Zoë Bowyer

Super time was had in Edinburgh. It is a fabulous, gorgeous, dramatic place. I would go again. We did the usual touristy things such as sailing around in an open topped double-decker bus – it was a good way to get to know my way around. Naturally we visited the Castle, it would seem silly to avoid what figures so hugely in the skyline of the city. Would it seem silly to say that on my first day in Edinburgh I heard hardly any Scottish accents? (A day spent in the tourist areas). For the entire holiday Scottish accents seemed to be a little rare!

I spent a day shopping while Dave revisited his old university haunts and digs and gave himself blisters on his feet. I was in two shops that sold Rowan yarn and couldn’t decide what yarn to get! As someone who lives in Ballymena and can only get Rowan yarn via the internet, I was really looking forward to the experience of getting to touch and look at the stuff before buying. When I got there I found myself with ‘yarn buyers block’!

Other highlights were: the National Gallery of Modern Art; the Royal Yacht Britannia and the Royal Botanic Gardens (where we saw a huge bird but haven’t a baldy notion what it was).

All of our outings were based around where we would be eating that day – Food obsessed? Us? Never!!! I could never quite manage the pub at night as I was too bloated to get out of my bed.

There was much salivation and Dave purchased habanero chilies in Lupe Pintos Deli. Methinks he wishes to burn the gob off me! Years ago, when he was a student, he visited Lupe Pintos and bought habaneros. The man in the shop advised him to use very little but Dave thought he was hard and could handle them. So he made himself a chile con carne with lots of habanero. Naturally, it burned the gob off him. I’m not sure whether or not he ate it all (he was a starving student after all!)

Take a look at our holiday piccies.