Cake at the Castle

A day out for me yesterday. Mr FF had a meeting in Edinburgh at lunch time, so I hitched a lift and had a wander round the city which was bitterly cold but bathed in sunshine. We arranged to meet at 3 pm at the Castle Esplanade as he had to drop off some technical papers with a colleague who lives in the wonderful Ramsay Gardens a complex of flats situated above Princes Street and right beside Edinburgh Castle at the top of the Royal Mile. Visitors are allowed by arrangement with the flat owners to park their cars on the esplanade, when Mr FF arrived the guard already had his name and waved him in.

Ramsay Gardens is part of the Edinburgh old town, there have probably been houses here well over 1,000 years but the present buildings were redeveloped in the 18th century. Its a charming complex with connections to Edinburgh's great and good, like the poet Allan Ramsay who built the octagonal 'Goose pie' house and there is a spacious flat with panoramic views designed by Sir Patrick Geddes, the father of town planning.

John's flat looks directly onto the Castle, we sat in his beautiful kitchen drinking good coffee, eating Christmas cake and chatting until the light began to fade and the floodlights came on . He showed us the magnificent view from his lounge, a huge picture window completely filled by the Castle. He has lived in his flat for over 40 years and it was obvious how much he loves it. We left just as it became dark, the few winter tourists had gone and the atmosphere was magical. Its certainly an amazing place to live, convenient for all the attractions of town but a private and historic little enclave, though I imagine during the three weeks of the Edinburgh Tattoo the sound of bagpipes and the crack of fireworks could become a little trying. I'm sorry the photographs are not good, I didn't take my camera and had to use my phone, apart from this one that I downloaded from the net just to show you what we could see as we got back into the car.

I had such a good time I couldn't sleep last night. I said it was because it was the first intelligent conversation I'd had for a week and my head was buzzing, Mr FF said I just got over stimulated by the outside world and that next time he's only letting me out for a couple of hours.