A Very Special View of Edinburgh

Sometimes, in my job, I am a very lucky person.  Because we work with lots of tourism providers and major events happening in Scotland, sometimes we get to do very special things.  In January I was allowed into the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to witness the signing of the deal to bring the pandas to Edinburgh, for instance.  This November, I was the media person in charge of the press photographers allowed up the Scott Monument in the dark to film Edinburgh's lights going on at Edinburgh's Christmas Light Night.  It was very dark up there and windy!  But the views are amazing and even just using my iphone, I got some lovely shots of the lights from a different perspective.

Not my Blog

Someone else has written this, but I love it so much, I am sharing it:  

http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/11/29/142910393/the-library-phantom-returns?sc=tw&cc=share

Sometimes don't you just wish you had done it first?

Scotland's Best Coffee Stops

Black Medicine Coffee Shops in Edinburgh
Now, strictly speaking, we never drive past these shops on our way anywhere for work.  But they are so good that I would happily fabricate a reason to drive past, park and go inside.  There are three shops: Nicolson Street, Marchmont Road and a new one in Barclay Terrace, Bruntsfield.  They all have a very distinct style, with North American style wooden seats and tables, a really friendly atmosphere, great food, particularly fab coffee (well, it IS a coffee shop!) and FREE WIFI (always worth a mention - look out for a rant on this coming your way soon...).

My children particularly enjoy the smoothies and milk shakes.  There is a ridiculously evil Oreo Milk Shake, which pretty much serves as a full meal.  They serve great cakes - things like Rocky Roads, Tunnocks Teacakes and Brownies.  And, like many of the coffee shops I enjoyed when I lived in Belgium, they put a little biscuit on the side of your coffee saucer - a very nice touch.

They have a funny website at www.blackmed.co.uk and sometimes the webcam in the Nicolson Street branch is working and you can see what's going on inside.  There is an alleged link to JK Rowling, but you don't need that as an excuse to visit.

Here is a pic.  Highly recommended - make up a meeting so that you can go!

 

Scotland's Best Coffee Stops

This post might not be suggesting a coffee stop that is en route to a meeting, but we discovered a very nice little place yesterday that deserves a mention.  We are up in the Highlands at the moment and yesterday walked through from Tomich to Glen Moriston.  Using two cars allowed us to walk a linear route.  It started well and we walked through some gorgeous woodland and met volunteers from Trees for Life removing non-native species.  The north side of the hill was totally decimated, however, with works for the Beauly Denny power line.  Is this meant to be Scotland's natural playground?  Not when you have to walk for miles through a nasty building site - what price being a "green capital" of the world?

Anyway, at the end of the route we found ourselves at the Redburn Cafe in Glen Moriston.  A lovely friendly welcome as we went in. Nice cakes and ice creams and a really great location.  The toilets were spotless and included a range of thoughtful extras.  We were impressed.  They didn't even mind that we had left a car there for the day and they even waved goodbye as we left.  This is one coffee stop I would highly recommend.  Here's a link: http://www.fortaugustus.org/invermoriston/foodanddrink.php

Scotland's Best Coffee Stops

As I have reported before, we spend time in our business driving around Scotland for meetings, so have collated good knowledge on the best stop-off points for coffee and home baking.  One particular favourite of mine is Mhor Bread in Callander.  We used to stop there on the way to visit a west coast luxury hotel.  Now I can only manage it on the way to our annual family holiday on Mull.  Mhor is run by the brilliant people from the Monchayle Mhor Hotel and looks, feels and tastes like a 1950s teashop.  There is also a Mhor Fish down the road that does fish and chips, though I have only HEARD that it is good. Never tried it.
This place is really worth trying and Callander is a good stop-off point on the way west.  YUM

Scotsman Steps

My daughter and I made a real discovery yesterday.  We took a shortcut to the city centre from beside the Scotsman to avoid a demonstration at Waterloo Place.  So we nipped down the Scotsman Steps and cut across the East Gardens to reach Hanover Street.  The steps have been transformed into a wonderul array of different marbles.  Having looked this up, I see it is a form of art installation.  Really stunning and worth a visit in their own right!  Here is a link to some information:
http://www.edinburghguide.com/news/edinburghcitycouncil/8400-scotsmanstepsrestoredinmarble

and here is a picture!

National Museum Scotland

I went to a lovely party last night, launching the new corporate spaces at the National Museum of Scotland following its £46 million facelift.  The museum looks completely beautiful and there were four caterers demonstrating how fabulous they are, so people could experience what an event could be like.  The best, by far, was Heritage Portfolio.  They decked an area out entirely using herbs - the smell was amazing!  And the delicate china cups of gin and tonic (v strong) were genius and beautiful, though I had to make sure I did not drink too  much!  What a great place for an event.  They can now do massive gala dinners in the atrium and there were hundreds of people at the party, so for a big event in Edinburgh it will take a lot of beating.   The picture is a generic one of the new gallery - that is not me at a party for one!