Lauriston Castle

Clare's flight back to London wasn't until about 6 that evening so after a lazy morning we drove over to Lauriston Castle which is on the airport side of Edinburgh. You can't actually go into the castle but the grounds are lovely. They are small but worth a walk around and there is a very nice tea shop (with cake!).

Nice little country house.

View from the bottom of the garden over the forth of firth.

The sun came out. Finally!

Cake

Cake with a view

They have a small japanese garden which is very peaceful. Though it was a Monday which helped.

On the Japanese pond bridge

Beautiful maple

 we spend a few hours wondering and enjoying cake before I had to drop Clare off at the airport. :( Looking forward to her next trip.

North Berwick

On the Sunday after the race, Clare and I headed to North Berwick, just up the coast from Edinburgh. It is a lovely little sleepy town on the sea front which I have been meaning to visit for a while. No idea why it took me so long. We had fish and chips (which were so amazingly good) on the sea front before taking a walk to the end of the headland and along the beach.

GF fish and Chips. So happy!!!!!

Statue beach watcher

Fake seal

There were some dramatic waves.

Looking out to sea.

Clare started climbing the rocks

She didn't care I wasn't going after her if she fell in.

Hidden sleeping duck keeping warm.

We took a bunch of photos of us, though some look like we trying out for the part of Medussa. It was a little breezy (combined with sea salt, he hair was .... impressive later on).

Best hair picture

After our walk to the end of the head land, we had intended on getting an ice cream (there are a couple of award-winning ice cream shops/palours in NB), but decided a cup of tea was more appropriate. It wasn't that cold, but really windy.

View for our cuppa.

We walked back to the car along the beach. It looks a little like winter form the photos but I promise it is summer.

That evening, we watched old episodes of Baywatch (cheesy good fun and some nice eye candy) and snacked (still full from lunch.) 

Edinburgh Marathon Festival 5K

A couple of weekends ago, Clare came up for her first visit to see me in Edinburgh. One of the reasons (other than my company of course) was to do the Edinburgh marathon festival 5K on the Saturday morning. She has done the 10k before but I have not been running in ages so we went for the 5K and that was more than enough for me. I meant to do some before this event but that never happened. :/ Not my best move. Thankfully we didn't have to start until 11am so no crazy early starts.

pausing while trying to find the starting point

Waiting for the torture to begin.

We started at pretty much the back of the race. Which was fine with me. I had no intention of racing off.  The race is around Arthur's seat in Holyrood park, which is beautiful and a route I have walked many times. So I knew beforehand how big that damn hill is at the start. We walked. 

At the top.

Thinking.

View over Duddingston loch

Despite my better judgement here I have added some of the 'race' photos. I actually seem to appear to be running in all of them. I think they were just being kind. They are not the most attractive of photos but frankly I am just glad I finished. 

I won't deny our time was pretty rubbish and I came 714 out of 719. Though to be fair, we pretty much started at this position anyway. What I didn't know before I started was that a.) Clare doesn't sweat so I look horrendous in comparison, and b.) for the last 500m there are crowds egging you on, and screaming at you if you slow down or walk. So much peer pressure! I was nearly dead when we finished. But we did get medals, t-shirts, bags, water and some much needed granola bars. 

Happy.

After walking back to mine, we chilled out for the afternoon before heading out for well deserved cocktails and dinner.

Happy again, post-dinner.