Day 39, Saturday, October 24 "Mountain or Museum"

At the end of yesterday's post, we told you that we had two plans for Saturday based on the weather. I'm sure you aren't tuned into the Edinburgh Scotland weather report, so you don't know yet which activity we were able to do. We spent the morning at the flat. David was able to get some good work done on the book of Job and a few other projects. After lunch we got ready to head off to the bus stop. We don't want to keep you in suspense any longer; so with 100% chance of rain, we headed to the museum.

You may remember from an earlier post that we have already visited here once. The first time we took in the bottom two floors and when we left we knew we wanted to come back and see the rest. So this time, we headed up to the 3rd floor, where we began viewing artifacts from approximately the 1800's and beyond.

We got a good lesson in how to thatch a roof. We saw a full scale model and examples of all the tools used to prepare and maintain the roofs.

They had good displays showing weapons, uniforms and other military gear. David is admiring this trendy outfit that all great Scottish Lords wear into battle.

There were a few real examples of some of their first machines used in their industrial development and also a good deal more models(working and non-working); so you could get a good idea about how they developed this new technology.  You might guess that we stayed until they closed down the museum at 5:00 pm. We had dinner reservations at the Tower Restaurant on top floor at 6:00 pm; so we headed down the street to do a bit of last minute shopping. 

We passed a pub/sandwich shop where J. K. Rowling (the author of the Harry Potter books) spent a good deal of time writing the first Harry Potter book. She was such a regular that she had her own table. Though we had other plans, I did want to get a photo.

When it came time for our reservation, we headed back to the museum. On the top floor is the Tower Restaurant, a very popular place to go in Edinburgh for an excellent dinner.  David ate here in 2000 and wanted me to see the site and enjoy the good food.

From the terrance you have a great view of the city and of some really beautiful buildings, including the castle. It got dark quickly after we arrived so we weren't able to get too many photos, but we did get a few out the full length glass windows.  Here is Edinburgh castle from our dinner table.

We began our meal with some walnut bread and cheese and spring onion bread. Also on the table was a bowl of mixed olives. For the appetizer we ordered a venison dish. It had paper thin slices of venison with a chutney of beets, mushrooms and some type of nuts and a side of rocket.  David was having such a good time he was grinning from ear-to-ear.

For our main course we had beef bourginon with creamed potatoes, mushooms and roasted shallots. We also enjoyed creamed butter nut squash and ginger, an amazing dish that was smooth, sweet with just a little spice. And finally we had a salad of thinly sliced fennel, artichoke hearts and radishes.

To finish off, we enjoyed cappucino and  a dessert (Here is your UK question-of-the-day: What do they call dessert here?   Anyone . . .  Anyone . . .  OK, I'll tell you.  Dessert here is called "pudding") . The deseert was a white chocolate creme brulee with roasted fig. Basically there was a huge fig, split in half and layed on the bottom of the ramikin.Then the brulee was poured over and baked. On the side were two homemade, shortbread cookies.

Needless to say, this was one of the best meals we have had while in Britain. The atmostphere of the restaurant was wonderful, and we had a great time topping off our enjoyment of the museum. We intended to walk home, but as we exited the restaurant we were greeted with a strong wind that was turning people's umbrellas (OK, here is your second UK question-of-the-day: What do they call umbrellas here?   Anyone . . . Anyone . . . OK, I'll tell you.  They call them "brallies")  inside out and a steady rain. We took the easy way out and hopped on the #23 bus.

Thanks for checking back with us to see what our day brought and we look forward to seeing you tomorrow as we wrap up the last two days of our Big Adventure.