Hello, Dolly!

Edinburgh, Scotland We ended our day at the National Museum of Scotland, greeting the world’s most famous sheep. Dolly was the world’s first cloned mammal, born in Edinburgh and proudly preserved here.

We had hit the tourist wall by then, but we’ll come back tomorrow to investigate Scotland’s Viking past.

The day started with a tour of St. Giles Cathedral, Scotland’s most important church, founded in 1124. Most of the interior is from the 14th and 15th centuries.

If you are of the Presbyterian persuasion, you will know this as the church where John Knox first preached. He was such a powerful speaker that the church had no pews in 1559, to accommodate the numbers who stood to hear him.

Tucked into a corner is the Thistle Chapel, the private chapel of the Order of the Thistle, the only Scottish chivalric order, second only to England’s Order of the Garter. The reigning monarch comes every other year to install new members. Even some of the carved angels are Scottish, playing bagpipes instead of harps.

There are four central Norman pillar from the 12th century, which supported the newer 15th century surroundings, after an attack from the English in 1385.

Even Robert Louis Stevenson is remembered here, along with Robert Burns — but we couldn’t find his window. Later we learned it is an atrocious very modern thing that we hurried past. Poor Robbie.

We had been encouraged to take a tour of something called the Real Mary King’s Close, an alley that was built over in the 18th century. It took its name from Mary King, a merchant burgess who resided on the Close in the 17th century. The close was partially demolished and buried due to the building of the Royal Exchange in the year 1753, and later closed to the public for many years.

The tour was led by an overly enthusiastic young man, who dramatized the life lived in the close with minimal light and no sanitation. A bit too dramatic — and no photos allowed. Points off in my book.

It’s Saturday, so lots of folks being tourists, and lots of things to admire on the Royal Mile and side streets. We stopped in to the National Library to admire some of their treasures. The most astonishing to us was the first edition Pride and Prejudice near the actual check Jane received when she sold the publishing rights. Wow.

Don’s Food Corner

Jo had her heart set on getting a jacket potato (aka, baked potato). I thought perhaps the restaurant at the National Museum of Scotland would have them. But, alas, they did not.

On the walk over to the museum we passed a little restaurant named Mom’s Comfort Food. There was a line outside of young people waiting to get in. Certainly, I thought, a jacket potato would be prominent there. But, again, a disappointment. They had things like shepherd’s pie. But most of the offerings were vegan. Whose mother was vegan? Or are there now second generation vegans? I guess a jacket potato could be vegan, if you leave off the cheese, bacon, butter and sour cream.

At that point, however, why bother?

Despite an absence of jacket potatoes, we took our main meal of the at the restaurant at the National Museum. This restaurant did not have table service. Like ordering food at a pub, you have to go to the counter, knowing your table number beforehand, and order drinks and food. Later, the food is delivered. Often a menu is difficult to find. The people at the counter just ask you what you want.

Today, when I was asked this, without having seen a menu, I said: “I know what I want, but I’m not sure you are serving it.” The counter person was puzzled, but then asked if we wanted to see a menu. (An irritating convention in the U.K. is that, when you do have table service, they often only give you one menu. Um, there are two people here. When you ask for a second menu they seem a little perturbed to get such a request.)

Nothing on the menu actually looked too interesting. But I found a starter that featured Scottish salmon. And Jo succumbed to a croque monsieur, despite the fact that this was not a French restaurant. A croque monsieur filtered through a Scottish sensibility? That would be like ordering a Maryland crab cake in Montana. Or a Philly steak in India. Still, she was hopeful. And as a back up she ordered a fashionable salad. Fashionable meaning that it had all kinds of in-vogue food things like pepitas and pomegranate seeds with goat cheese bits clumped around on top of escarole and some other type of arugula-style greens.

Everything arrived at the same time. My salmon was pretty great. There was some yellow roe along with the cured salmon and a little bit of creamy dressing. The salmon was really dark. True red-blooded Scottish salmon?

Jo’s croque monsieur was as clumsy as would have been expected. The salad was thrown together without any regard of any type of composition. I called it reckless. But everything was fresh and it was actually pretty good.

I have to admit that I saw a scone in the display case at the restaurant counter along with little dishes of clotted cream and strawberry jam. But I just couldn’t face another one today. I needed a scone day off to regroup. From the looks of the scone at the counter, I’d grade it a tentative B-. It looked dry. And it didn’t have enough exterior color. We’re going back there tomorrow and I’ll try one then.

P.S. I did a Google search of jacket potatoes in Edinburgh and discovered there is a restaurant not too far from the hotel that specializes in all things baked potatoes. We will definitely try it before leaving Edinburgh.