The weather must be reading my blog. Spurred on by the very unrepresentative experience it had provided me with so far, it clearly had decided in the morning that today was the day when it was going to give me the works. The weather must have quite bad short term memory though, as it had already forgotten about its plans when Aramis and I reached Edinburgh.
We took off early, so that we could enjoy the better part of the day in Scotland’s capital. Having lived here for three months during my studies, I know the city quite well and easily find my way around it.
The rain was pouring down and whoever could, stayed indoors.
As we were approaching Edinburgh, the weather became more and more friendly, but the occasional cloud of rain made for a very dramatic effect.
After driving in London, I was a little worried about driving in Edinburgh. Fortunately, the inhabitants of Edinburgh seem to be a tamer breed of motorists than the Londoners. We got an unexpected sightseeing tour when we drove to our accommodation: the sat nav took us straight down Princes Street, probably Edinburgh’s second most famous road after the Royal Mile.
I left Aramis at the hotel and had a stroll around. Today, I did not feel like taking a lot of pictures, and yet I managed to get some good shots. Been there, done that, got the kilt.
Speaking of kilts: it was the first time I noticed that the majority of shops on the Royal Mile seem to belong to the same company. They may be operating under different names, but the items are often identical.
When I wanted to take Aramis for a walk, drummers had had the unfortunate idea to perform straight in front of our hotel. Now some of the things Aramis really cannot stand are clapping and drumming… Under ordinary circumstances, I usually manage to lead him past the object or event that scares him, and generously reward him afterwards for having been such a good boy.
But during this trip, Aramis’s batteries naturally have slowly but steadily drained and his impulse control and level of patience have decreased. I try to check this as best (and in the friendliest possible manner) I can, but Aramis’ default reaction to whatever life throws at him is to bark. So I lead a frantically yapping dog through quite a large gathering of people, lowered my head and thought ‘never mind’ when it was all over. We walked up Carlton Hill where we had a good view of the city and where Aramis entertained some tourists with his antics.
Aramis, by the way, is not the only one who is starting to feel the strain of the journey: when I wanted to check in at the hotel, I suddenly realised that I hadn’t seen my glasses (the spare – and last – pair I had not left on Lewis…) in a while. And I had no idea where they were.
After a few moments of panic and running back and forth I remembered putting them into the hood of my coat (‘I’ll certainly not forget about them here!’), which I had taken off when I had tried on a beautiful, but overpriced woollen coat in a shop. Bravo, me. I had walked around in this coat for the past two hours. To make matters worse, I had put on and off a bum bag, where keep my valuables, several times. There was no way my only remaining pair of glasses were still in that hood. Or where they?
In a very slow move, expecting the very worst, I reached into my hood… and promptly felt my glasses lie there, peacefully, only waiting to be put back on my nose. Luck was my lady today.
Tonight, Aramis had better have a good rest, as tomorrow I will have a very special surprise ready for him!
The Adventures of Aramis 