Edinburgh Castle

So last weekend, 6th March to be exact, Salome, Missie and I went and checked out Edinburgh Castle. Turns out there is more up there than any of us thought there was so it was actually quite fun. Very cold and windy though, think that has something to do with it being on a hill and all. There were a few different museums, a big as war memorial (gets called big as cos it was in its own building), a great hall thing, many gift shops, a few diff cannons, replica rooms of now dead royal people and the Scottish Crown Jewels. Have no photos of those cos not allowed but they would look incredible on me, just saying hehe, so now all I gots to do is find me a Scottish prince or king or something :) 

Anyhow here is some pics :) 

Some of the views from the castle

Missie keeping warm

Turns out Missie likes big guns :)

The 1 o'clock gun, which don't fire on a Sunday it turns out :(

Missie made some friends...

Then she got us put in jail

Luckily we got out, phew, then found the Great Hall

Missie then found a gun she didn't wanna mess with...

And we also found a cemetery 

And just if you was wondering here is proof Salome was there and I got outta jail :)

Pendeford and Wolverhampton

Our team at work is split over two sites, one in Edinburgh (where I am in case you'd forgotten) and the other in Pendeford which is near Wolverhampton. As we are one team sometimes a few of them come up to see us for a couple days and sometimes a few of us go down to see them. Obviously you still work while you're in the other office (sadly lol) and last week I got to go down there for a couple days :) it's a long way though (3.5 hours by train) for just one night but was still fun. Missie came with me cos she reckoned I was just trying to get out of taking her somewhere when I said it was for work, she now agrees that my work is real boring. She did however comment that work gives us much nicer accomodation than I've ever forked out for. Not sure this is a good thing as she now knows what a real nice hotel is like, hope she don't start expecting it all the time. 

We stayed in Wolverhampton which is the city close to Pendeford and went to a real nice Italian place (Bella) for dinner, I had amazingly yum spag bol and then we went round the corner to a pub (on Gary's recommendation) as it has a tree in the men's toilets that we all apparently had to see. It's pretty random actually, the toilet is outside and there is a tree it has been built around. I did learn that I have completely different standards to Ashley and Jackie (Scott was also there if you was wondering how many of us there was, us 4 went down and Gary was already down there but came back up with us), as they thought the pub and esp the toilet was scummy (they didn't use that word tho) and I thought it was just like a normal lil pub. Apparently I'm giving them all a diff idea of NZ to what they thought cos they had all just seen the nice as scenery pics and fancy places to stay and thought the whole place was like that, lol silly ppl. 

On the Thursday (we went down on the Wednesday back on the Thursday) Jackie and I explored around work at lunch, there wasn't much there as it is in a business park so basically just that one building. We did find some nice trees and a lake thing though. Oh and there is the most random statue outside the entrance which still cracks me up when I think about it lol. The train ride home was long as we had been at work since 8.30ish that morning and weren't getting into Edinburgh till 8.15 that evening, but we passed the time with food and drink and chat :) 

Chilling at hotel 

The tree in the men's toilet 

The random as statue outside work 

Other random stuff around the building 

Someone is ready for the long trip home...

Bread Meats Bread

So I finally got around to trying Bread Meats Bread on Thursday, it opened up late last year and I had been hearing good things about it but until recently I hadn't been sure if they did GF or not, like most places over here they do not state on a menu what is GF they just have the ask the staff blah blah disclaimer at the bottom of a menu. Then a GF friend told me it was worth a trip and Jo had already been and loved it so we went there for dinner on Thursday evening. It was real busy and we had to wait a while to get a table but trust me the wait was worth it. So so good, like really really so so good :)

I had a burger that was beef and some meat that is incredible but I can't spell or pronounce and cheese, and obviously chips. The bun being GF was smaller than normal buns but that didn't stop them from filling it with a normal amount of fillings so it was spilling over and I got to make a nice mess of me and the plate while eating it :) yup my fav kind of meal hehe

Am def heading back to try more of the burgers they have. And the chips were real good, and you can also get the chips with cheese and bacon so might just go back and get loads of chips one day cos the sweet potato chips also looked incredible.

And because I am me and rules are just rules and not set in stone or anything Bread Meats Bread are getting a 3.5+ outta 5 :) 

Rankings are as follows:

1. Bread Meats Bread

2. The Southern

3. Handmade Burger Co.

4. Holyrood 9A

5. Burger. 

Handmade Burger Co.

Missy just reminded me that I never posted about the Handmade Burger Co. in Aberdeen, naughty me.  Now you may be wondering why they are included in the The Great Edinburgh Gluten Free Burger Hunt when I had it in Aberdeen... well they are a chain and have a restaurant in Edinburgh, its just in the Ocean Terminal which is forever away from where I live so haven't made it there yet. Although after going to them I am thinking it might be worth a mission down there to have it again.

There are no photos cos I was one too hungry and two too excited when the food arrived to take any.  The exciting part was that my dinner came out as a build your own burger :) the bun as wrapped so that I would know it hadn't been cross contaminated and was in a nice lil gf burger bun wrapper, then the hot food part of the burger was stacked in a pile as was the cold part of the burger and the sauce/dressing thing was to the side.  So much fun making my own burger and the bun and everything tasted incredible so it def gets a high rating with me :) and they had bottomless cups of coke which is also cool :)
I am giving the Handmade Burger Co. a 3.5 out of 5, not quite as good as the black harp (its all in the coleslaw they include in their burgers which is why no one has got the same as them, just if you was wondering)

So the rankings now are:
1. The Southern
2. Handmade Burger Co.
3. Holyrood 9A
4. Burger.

If you are wondering how The Southern jumped to the top, we went there for Burger and Beer (Cider for me) for breakfast yesterday (we being me, Jo and Ben) and they have some burgers on the gluten free which are not available on the normal menu and the one I had was amazing as :) 

Aberdeen

Yesterday Salome, Missie and I headed up to Aberdeen for the day. The day started off very cold as it was snowing when I walked to the train station, Missie didn't mind as it meant she got to stay in my handbag sleeping (it was very early for a Saturday). The train trip took about 2.5hrs so we arrived in Aberdeen around 10am. As soon as we stepped off the train we realised that it was way more freezing up there than in Edinburgh even though it was snowing in Edinburgh but sunny in Aberdeen. Missie pretty much stayed in my pocket all day, nice and snug, unless we were inside somewhere warm, lucky for some I guess lol. 

First we went to the visitors centre to get a map and find out where they suggest we see if only there for a day, the lady was real nice and helpful and even told us what buses we would need. We then headed to the Maritime Museum which was actually pretty cool. We all thought it was gonna be kinda blah but it had some cool stuff in it, esp around oil and gas. Aberdeen is built around the harbour and oil and gas. No photography was allowed so Missie and I couldn't do our normal 'wander' sadly. 

We then headed to the Tolbooth Museum which is built in the old jail. Missie and I liked it much more than Salome who found it rather creepy. It still had the old original stone spiral stairs and one of the doors still had a big as old metal padlock on it :) 

Then we wandered up Union Street which is like Princes Street in Edinburgh and Devon Street in NP, so yeah basically the main shopping street. We looked around the grounds of St Nicholas Kirk but it was closed so we couldn't go in (it's a church for those wondering). Eventually we realised it was just like all main shopping streets and since we weren't there to shop we decided to hop on a bus to Footdee (pronounced Fittie, and is a small (very small) coastal suburb), it had some very cute bachs, you couldn't really call them houses lol. If we thought Aberdeen city was freezing, well then by the sea with the sea wind (it was not a breeze) it was f**kin freezing. We walked along the beach for a bit then when was too frozen we got on a bus back to town to head towards the University. 

Turns out there are two Unis, the University of Aberdeen to the north (the one we wanted to see) and the R.G.U to the south west (which we didn't wanna see) and they are both on the same bus route. Yup you guess it, we got on the bus in the wrong direction, we were a bit out of the city itself before we realised we were on the wrong bus and then we got off the bus crossed the road and got on the one going the right direction lol. 

There was a game of rugby happening when we arrived and we watched one of the teams score a try but weren't sure if it was the right team or not so didn't cheer lol. Then we headed to the cathedral at the uni, then on the way to the library we saw a pretty cool sculpture (Evolutionary Loop it was called) and then the library itself was pretty cool :) nice outside and nice inside. Missie decided to come out of my pocket to help me enjoy my cup of tea lol. 

From there we headed to the Winter Gardens, basically a giant version of the Fernery in Pukekura Park, and with cute lil bridges over nice lil ponds/rivers. Missie liked that it was warmer and indoors so she was happy to be out of my pocket again :) I liked some of the flowers there to and esp liked the cactus area, that was real cool. 

From there we headed back into town to find some dinner and warm up before our train home. Ended up at the Handmade Burger Co, which because they have a branch in Edinburgh deserve at ranking and rating and their own post :) 

The train home was pleasant enough, seemed long and nothing to look at as being winter was dark outside. Felt kinda warm when got back to Edinburgh tho which is something I spose. 

Wrapped up warm for walk to station

Couple of pretty views on way up

I just really liked the name of this building :) 

How Tolbooth might have appeared btwn 1705-1755

Missie enjoying Tolbooth

Footdee

University of Aberdeen

Winter Gardens