We didn’t have to be anywhere until 6:00 pm Saturday when we attended the play “1 King, 2 Princes, and Shakespeare’s Lie” so we decided to explore our neighborhood. Our hotel is called Leonardo Hotel Haymarket, and we had always turned right at the corner to get to the center of the city. Now we went straight and turned left, and we found a neoghborhood, filled with pubs, restaurants and other services! No one mentioned it was here. We could have easily mossed it, but we needed to go to the pharmacy!
After a bit of shopping and fortifying ourselves with light refreshments, we wandered on, finding some cute buildings, St John’s Scottish Episcopal Church and the Weat End Crafts fair.
The church had a lovely neighborhood feel about it and the ceilings intrigued me. Aren’t they beautiful? Very unique. Reminded me of the work of MacIntosh which we saw in the museum earlier in the week.
We had to return to the hotel to prepare ourselves for our last performance, which was called “1 King, 2 Princes, and Shakespeare’s Lies.” It was a one man show which was an attempt to exonerate Richard III from being the bad guy that Shakespeare proclaimed him to be. It was very moving. After the show some of returned to the Haymarket neighborhood for dinner. It was a busy Saturday night and many places were filled but we found an exceptional Thai restaurant with amazing food.
Sunday morning involved packing and getting organized for the second part of our journey. We had to meet the others for The Whisky Tasting experience and our farewell dinner and we also managed to get tickets for “ Endometriosis the musical “ which was on from 4:00 to 5:00. It was a short walk from the musical to the whisky.
The venue itself was very cute and sparkly, as was the event itself. How can anyone make a funny musical about a disease? This company managed to do it. It’s an American production which skewers our medical system as well as the victim’s unfortunate experiences with family and friends not understanding the severity of the illness. One in seven women have this condition. The musical was written by those who have suffered with it. It is hilariously funny as well as poignant. It was first performed by the fringe in Minnesota several years ago and has received rave reviews ever since. It has also performed at the Edinburgh fringe before, where it won the “best audience “ award. We were lucky to get tickets for it. It was the best thing we saw. Others saw “ Bliss” and also loved it. Wish we had seen more musicals. I can see now why the fringe festival is so addictive. The more you see, the more you want to see. We ended up in the wrong line for a jazz concert next door which also sounded great. So many shows, so little time!
We had about a half hour before meeting the group for the whisky event. Turned out it was a multi media program highlighting the making of scotch whisky. It was very informative and the scenes of the Scottish countryside were breathtaking, but we only got a thimbleful of scotch and the glass to take home with us. As we left, we noticed a group who were sitting down for a real tasting. We got the cheapie tour. It was sort of a disappointment.
We dined afterwards at Dine, a beautiful restaurant nearby. It was our last meeting. We are all going our separate ways. Bruce and Silvia are doing a small group tour of the Highlands, and Cindy and Judy are both going to visit family, Judy in York and Cindy in Manchester. Ann and Eliza left early so they missed the dinner. Cecile returns to Paris. She will be leading a group to Scandinavia in the fall. This was her first experience as a group leader. We are all beginning the next phase of our travels.
There was a group photo of all of us but none turned out so I decided to show you these candid shots instead.
I neglected to tell you our next chapter. Monday morning we were driven to South Queensferry, to Hawes pier, where we joined the Nieuw Statendam, a Holland American ship, which is doing a two week cruise called Wild Britain.
We are tendered until tomorrow at the Firth of Forth. I was concerned but the transfer went very smoothly and we didn’t have to lift our bags once! We have a lovely balcony room.
The weather has been perfect the last few days. We unpacked and Beatrice went for a swim and I spent time in the hot tub, bubbling away. We had a dive in hot dog on the Lido deck and I went to the salon for much needed hair wash and blow dry. We finished up the evening at the dueling piano bar venue with two talented pianists.
I thought of my friend Jane as I ordered a mojito—it’s her favorite drink— and it was delicious. I will be now reporting live from the Nieuw Statendam. There is still much to explore and discover, both off and on the ship.
Cheers!