Edinburgh

I recently had the opportunity to visit Edinburgh, where many moons ago I used to live.  I'm one of those people that is really bad at getting around to doing all the tourist stuff when I live somewhere, so going back as a visitor gives me the chance to do just that!  As a tourist, I felt the one thing I really had to do was to visit Edinburgh Castle.  It was really interesting and well worth the £11 entrance fee in my opinion.  Here are some pictures.

The approach to the castle iteself:

 This is a view over the city towards Arthurs Seat, taken from the castle:

 More views of the city:

 Of course, I couldn't really write about this visit here on my blog without mentioning food in some way or another! So, here we are, I had lunch in the Queen Anne Cafe, which was really good.  Since I was in Scotland and doing the whole 'tourist' thing, I felt I had to have the haggis, with neeps and tatties:

 

 It tasted as good as it looks!  I lived in Scotland for some time, so I've had haggis before, many times.  I have to say that I rather like it.  All I can say is that if you've never tried it before, do so if you get the chance!  Here, the haggis itself is at the bottom, under a layer of tatties (mashed potato) and neeps (mashed turnip).  People often worry about what haggis is made of - commenting that it's all the disgusting parts of the sheep, but personally I consider the heart, lungs, liver and kidneys to be some of the more flavoursome parts.  All of this is mixed with oats and herbs and spices and well, really you'll just have to try it for yourself.

 Edinburgh is awash with tea shops - several of which are new since I was last there.  I have blogged about the botanical gardens before, but they have recently opened their new West Gate building, which houses a really rather nice resteraunt.  Having been terribly well fed every morning at my bed and breakfast, all I could face on this particular occasion was a cream tea, but it was really very good:

 Perfect.