Scotland Day 6

Today was heavily a much-needed breather. I did get in some souvenir shopping along the Royal Mile. I also tasted some very fine whiskey. Bunnahabhain (18 y/o) is an interesting one - early on I got a nice licorice flavor, but some of the later sips were nicely sweet. I also found a place that had a low price for a tasting of Balvenie Portwood (a 21 y/o) which I really need to get a bottle of someday when I’m feeling rich or especially celebratory. The Royal Mile stretches from Edinburgh Castle (which is right in the middle of the city) down to another castle which is used as a royal residence. It caters heavily to the tourist trade, and along it are other tourist spots like Edinburgh Cathedral, the Mary King’s Close tour (more later), and so on. Every other building is a souvenir stand, a kiltmaker, or does whiskey tasting.

At one of the kilt makers I was able to confirm something I’d begun to suspect: there is only one company that makes mass-produced Clan badges and kilt pins, and they don’t make MacGill (the clan badge I like the most of the ones I’m entitled to). The tartan is available so a kilt is still a possibility, but a badge will need to be custom made. Sigh. In fact, the availability of clan merchandise was inversely proportional to my interest in the clans: MacGill all but unheard of, Carnegie spotted occasionally, and Irwin far from universal but findable. A clan like Campbell, for contrast (we had a Campbell as one of the other wedding attendees from the US, one of five of us who shared an apartment while in Edinburgh) was everywhere. So, somewhat distressingly to my SCA-trained instincts, was the Stuart Royal tartan – to my mind that should be worn only by those of royal blood.

I will note at this point that I made use of the English obsession with tea which has clearly filtered north to Scotland. I’m used to a coffee pot in hotels in the US, of course, but to have both a modern induction boiler and a coffeemaker AND two conventional teapots in the apartment was something of a surprise. In Edinburgh, thus, it was no trouble to boil all the water I drank. This precaution may have been unnecessary, of course, but since in restaurants when you asked for water they generally responded with “still or sparkling?” both referring to bottled water, I don’t think this was paranoia.

I often complain about the US government and its regulations, but it is nice to be able to drink tap water without fear or ill-taste in most of the US. At this point due to handy features on my fridge most of the water I drink IS filtered, but most of the restaurant water, for example, isn’t, and I can’t recall being offered bottled water in a restaurant outside of DC. The fact that DC is the city run most directly by the Feds is, I think, a significant point.