Edinburgh - part 1

We arrived in Edinburgh today, Sunday. It's so nice to see the daffodils in full bloom, but as you can see the trees are still rather naked. We're speculating as to how far advanced the leaves will be when we get home next week.

 Our first stop was to the Tartan Weaving Mill and Exhibition at the gates of Edinburgh Castle, (which is on our slate to visit on Tuesday). As part of the visit we had a lot of fun dressing in the attire of another era. Those swords really are quite heavy!

One of the highlights of any tour has to be the meals.  Here we are at The Mercure Hotel for lunch.It was right in the centre of town and is fronted by the magnificent Princes St Gardens which are much more colourful than anything we left back home, despite the cold spring they've had in Scotland .

After lunch we met the coach driver around the corner and discovered Jenners, a high end department store that consecrated two windows on the ground floor to knitting and crafts in general. I was stunned! It would be like coming across such a window at Holt-Renfrew.

On Tuesday we have an afternoon free to explore the city and do some shopping. I'll be heading to Jenners and John Lewis, another quality department store that apparently has a sizable yarn department.There are 3 other LYSs in the general area that we're all hoping to visit.

Edinburgh is a wonderful city, full of culture and art. This lady was busking on the Royal Mile and kindly posed for me. I put a coin in her bowl and she began singing a beautiful Gaelic tune. It occurred to me that this was a very sensible way to busk: reward your patrons only when they've put money in your bowl, that way they can't listen to the beautiful performance then walk on.