Europe 2023 August 23rd Day 20 - School Friends Dining

This morning was a late wake up 8.30am, so maybe a little catchup after the last couple of hectic days (and more Scotch last night). Bit breakfast and did a bit more laundry in preparation for leaving here and heading to Lisbon via Glasgow.

It was an overcast and damp day, once again, so had to hang it inside again to try and get dry, no point having wet undies, most uncomfortable. Andrew took us on a little sojourn first out to a local National Trust property that was part of the Dunmore estate. The Pineapple as it is called is an amazing piece of architecture built in 1761 for the 4th Earl of Dunmore as an extravagant summerhouse. Still in very good condition and a sight to behold. You would never find it unless taken by a local so very fortunate to have seen it. There are also more than 600m of what be 12 foot high brick walls surrounding the garden which were also impressive to witness and are heritage protected.

It was then off to the train station in the Italian stallion to catch the train into Waverley as were having lunch with old school friends of Janes, Sally Carter at Morag Medwins and her husband Malcolm's place in Edinburgh. Was only 45 minutes in and then very lazy and caught a taxi there, arriving just on 1pm, perfectly timed as requested. A little tour around and a very nice glass of Prosecco with Malcolm's homemade sourdough crackers (getting that recipe) before sitting down to a lovely meal of Salmon with new potatoes and salad, followed by a very nice apple and Rhubarb crumble with ice cream of course. Lots of talking of course and we finally left around 4.30pm. 

Morag took us down to the bus stop at the bottom of the road which came along in 5 minutes and was only 10-15 back to Waverley station. On the bus were a number of Hibernian supporters that were going to the Europa conference match against Aston Villa. The bus had to stop for a short while as we passed police escorting the Villa fans along the road to the ground. Still can't get my head around that coming from Australia.

It was then a simple trip back on the train, into the car and back to Andrews (via Sainsbury's for a couple beers of course) by 6.30pm.

Andrew had prepared a grazing platter for dinner, knowing full well we would be having a large lunch, so did exactly that over a couple of hours watching the World Athletics from Budapest including a victory by the Scott Kerr in the 1500m And a shared Gold for ....... Australia in the pole vault.

While watching the games I got an email from Europcar including a fine for non payment of parking at Lands End for £100 🤬 plus £40 admin fee from Europcar. I distinctly remember paying as I whinged about the £7 minimum parking fee when only spending 15-30 minutes there. Anyway dug around and couldn't find the parking ticket (will be holding onto them all now) but luckily payment was by card only, so screen shot the comm bank payment and sent off the email to the parking company. What a waste of time, must have put the rego in incorrectly. Now to await reply before sending to Europcar to have admin fee waived. FFS!!.

So Andrew and I enjoyed a few beers , followed by a little red and another couple of whiskies, life is good. Laundry still damp so have to wait till tomorrow.