untold blisses

Having attempted to write up my Scotland trip for weeks now, it’s about time I just get on with it.  I’ve had such bloggers block lately!

I’ve already covered where Husband, Tim, and I stayed – the epic Pineapple in Dunmore – which was situated directly between Edinburgh and Glasgow.  Perfect for visiting both the cities.  First up was Edinburgh, and we decided to park-and-ride on one of the trams from the airport.  I know there was a bit of controversy about the trams, but I loved the easy journey in to the city centre, especially with the free wifi.

We jumped out at Princes Street, had a coffee, and then wandered over to our first stop of the day – The Goldfinch at the Scottish National Gallery.  It was so fortuitous that it was being shown at the same time we were there.  All three of us had read the Donna Tartt novel and it felt really strange to me that we were seeing the actual painting.  It was tiny, and so beautifully detailed.  We wandered around the rest of the museum but the absolute highlight for me was The Goldfinch.

Not really having a plan, we then found ourselves up at the castle entrance looking over the rest of the city.  Having done this a couple of year ago, I didn’t have  particular desire to go in again and fortunately neither did Tim, so we decided not to pay the fee.  We trotted down the many steps to Grassmarket and I directed us to Hannah Zakari, my favourite Edinburgh store.  They had posted on their IG page that they were selling their old I Am Acrylic made window display and I wanted in.

I can’t even begin to tell you the indecision I displayed when trying to figure out which to buy, and I regret not listening to Tim when he said I should buy more than one.  He was totally right.  I should always listen to him.

I left with only one of the sets.  Such regret.

After Hannah Zakari, we somehow found ourselves outside the National Museum of Scotland and thought we’d pop our heads in.  Again, quite fortuitously, there were two things on we wanted to see – Nordic Modernist design, and Wildlife Photographer of the year.  In addition to those brilliant exhibitions, we also spent ages in the Explore gallery which technically is their “family-friendly” gallery but we loved it.

More wandering the city followed, and we walked all the way down the Royal Mile, looked at Arthur’s Seat, and back up again to Princes Street.  We dined at The Huxley which was very festive with twinkling lights in the window.

It was now dark outside, so I dragged the two men up to George Street to see the Street of Light.  If I had blogged about this weeks ago, this would have been a bit more relevant and I would have urged everyone to go and see it.  But it’s way too late now.

I loved it.  It was the level perfect of Christmas lights for people who weren’t into Christmas.

And then it was time to jump back on the very civilised tram and back to our Pineapple.   I love Edinburgh and am sure this won’t be my last visit.