Tales of a Shoebox Princess

Breakfast at a tiny diner across the street from our hotel. The menu was mostly omelet based, and that worked just fine for us. Mine had spinach and mushrooms in it. Brits are big on toast and fortunately they do like veg for breakfast.  Our main goal during the daytime was to visit Abbey Road. This was probably the biggest bucket list item for Jim (maybe tied with Liverpool?). We hopped on one of the many buses and tootled our way over to Abbey Road.  And here we are! I like all the graffiti on the gate posts.  Jim didn't believe me at first when I told him there was an Abbey Road store under the actual building. He said, it's probably just for employees. I walked down this sidewalk and looked in the door and confirmed that I was right. It was open to the public. We went in and Jim wanted to buy nearly everything in the store. They had some other bands, but most of it was Beatles-oriented.  We did not go up these stairs.  This is a live cam that watches Abbey R...

After our visit to Edinburgh castle, we needed lunch. A friend of ours had mentioned The Witchery and we saw it on our way down the Royal Mile. We thought, why not? Let's try it. Jim is looking for the entry, which was down this alley way.  We were seated in the covered patio outside and I had this view of the statuary. I had seen other statue butts earlier and told Jim that I should have collected photos of all the marble/metal/concrete/stone butts and put them into a photo book. The best meal I had on this trip. Lamb Wellington with spring potatoes and black garlic aioli and THE BEST MUSHY PEAS EVER.  Seriously these were DIVINE. There was dill in them, that much I knew. I was licking the serving spoon after I had finished what was on my plate. The black garlic aioli was to die for as well. As the server was trying to bus the table, I was licking that serving spoon and he asked me if I was finished with it. I knew I looked foolish and not classy at all (their clientele was o...

Morning dawns early in May in Scotland, but we didn't mind at all. If we can't sleep with lightened skies, we can relax in bed.  We found a restaurant near the Royal Mile that served a "full Scottish breakfast" and who knows what that actually means, but since we were taunted by our children the night before because we wouldn't try haggis, we decided that maybe we'd have to bite the bullet (or haggis). This is a "full Scottish breakfast", as defined by the eatery. (We got there before it opened and sat outside at a table to wait. They gave us menus to peruse while we waited the few minutes.) Baked beans, toast, mushrooms, a half of a small tomato, thick cut bacon, a sausage, haggis (under the bacon) a friend egg on top of a tattie biscuit (mashed potato pancake). Jim was first to take a bite. He didn't die or even choke or make a face. I tried it too, but did not get pictorial evidence. Haggis uncovered. It wasn't that bad. It tasted like a f...