Edinburgh Easter

The UK weather has been a bit crazy in March, with a sudden and severe throwback to proper winter. With no where booked for Easter, the weekend before we thought we better make a plan! Considering how badly the UK copes with snow, and peak traffic (having sat in three hour Easter traffic queues before), and peak numbers of airports we had a dilemma. We wanted to go somewhere, but didn't want to deal with traffic or long airport security queues, and given the snow train cancellations would be no surprise either.

We eventually formed a plan of Edinburgh, a city we hadn't yet got around to visiting. It was a 50/50 bet, my husband had business in Manchester on Thursday which took us halfway by car. So we caught a train from Manchester on Thursday night, knowing on Monday we had half the trip by train, half by car - halving or doubling the risk of delays?

The weekend was gorgeous with winter weather, clear blue skies, sunshine, but cold. Which was fine, we had our coats and hats, so happy to be in a pretty city, without snow or rain we mostly walked around for the weekend admiring the Georgian streets and green spaces.

On the art front, we visited the National Portrait Gallery, which as a bonus had an Annie Lennox exhibition on of her personal archive of costumes, handwritten song lyrics and music, personal sketchbooks and photos. It was small but I really enjoyed it, what amazingly neat handwriting she has, and very self critical self portrait drawings - which were really quite sad to see in their own way. The building itself seemed quite modern inside, then we wandered into this amazing central atrium. Amazing lights, murals, paintings, stained glass windows, it was as stunning as any of the painting galleries.

detail from the mural - I love finding dogs and horses in paintings

Of course you have to visit the Castle when in Edinburgh, and although we decided to just have a general wander around rather than check out every gallery and museum within, we did wander into one of the military galleries, and came across this painting - The Thin Red Line (1881), by Robert Gibb.

It reminded my of 'Scotland for Ever (1861) by Lady Elizabeth Butler, which hangs in the Leeds Art Gallery, were I've visited and sketched the horses many times. I wrote about this here.

After the poignancy of The Thin Red Line, I noticed this beauty in the next cabinet - surely the campest enlistment poster ever?

We also did a bit of retail therapy while we were there, in two independent shops (always excited to find something beyond the high street dominators), both of which we loved, then later found out they are owned by the same owner. Well worth seeking out if you are ever in town. Paper Tiger has a fantastic selection of cards and gifts, we left with an armful of both! Next door is Studio One, this store has a huge and eclectic range of gifts, unique handmade items, Stylish design (the largest range of Littala I've seen outside of Helsinki/Stockholm), books, toys, jewellery and it just goes on! We certainly picked up a few birthday cards and presents, and just a couple of things for us too! Maybe it was a good thing we were on the train and couldn't carry anymore?

love my new fox terrier brooch from Studio One

I look forward to seeing you again Edinburgh.

PS As for our great travel planning, the train home was only delayed by an hour, and the roads were clear by the time we got underway, our weekend apartment was in a quiet area and the two people we know in Edinburgh were both around for Easter so we could catch up. A successful Easter trip all round.