Later in the day, we walked through Princes Street Gardens and into town where we had afternoon tea at John Lewis'.
On Sunday we went to Glasgow, via Linlithgow Castle where the children once again had a ball. Janet and Ruth made a little excursion to visit Ruth's parents. It was lovely to meet them after all these years.
We then headed to the Glasgow Science Museum which was lots of fun. On the way home we had dinner in a gorgeous pub, the Ratho Bridge Inn.
Monday was a quiet day with lunch at our local Bruntsfield cafe, browsing (and, alas, buying) in several bookshops and some other Edinburgh shops. In the evening, we laughed ourselves silly watching episodes of the British comedy series, Outnumbered.
On Tuesday, after a trip to HMV to buy the DVD of Outnumbered and a CD of The Red Hot Chili Pipers (bagpipes playing "We will rock you" - has to be heard to be believed!), we headed for Kirkcudbright. In a supreme feat of memory and spectacular navigation skills, Peter found the house, near Balmaclellan (but basically in the middle of nowhere), where he lived for a couple of months when he was 9. We saw the dry stone walls that his father was employed to maintain, and are pleased to report that they are still holding up well, 37 years later.
We arrived in Kirkcudbright at 4pm, and explored the streets where Janet and Peter's ancestors lived in the mid 19th century. For those of you who don't know, we have discovered that Janet's great grandmother was servant to Peter's great-great grandmother in Kirkcudbright in 1861. The houses below are in Millburn Street where Janet's great-great grandparents and their children lived in 1841. Unfortunately, the censuses from that time did not show house numbers, so we don't know exactly which houses were theirs. Dinner was in yet another pub – bread and butter pudding to die for!
Tomorrow we're off to England, to visit descendants of Janet's bigamous grandfather!