Flowers,Art and the tour begins

First to answer a question.  North Berwick is only a 1/2 hour train ride from Edinburgh.

We did our usual 7:30 am breakfast.  The Royal Botanic Garden did not open until 10 am so we were not rushed.  But we decided to walk to downtown.  Went into some of the tourist shops.  I found out a little more about my family names.  Strang - small family - never had its own clan.  Abernethy - part of the MacDuff, Leslie or Pierce Clans, Donaldson is part of the MacDonald, Walker is big here.  I have seen a few Donaldson and Abernethy things.  Nothing with Strang.  But it is nice to know what to look for.

a random photo!

After walking around on the Royal Mile we grabbed a taxi to go to the Royal Botanic Gardens (they do not say Botanical).  We spent several hours there.  Very nice.

John Chamberlain's aluminium sculpture

so many flowers so little time.  Not sure how to choose.

Then we stopped for lunch at the Cafe

nothing stupendous but it hit the spot, especially because we were sitting down.  Nathan had a brie and butternut squash pizza - very interesting.

Then more wandering

Andy Goldsworthy, slate sculpture

Barbara Hepworth (we missed her are in London)

Then we caught the bus to the Royal Mile again to go the the Scottish National Gallery.  First stop was the cafe to give me a break.  George and Nathan were just humoring me.  But I needed a sit-down.  

Our goal was to find this painting if we could.  It is of Rev Walker (George's distant relative).  We thought it would be obscure. But come to find out it is sort of an icon of the whole museum.

But unfortunately the original was on loan to a place in Texas right now so we could not see the real thing. This museum has mostly older art.  This had one room with a few Monets, Degas, Gauigins, and 1 Van Gogh.  

They did have one room of this Scottish artist I liked William McTaggart

Note the walls, Sharon.

We then caught a taxi to take us back to the B & B.  It waited while we went in to get our luggage.  Then the taxi took us to the Novotel.  

It is a big fancy place but odd in many ways.  But it has very fast internet.  We were not at the room long.  It was time to go down stairs to meet our Trafalgar Tour group.  I think that we have 51 people on our tour.  We did not do any introductions - mostly because it is a big group.  Simone is our tour director. She seems very nice.  We met in the lobby at 5:15 pm to go to dinner.

This is a TV screen that they have framed like a piece of art.

It was a buffet and we were seated at small tables around in a big room.  We were allowed 2 drinks a piece.  I started with a pinot grigio and ended with a cab.  Food was ok.  A lot of variety.  We went to the restaurant on the bus.  When we sat down we were told that those were our assigned seats for the next day.  After that we will rotate.so that we will gradually get to know other people on the tour.  The people we sat near this time were from Canada.  Very nice people.  We sat with them at dinner as well.  Mom, Dad and a daughter, who had been teaching in England for a year.

After dinner we came back to the hotel to relax.  This time I am getting the blog done tonight.  Plus I may have way more pictures than you want since they upload so quickly.