Since moving to Edinburgh, most of our adventures have been planned without too much notice. I’m not exactly a “let’s go away this weekend” kind of person, but having access to so many flights to so many wonderful places certainly makes it easier to plan trips closer to the day of departure. This was not one of those adventures. This was an adventure Mum and I had been talking about for years. To start it off, Mum came to Edinburgh for a few days which we inevitably filled to the brim with a mix of favourites, and places off the list I constantly have on my phone, aptly titled “Places to take Mum”. We went to the Braid and climbed Blackford hill, sat on the top with sandwiches trying to point out as many buildings as we could recognise. It was Open Doors day that weekend, so we poked around the observatory and Mum asked a million and one questions while Chris and I looked at the lego rockets. Also through Open Doors day I had booked us tickets to visit the gardener’s cottage in Princes Street gardens. It was a great tour full of theatrics, and it was very satisfying to finally go inside a building we’d walked past for years. We went to the pantry in Stockbridge for breakfast and bought an unrestrained volume of books from Oxfam. We watched bad British television and good British television and ate all the goodies Mark’s and Spencer’s had on offer. After a fantastic weekend, we abandoned Chris (who I’m sure enjoyed a uncommonly peaceful household) and flew down to Jersey, one of the Channel islands that sits between the south of England and France. I could try to explain the relationship between Jersey and the UK but, despite my significant googling, I’m still a bit unsure. And to be honest, I’ve had enough talk about who belongs to what group (or who is making ill-informed political decisions). So let’s just say that Jersey is an interesting place with its own unique identity, and lots of statues of Queen Victoria. After dropping our bags at the hotel, we immediately went to the Durrell Zoo, which was one of the biggest reasons for Mum’s long held interest in visiting the island. The Durrell Zoo has done immense and impressive work in conservation and research, and the dedication and passion for the animals in their care was palpable from the moment we walked through the door. We went closer to closing and it was slightly drizzling, and it was the most incredible experience. We had the whole place practically to ourselves and it seemed as though we arrived at dinner time as all the animals were being fed. This meant that we got up close and personal, chatting to the incredible staff as they fed the animals and told us which ones liked which vegetables the best. Mum became friends with an orangutan, while I fell even more in love with bats. I’ve never been able to get that close to them before, and they remain, to me, the coolest creatures on Earth. According to the keeper, the one closest to us was named Horatio which really cemented my love for them. I did not however care for the butterfly room and have discovered that I have a fear of 1 million quiet and unevenly flying insects surrounding me. Who knew. We ended the day with fish and chips because what else would you eat on an island. The next day we opted to take a vintage bus to the Jersey War Tunnels. Neither of us are particularly interested in war history but, as the Channel Islands were the only part of the UK that were occupied during the war, it felt as though we would be remiss to miss it . The War Tunnels are actual tunnels that were used by the Germans during the occupation that have been turned into an incredibly immersive, frightening, and respectful museum. For history buffs I can imagine it would be a dream come true and there is no doubting the level of effort, reverence and care that has gone into that museum. After the bus took us into the city center, we hopped on another bus to go out to the opposite end of the island to visit Jersey Pearl. Turns out Jersey is known for its delicious dairy AND its pearls. From this visit, I can truly attest to both. We had delicious cream cakes and then got to pick our own pearl from the wall of oysters. They shuck them right then and there, and you work with their appraiser learning how to appraise your pearl. It was really fun and interesting and I came away with an impressively round cream one while Mum had the great luck of finding a blue pearl. We ended our visit with a walk out to Elizabeth castle once the tide was out, carefully checking in case there were more pearls buried along the way. The following morning, we went to the market for one more hot chocolate, before heading to the airport to buy a very heavy volume of jersey caramel and black butter. We decided to extend our journey by adding on a quick trip to London to do another one of Mum’s bucket list items: going to see Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap on the West End. We dropped our bags at the most insanely gorgeous hotel, before meeting up with a colleague of mine for dinner who happened to be working in London for a while. The next morning, we went to Caravan for a delicious breakfast before making our way to Spitalfields market. We shopped around at all the amazing stalls, taking in as much as our eyes would allow in one go. We grabbed lunch while we were out there, before heading back to walk through the British museum. Literally just through one end and out the other because the day was flying by. After a quick outfit change, we went down to the lobby to make use of the stunning hotel and enjoy a cuppa in their palm court. Mum and I never run out of things to talk about and having her right there in front of me, instead of bombarding her with texts or adding to the list on my phone entitled “Things to tell Mum”, was a real luxury. For dinner, we went to Brasserie Zédel for a pre-theatre French feast. Full of tarte tartin, we twisted our way through the crowds, enjoying the lanterns of Chinatown and only stopping for Mum to laugh at the Shawn the Sheep posters advertising his new film. The play was everything both of us wanted, full of all the mystery, charm, and cleverness that you’d expect from the world’s best-selling author. We ended our one and only full day in London back in the hotel, exhausted and happy. The following morning, we made our way to the train station, totally mellow and ready to enjoy a first class trip back up North. Mellow that is until I realised that I had brought us to the wrong station! Thankfully we had arrived with plenty of time and we were able to walk the few blocks from King’s Cross to Euston with only a mini heart attack. Crisis averted, we settled into the train for the lovely journey back up to Scotland, with me only occasionally reliving the nightmare of my organisational oversight.
Back in Edinburgh we had a couple of days left, which we filled with cake at Lovecrumbs, books at Armchair and walks in Portobello. We made friends with every dog we passed and I soaked up every second I had left with Mum.
0 Comments
|
Archives
April 2019
|