie and me! Tootsie;s from a fast talking local that tricket me! I probably ended up paying 10 pounds more for a polyester kilt! I was trying to help the local economy instead of feeding the chain stores! My kilt I got from another local merchant but this one was pure scottish wool and although I paid more I felt better doing it!

Next the Scottish weather!

The weather in Scotland is tempermental to put it mildly! They apparently had a heat wave when we were out there! The first day was windy and cold! But then it warmed up (to their heat wave temperatures) which to us from Hotlanta was pleasant and fantastic! We were really happy to have fantastic weather through our stay in UK. But it is best to be prepared, we had it all rain jackets, umbrellas and jackets to layer up!

Last but not the least Scottish Whisky!

Since our trip was restricted to Edinburgh we did a geek version of the whisky tour! A barrel ride with lots of insights into the different regions of Scotland and the process of  making and of course experiencing whisky!

There are 6 regions in Scotland that produce different types of Whisky!

First the Lowlands since that where we were! Yes Edinburgh and Glasgow and the south of Scotland cover the lowlands. Whisky here is light and gentle, grown inland  and has smells that remind you of the grass lands, with some tones of toffee and cinnamon! M really liked the whisky from this region and we brought back one from Auchentoshan!

Campbeltown is the smallest region with under 5 distilleries. There was a bit of a smoky smell to these, and these whiskies were generally supposed to be dry!

Next is the Highlands! The largest area and something we are familiar with in the US. Oban, Glenmorangie and Dalmore being some common names! Very malty whiskies from this region!

Speyside is right next to Highland, north of Inverness. Light sweet fruity whisky from this region! Very popular in the US you have Glenlivet, Glenfiddich and Macallan from this region. To the untrained like me the whiskies here pretty much resemble the Highland whisky.

The Islay whisky is the Whisky trail of Scotland! These are by far my favorite with the Peaty flavors! I absolutely love Ardberg and Laphroig from this region!

Now with Food, Drink and Weather out of the way, lets explore the sights of Edinburgh in my next post! Can you tell I am in love with Scotland? I cant wait to go back!

Chuga Chuga chug! Onwards to Scotland!

When we first planned the UK trip as always we wanted to have it all! So against popular advice we planned for 2 countries - England and Scotland! With Scotland being what we were fondly looking forward to! I had booked these wonderful Inns and Bed and Breakfast across Scotland and put together this monumental road trip around the Highlands and Skye! But as you know by now luck intervened in the form of Covid and a missing wallet! And the car rental company saw an opportunity and seized it! Demanding 1000 pounds for the upgrade to automatic (for 3 day rental)! So we canceled everything and headed on to Edinburgh!

For lunch the kids were craving Pizza! So we went looking for a Pizza express (a chain) right next door to us! In this setting with a little canal  (Paddington Basin) was a really nice little area to have lunch! A little reminiscent of Venice the Paddington canal flows through central London from Hayes in Little Venice to Limehouse Basin. It is the same canal we saw a couple of days ago at the Paddington station. It ends at Paddington Basin right next door to where we stayed! Had I known we would have explored a little boat ride to the Rembrandt Gardens in Little Venice! But too late now, we needed to head off to the station to catch our train to Scotland!

The veterans that we were, we were all set to lug our luggage through the underground train and head to Kings cross for our express train to Scotland! But in the end  after a look at M, I decided to be kind and call an Uber! Not to mention I had also made a mess of our Oyster cards by swiping the wrong card and 2 of our cards now had a negative balance! However London traffic is crazy! So it took us 40 mins and a circuitous route to get to Kings cross that otherwise would have taken 10-15 mins!

However M perked up when we passed by this neat little surprise! His cricket genes kicked in and he immediately was excited!

But no time to stop! Onwards to Kings cross to get on our LNER express train to Edinburgh! I had booked ahead in first class and had got some great prices! Look online on nationalrail.co.uk for some great deals! Unlimited beverages/ drinks and a meal was provided on the train.

The first class lounge

All aboard!

The train ride itself was 4.5 hrs long and was uneventful! It took us through some very picturesque locations in Northern England! Some of the towns in England-Scotland border looked heavenly! Here are some pictures from our fast moving train!

Doncaster station - Mani has a colleague with that last name!	The bridge over river Tyne at New Castle!
Castles as we roll by!	A close look at another castle!
I believe this was a town called Morpeth	The English country side!
Spires!	Berwick upon Tweed
Berwick upon Tweed! Last English town before you reach Scotland	Such a beautiful town Berwick upon Tweed! Couldn't get enough of it!
Careston Castle Scotland! This castle is available for sale if you are interested!	Barn Ness lighthouse at Dunbar, East Lothian

The train journey through the English country side is picturesque! M is always curious about the crops that are grown! Apparently oilseed rape is the most common (besides Wheat and Barley). We saw a lot of the bright yellow  of the oilseed or canola! A vegetable oil  that is also used as bio diesel! I found that fascinating, you can either put it into your vehicle and drive or use it to fry your food! How versatile!

After the scenic train ride, we arrived at Edinburgh! I was of course very excited to be there and even though it was almost 9 PM and everyone was exhausted and giving me the glares I was trying to breathe in Scotland as I walked to the apartment we had in Old town!

Dad and daughter lead the way at the Edinburgh waverley station! We are starting to feel the chill of Scotland already!

Just outside Waverley! The Scotsman! (Cheeky turns around to glare at mom bringing the camera out again!)	The streets of Old town Edinburgh that greeted us (This picture may have been taken the next morning!
Our quaint little apartment with the the cute kitchen! Rest of the apartment was trashed in no time by my hillbilly family!	View from the apartment - Canongate Kirkyard (Church) with Calton hill in the background!

I know our Scotland trip will be limited to Edinburgh! But that never curbed my enthusiasm to discover a new place! The sun doesn't set here till 10 PM and with all this beauty around me its hard to contain my excitement to get out and explore in the morning!

The Harry Potter version of London! And some!

 

Given the highlight of our trip was this little minx's birthday and her Harry Potter fantasies, we found ourselves on a Harry Potter walking tour of London to catch the sites and get our fill of the Potter madness! I wont be able to give you a lot of the details being I was just a spectator tagging along for the ride! I will leave you with lots of pictures and some trivia here and there!

First stop: Kings cross station! 

Kings cross station has an underground station and a national rail station with trains going all over UK. Additionally across the street is the St Pancras Station that is the International station, with trains that connect to rest of Europe! The movie actually features the St Pancras station. You can tell why. Looks so much better for sure!

St Pancras International

Kings cross station (just across the st)

Another detail. Kings cross station has no wall between platform 9 and 10. The 9 3/4 you see there is outside a shop near platform 9 and 10. Apparently JK Rowling had her stations mixed up when she wrote. She was thinking Euston Rd and wrote Kings cross! However they made do, Kings cross does have a wall near platform 4 and 5 (see below) where a lot of the shooting was done!

Kings cross platforms - this is what 9, 10 looked like as well

Wall near Platform 5 (better view below)

Platform 9 3/4 in the film

From Kings Cross, we took the tube to the Leicester Square station!

 From there we walked to Goodwin's court! We saw 2 inspirations for Diagon Alley here. One at Goodwins' court and from there we headed to a darker looking diagon alley at Cecil court! I have not watched a lot of Harry Potter, but even to me the resemblance was uncanny!

Goodwin Court

I dont think its related to HP, but might as well be!

Cecil Court

Entrance to Diagon Alley (as seen in Harry Potter and Half Blood prince), at Newport St

Here is one of the brat! In her new trendy leather Zara bikers jacket!
Outside a blue door on Diagon alley with a broom propped in front of it!

Our next stop, the Palace Theater which screens the Harry Potter and the cursed child play! We missed that here in the US. Need to go looking for that in the USA!

The Palace Theater

That rare picture of the 4 of us in one frame!

As I upload this picture, my conversations with Tootsie earlier this week plays back! She says “2 people read your blog, you and me! And you go to all this effort to find us blog names and keep our privacy! I say post a picture of me on your blog! About time!”  I figured she was right! And she had me at "I read your blog!" I would do anything for my reader in singular! 😜 Also if you think about it that’s less people on my blog than on my Facebook! So if I can post there, I most certainly can post it in this blog with its +1 readership count !!  (Although I swing back and forth on the wisdom of posting pictures on Facebook! But hey who am I kidding! Privacy is a thing of the past in this new world!) In any case, enjoy the indulgence!

Our next stop on the tour Leicester square with its theaters and sculptures of different characters! As is the case sometimes, I forgot to take pictures! I certainly am not a good travel blogger or tip provider! And it was too crowded anyway! Our favorites were Mary Poppins, the guy from Mary poppins, Mr Bean, and Paddington! They were promoting Thor so we couldn’t get close to Harry Potter! The pity! We did get a good sighting of Wonder Woman and Batman!

A different side of palace theater with the London traffic as we walked away! That big red bus!

Leicester Square with the star studded banners!

Leicester Square   

Wonder Woman

The flying birds of Leicester Square   

Just because!

Our next stop on the tour was Trafalgar square. There were no protests on this day that I could see! I have heard that this is the hot bed of rallies and protests! Tourists were milling around taking in all the splendor and appeal of the square!

    

Trafalgar Square with the giant ice cream that was fascinating

National Gallery on the north across the street from Trafalgar square

The lion was certainly fascinating! Kind of reminiscent of the lion in the Indian emblem!

On the other side of Trafalgar square is the South African Embassy! To the potter heads this was the inspiration for the outside of Gringott's bank! Although the insides was the Australian Embassy and not this!

 The great Scotland yard! In Harry Potter I believe this was the ministry of defense! I believe there was a red telephone booth that is not present on this street that was the entrance to the ministry in the movie! But after watching so many UK based movies and shows this was more about the great scotland yard and at least in my head I had stopped paying attention to the Harry Potter references! Sorry HP fans but here is where I mentally leave you! But I believe they break into the ministry in the Deathly Hallows movie! 

St James Palace! We missed the change of guard by a few minutes! Considering we altogether missed Buckingham palace in our list, this was a distant second!

Onwards on to the famous London Eye! We were very tempted but boy does it move slow! The Thames boat rides are also very tempting, but long lines to get on! They take you from here to Tower of London so would have been a wonderful sight seeing off the water!

Walk further along the river thames and you see the wonderful Big Ben. Turn and walk alongside het tube station and you view the amazing architecture of Westminster Abbey

 

As you can tell, the weather was absolutely fantastic. Warm and sunny but not scalding hot like here! It was just perfect and the British rain that we were prepared for eluded us nicely! Couldnt have asked for better. By this time the kids were done, so we abandoned the HP tour got a nice subway lunch! I love the american fast food restaurants everywhere else in the world! While Subway in London was just the same, Mc D had so many different options including Vegetarian options! I always love exploring these fast food chains outside the US. I wouldnt be caught at a Mc D within! The best by far is of course in India.

We skedaddled out of there taking the tube! The Westminster underground station (which unfortunately I didn't take pictures of) is another HP location. I believe the Lambeth bridge and 

Here is a lovely pic from https://www.visitlondon.com/traveller-information/place/284476-westminster-underground-station

And another from https://www.sceen-it.com/sceen/1546/Harry-Potter-and-the-Order-of-the-Phoenix/Westminster-Tube-Station of the scene where Harry Potter and Arthur Weasley take the tube!

As we headed back to the hotel, M was beginning to feel the fatigue and was complaining about a stuffy nose and sore throat. So I walked across the street to a Boots to get a covid test and some medication. As the lady at the counter patiently translated for me what a Paracetamol with Caffeine can do! While I asked her but what's the equivalent of NyQuil? (Being the American, I expect the world to know about all our medication!) But as I kept talking to the Pharmacist and looked at the Vitamin C chewies, I had a wage of nostalgia hit me! The Calpol, Crocin and the Succee (Vit C) from my childhood memories were remembered fondly! 

The rest as they say is history! I was so sure of this not being Covid! But I forget the new world we live in! M tested and tested positive! I looked at the 2 lines in disbelief! Hell no! This certainly was not the vacation I planned! But we have come far in the covid journey! There is no quarantine requirement, or travel restriction anymore! We were all vaccinated and boostered, so were likely to have mild flu like symptoms! And hey what's life if you don't have a few of these setbacks! Thank God for all our blessings!

I still wasn't ready to wind down yet! And the next day we would leave to Scotland! So I decided to make the most of my evening and equipped with my Oyster card took off to explore Tower of London! M donned a mask, claimed a bed and took a nap! The kids, took to their devices each claiming the other bed and couch / sofa bed in the room - Our version of quarantine!

I took the tube to Monument, thinking I needed to go to London bridge! See the Monument there that is a reminder of the great fire of 1666. The stone column I have heard is worth a climb (up its 311 steps) to take in some sweeping views of the city! But I was a woman with a mission, so off I went to London bridge! 

Huh? That's the London bridge? Remember the london bridge fell down? Not sure if it was the reference to the timber bridge that was replaced by an ineffective Stone arch bridge in 1176 that was then replaced by a series of other London bridges! Fear ye not, do a 360. turn and there she is inn all her glory the Neo Gothic Tower bridge!

The tower bridge

The Tower castle

The walk from London bridge to the tower bridge! A lovely walk lined with food stalls!

The London city line as viewed from the other side of Thames!

Entrance to the Tower castle which houses the crown jewels! Most importantly the Kohinoor

The side profile of the castle! The fortress of London!

That my friends is my long winded tale of our London expedition! I had every intention of going to the Buckingham palace and the Pall Mall the next morning and keeping my appointment with the Queen! (Poor Joke I know)! But I had to spend the morning canceling our rental car, and accomodations around Scotland! It was time to face reality and re-configure our trip to stay put in Edinburgh! Not to mention my Bank's alerting system just went crazy with all my change of plans! In the next 36 hrs my credit card would get locked 4 times and it would take me a few chats and calls to the Bank to set things right, not to mention cancelations, re-bookings as a result! Whoever said going with the flow was fun! But I guess I ought to be thankful to my bank for looking out for me!