Thursday, July 19, 2007

Chapter 27, in which Edinburgh kicks London's A@@

I'm not saying we hated London. We didn't. But...

Edinburgh is the shizzle. The Absolute, Undisputed, Heavy-weight Champion of the Shizzle world. Seriously.

It's really pretty small, and it's foggy, chilly, windy and grey. So what's so nice about it? Well, for one thing, the food is outstanding. We've eaten local beef, mashed potatoes with grainy mustard, various game sausages, and haggis.

Yes, HAGGIS. It was excellent. They slice it and pan fry it and it's crispy and salty and flavorful. I would eat it again, which is a lot to say about a sheep's bladder full of ground up heart-meat. With oats, because that's tasty. Or something. Anyway, it's really very good.

What else? How about hot tomato and basil soup with fresh soda bread and Irish butter? How about creamy coffee with lovely foam? How about a roasted vegetable and goat cheese panini?

How about bars with 40-100 types of Scotch whisky? Or the little store Fru found, the one that:
1. Bottles 700 ml at a time of a huge variety of rare whiskies, some from distilleries that no longer exist.

2. Had a little white scottie dog named Maggie, who reaped a whirlwind of love from us until she began to seriously gnaw at Charles' shoelaces.

Did I mention that the Scots are HIGH-larious? Our waiters on the first night had us choking on our dinners. The shuttle driver made me snort. Then we visited Edinburgh Castle. More on that in a later post, but for now, let me just say that all historical reenactors should be so funny. And good looking. But that's another paragraph.

Charles said to me, "Scottish women are really pretty." Um, yeah. And Scottish men? Ahem. All I'll say on that front is that I now understand why so many romance novels are set in Scotland. Makes perfect sense.

Friendly? Check. Reasonable prices? Check. Beautiful parks? Check!

Pictures to follow when we return to Oxford (Saturday night, so probably a slew of posts on Sunday). Suffice it to say for now that we would spend a year here in two shakes of a lamb's tail. Possibly one shake. The lamb can take the day off, actually.

Tomorrow, more delightful Edinburgh, until 4pm when we board the train to go back to London.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

ohhhh! I am excited to see it! And during festival time too. And Will is thrilled that you have discovered the superior crisp selection...