Jochem was born near Bieldside in Scotland and lived in Aberdeen during the first three years of his life. He has always wanted to go back so I took him as a surprise for his birthday. I kept it a secret for over 6 months right up until the KLM lady at the check-in counter asked: "Where are you flying to this morning?" and I yelled: "To Edinburgh, we are flying to EDINBURGH!" I don't think that Jochem saw it coming. Although the train to Schiphol gave away a lot, he thought we might be going to Napels, which is all I've been talking about for weeks (who wouldn't want to fly to Napels and do nothing except eat pizza margarita?). I never thought much of Scotland. Cold. Wet. Windy. Pretty much just like home except with mountains and castles instead of fields and windmills. Once I bought Jochem a Lonely Planet, however, and did my reading, I became quite excited about spending 4 days there. Now that I've actually been, I love it. If it were a city in the Netherlands and I didn't have to go through the hassle of moving abroad, I would move there. Instantly. Without even thinking about it.
We are not people who care about major sights or museums (except when we found out that there was a National Pasta Museum in Rome that featured paintings of tanks shooting macaroni at the people - like, OH MY GOD!). We did some sight seeing, of course.
On Thursday we took a walk around our neighborhood, Leith, and visited the Royal Yacht Britannia.
On Friday we took a bus tour across the Highlands to visit the Glenturret Whiskey Distillery - a birthday gift from friends. At night we had takeout in bed at our lovely B&B while watching reruns of the Royal Wedding on TV (when in Rome...).
On Saturday we explored the Old and New Town: Calton Hill, Real Mary King's Close, Greyfriar's Bobby, Greyfriar's Kirkyard, Edinburgh Castle and the Princes Street Gardens. At night we went to one of those huge movie theaters and saw Red Riding Hood.
On Sunday we first made a quick stop at Dunbar's Close Garden before heading for quite the athletic climb (in a dress!) over Arthur's Seat. This is where I got sunburned (sunburned! In Scotland!). The weather had been unbelievably beautiful after all - except for some clouds on Friday morning and a little rain on Friday night, we have seen nothing but clear blue skies and sunshine. After that endeavor it was back to the airport and I, for one, was quite sad to leave the city, our beautiful guest house, our hosts Robin and Tracey, and Robin's cute little dog Lola (if you ever visit Edinburgh, make sure to check out the Ardmor House).
What I enjoyed most about Edinburgh, was the nature inside its city limits. It makes Utrecht's parks look like silly little wannabes. The city has cute walled herb gardens, huge parks and one big mountaneous formation. But overall the city is very green, with lots of trees and plants and streets in a widely set-up city plan (Old Town excluded of course). My favorite moment was hiking up Arthur's Seat in the sun, wind in hair, amazing views, and a feeling of being so grateful to experience such rugged beauty and, dare I say, wilderness inside the city.
Besides that, of course, we ate a lot! The Lonely Planet was helpful, but our hosts proved to be most useful. They managed to get us a reservation at The Kitchin, even though the only spot available was a late 2.15 PM lunch on Thursday (I believe that Tracey may have said something along the lines of "What on earth were you thinking?!" when we first uttered our wishes to eat there on such short notice). This very hip and kind of intimidating restaurant run by Tom and Michaela Kitchin (yes, that is their real name - you cannot believe how jealous I am!) has one Michelin Star and delicious food. The chef only uses the best of what Scotland has to offer and is all about supporting local farmers, caring for livestock, using fresh, organic ingredients and all that good stuff. It was my first time eating in a Michelin Star restaurant, but I liked it a lot, although I wished that the servers wouldn't constantly stare at me in order to figure out if I needed anything else...
That same day we also had dinner at one of Edinburgh's best fish restaurants: Fishers. From the outside this restaurant doesn't look like much, but don't judge a book by its cover because the fish is fresh and delectable and the place is stuffed with locals (always a good thing).
One of the other places I really liked was Monster Mash, which feels more like a diner than a restaurant and which serves comfort food. Probably the opposite of The Kitchin in many ways, but just as enjoyable. Here I had a shepherd's pie and Jochem attempted to relive his childhood fish 'n' chips experience.
Probably the most adventurous thing we did was eat haggis. Yes, I am talking about the sheep's internal organs that are stewed in a sheep's stomach. First of all, it is not actually served inside of the stomach (or at least it wasn't to us). Second of all, it's quite good! It's like minced meat, except it's quite peppery and the texture is a little bit more like chicken liver than the real minced meat. It looks like minced meat as well, and mixed with the mashed potatoes, I liked it even more than the Angus beef hamburger that we also ordered, just in case. I guess that most people are just put off by what's in it, but in that case I want to tell you to just get over yourself and look closely at that box of frozen chicken nuggets that you're about to put in the fryer.
All in all, I had a great time in Scotland (and I hope that Jochem did as well). I hope to come back someday and eat more food, see more sights, and enjoy good weather again.
No comments:
Post a Comment