Edinburgh, Scotland Nearby our hotel is the beautiful National Portrait Gallery, always worthy of a visit.
The building itself is a treasure, and a place any artist would be proud to be displayed.
Unlike yesterday’s museum, the faces here march in chronological order, telling the stories that made Scotland what it is. Now, you may not know much Scottish history, though rulers like Charles I, James I and Mary, Queen of Scots may ring a bell. To assist, several explanations and a chart are provided here, though you can just ignore them and move on. Robbie Burns, Robert Louis Stevenson and Sir Walter Scott are noteworthy as we move to the 19th century, and there are other faces that look familiar.
A more modern section is a bit less serious, and features literary and theatrical lions.
To be even more current, I will share a few of the faces I personally admired on our travels here.
We made a brief stop at the King’s Gallery, directly across from the awful new Parliament, and in front of Holyrood Palace. The gallery has rotating exhibits of a sampling of the riches owned by the Crown. Today it was Renaissance drawings, which were nice, but not too inspiring. The small gallery building was very handsome, though. My particular favorite thing was the door handles, done as views of small brass people observing art. That’s what I would steal.
Don’s Food Corner
We saved our splurge dining experience for our last meal on this trip, namely, a high tea experience at Edinburgh’s fanciest hotel — The Balmoral. This hotel is so rich in history and appointments it almost makes the Intercontinental where we are staying look like a Motel 1.
Tea was served in the Palm Court, a beautiful room that featured all the hallmarks of (excessive) luxury. Massive displays of fresh flowers. Crisp linens on the table. Silver polished to the nines. And a harpist playing soothing music.
On the menu were 85 different teas to chose from. Jo had a decaf black tea. I found white silver tip tea, which is a rare and very delicate tea that I first experienced in Nepal. For a second pot of tea I switched to Chinese white peony, which is another delicate tea that I grew to like when traveling around India, but which has been impossible to get in the U.S. because of trade issues with China. The tea service was quite dramatic.
This was actually a pretty heavy meal and we took two doggy bags of leftovers back with us. The doggy bags were beautifully packaged boxes.
This tea (meal) started with small cups of soup. Then, a three-tier display of goodies arrived. Little savory morsels on the top tier. A selection of delicate, but rich, sandwiches on the center tier. And scones on the bottom tier. (More about them later.)
After the remains of that course were removed, a platter of sweets were brought. It was all too much and we only sampled one of the four different delicacies before having them wrapped up to take back to the room with us. (This will be breakfast tomorrow.)
For a detailed description of what was on the menu, see the accompanying photo of the menu.
And now the scones that were on the bottom tier.
When they arrived, I got nervous. They were small and I was afraid that such small scones could end up being over-baked, dry and crumbly, especially when I saw how deeply colored the exteriors were. Then . . . drum roll . . . they turned out to be the best of the trip. A very solid A+. The scones I had dreamt of. A slightly crispy exterior. An interior that was perfectly dense and also “light” and moist. It was a magical experience. Even the clotted cream seemed superior to anything we’ve been served over the last 26 days. Nice jam as well.
Perfect scones. And a perfect ending to a pretty great trip through England and Scotland.