Day 34 - 22May.
Today a late start then Tour Guide John excelled himself by introducing us to the delights of the Edinburgh legal system, Writers of the Signet (WS), the Law Courts, the old Scottish Parliament and the medieval St Giles Church - the High Kirk of Scotland where John Knox did his thing. Included in the history on display at the WS was a 1st Edition of the King James version of the Bible - apparently only about a dozen in existence. The WS is an association of solicitors dating back to the 1500s - their library was fantastic and the building itself, venerable and impressive. Seaton, with his legal background, was asking all the right questions and I was very quiet.
In the High Kirk we listened to the choir practising for a while - complete with the backing of a huge pipe organ. We wandered down the street to the Elephant House Cafe where JK Rowling wrote her first Harry Potter books. Sadly the cafe was boarded up - waiting for renovation - got the ‘I was there’ photo though. We had a late lunch ate the French Institute cafe - I had the ‘ragout’ - very tasty. Our guide John left us and we wandered down the Royal Mile to take a look at Holyrood House - turned out there was a Royal Visit going on so nobody was allowed inside. Then it was time to walk back to John’s place at Moray Place and have a rest before our big night out - dinner at John’s ‘New Club’ (established around 1780). It was a very fancy establishment, nice food, spectacular view of Edinburgh Castle - and the repartee was definitely worth the trip.