Edinburgh

We took the train from Stonehaven for our trip to the Wine Gang's annual Xmas Fair in Edinburgh. We missed the event last year as I was recuperating from my knee op, but we'd been a couple of times before with Anne & Leslie Mason. This year, Colin & Johanne Kilgour were due to join us but had cancelled when Colin got his appointment for a new hip. Sod's law, his operation was subsequently cancelled after he'd unpicked all their bookings.

The train was packed in both directions. Not surprising when it was only 3 carriages. This seems to happen frequently. Why? Packed carriages also meant no trolley service and no hot drinks either, even if you could fight your way to the buffet car.

Our accommodation was at Jury's Hotel, not far from Waverley and the Scotsman building. Edinburgh is already in full-on Xmas party mode. There were functions in our hotel and Princes St. Gardens and St. Andrews Square are both packed with Xmas stalls and entertainment, with ice skating, carousels and a large ferris wheel - all looking very Christmas-ey, especially in the dark:

View from Waverley across Princes St. Gardens, with the Scott Monument in dark in the middle of the festivities.

Balmoral Hotel

Sweeping the water off the ice in the mild temperatures

Looking from Princes St. Gardens towards the Mound

We climbed the steps up Fleshmarket Close - the title of one of Ian Rankin's Rebus novels - intending to have a beer in the Halfway House, but it was pretty mobbed, so we moved next door to Jinglin' Geordie's, which I had thought was named after a historic character, but inside there's a large framed photo of the late, great George Best when he was there, looking the worst for wear, in his late playing days with Hibs. It transpired that I was right - he is a historical character, and the pub is not, after all, named after George Best - check http://www.jinglingeordie.co.uk/

We taxi'd down to the Stockbridge Tap for another beer. Jo and Anne took one of the neat little window seats:

We then walked from there to Anne & Leslie's favourite restaurant, the Loon Fung. Dinner was excellent again. Jo was fascinated by the bamboo above our heads:

To get back to our hotel, it was all uphill from Canonmills, but we broke our journey with a swift pit stop at the Cask & Barrel. Before we knew it, midnight had come and gone, so it was going to be a late start in the morning.

We had arranged to meet the Masons at the Assembly Halls at 12:30 pm, so we had plenty time to wander round before finding somewhere for a bit of brunch. We looked in to St. Andrews Square first of all, to see the old-fashioned Helter-Skelter and watch the ice skaters - thankfully, the circular rink there had been properly frozen, unlike the one in Princes St. Gardens the previous evening:

There's a small Valvona & Crolla (http://www.valvonacrolla.co.uk/) outlet at one of the rear (Rose St.) entrances to the famous Jenner's store and we had croissants, haggis roll & mince pies with our tea/coffee there.

The next trick was to find our way in to Jenner's properly, and from there down to the Toy Dept in the basement. What a maze of a place it is - the stairs, lifts and escalators in all corners of the building each only go part of the way - there's none of them can take you all the way to the top and down to the bottom, so you have to wander through the store's narrow passages to get to the next way up or down. It's completely crazy.

No matter - we made it to the Wine Fair in good time and had a nice afternoon there, taking in two Masterclasses - Penfolds' Australian Reds and Pol Roger's Champagnes. We had 9 separate wines to taste at the former, including one that sells for £150 per bottle and several £50 per bottle ones. Penfolds' origins at the Magill Estate lie in the heart of Adelaide, a city that has grown up round about it. Might be worth a visit to the Cellar Door and/or Restaurant there when we're visiting Kelly and Chris - less than 6 weeks' away now.

We had a brief mid-afternoon coffee break at Jamie's Italian restaurant downstairs:

You can tell we've had a few wines by now, can't you? Some of the Aussie ones we'd tried, with an adjacent one from Oregon too:

Jo's favourite Penfolds wine was just about the most expensive:

We also had six-figure champagne tastings. Pol Roger was Winston Churchill's tipple of choice and they now have a range named after him:

Supper had been booked in the Gallery at the Guildford Arms, overlooking the lounge bar - and very nice it was too, even if they had run out of the lamb's kidneys I had ordered.

Lazy Sunday is almost over. Jo went round to see Ross after church as he had texted us to say he had really bad S & D on Saturday night. He thinks he's on the mend now, thank goodness - not a pleasant experience, as I remember only too well from our recent golf trip to Turkey, where 5 or 6 of us came down with it.