Day 14 – Scottish Adventure 2025 – Channeling David Tennant
Okay, okay, we’re not cos-playing Dr. Who, nor are we marching and singing “I Will Walk 500 Miles” as Tennant sings, but we are humming it in our heads. We have walked many, many, many miles today. See: https://youtu.be/yUr8QyTCph8?si=wxJLBzNQIEjlmtLL
We walked more than a mile to catch a bus to the Royal Botanical Gardens in Edinburgh. What a fabulous place. As longtime members and fans of Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, we appreciate gorgeous botanical gardens. The RBGE is free to everyone and is glorious. What a lovely place to walk and to relax. They have benches throughout the garden that people were spending time chatting, relaxing, meditating, and enjoying the beautiful surroundings. The botanic gardens will be featured in an upcoming Meadowood Gardens mystery, as well as Cawdor and Pittmedden Gardens. I’m sure any eavesdroppers were wondering about James and I as we discussed where bodies could be discovered.
After the gardens we stopped by a quaint and excellent antiquarian book shop — The Gently Mad Bookshop and Bookbinder. PHENOMENAL! It was one of those places where bibliomaniacs like ourselves need to be careful of drooling as we perused the books. They had a first edition of Alice in Wonderland, and a fantastic sign copy of Ian Fleming’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service that was also signed by the man Ian Fleming based James Bond’s character. WOW!
After this, we eschewed the bus and walked back to the city. Up hills and down hills, these weary travelers walked and gawked at beautiful Edinburgh.
Our destination was the National Gallery. We were surrounded and saturated by the awe-inspiring art. We feasted our eyes on Van Gogh, Monet, Pissaro, and numerous other artists.
I thought I might find time to write while in Scotland, but our extremely full days of packing in everything we could possibly see or research for the books has trumped writing time. My brain is so full of beautiful images, pieces of plots, and awe of the beauty of this country. I know when I return home to the US, I will need a bit of time to unravel things and I plan on writing up a storm. We have lots of fodder for the Elen Chronicles and fodder for at least two or more Meadowood Mysteries set in Scotland.
