A Day in Edinburgh

 

So while we were down in Glasgow I went over to Edinburgh to meet up with my friends V and D. We always find something to go and see or do, a  hook to hang our get togethers on, and this time it was the 'display', they didn't call it an exhibition which was just as well as it was only one room (sometimes I despair of our so called national institutions)  of Scottish Art 1870-1920.

Not only was t just one rom but one artist was over represented big time, and there were quite a lot of landscapes which don't particularly float my boat. I recognise others feel differently, in fact V and D themselves seemed to enjoy the landscapes more than anything else.

My own 'if you could take one picture home with you, which one would it be?' is the one above, John Duncan's St Bride. That image pays it much less than justice. The colours are lighter, brighter and glow, and he amazing detail that Duncan puts into his paintings is lost in the reproduction. And there's a lot of Celtic symbolism in there too, which  takes some time  to tease out. I loved it, and however much I might deplore the fact that they could only be bothered to use one room, it as worth going just to see that. And there were some other lovely pictures  on display too.

We did less well with our lunch experience. We had booked at Contini which is a well known restaurant n Edinburgh with several branches including this one at the National Gallery. We had eaten there before and enjoyed it. Our experience this time was not so good. My lunch looked as though it had been thrown onto the plate, and the promised accompanying salad never appeared. V's beef and horseradish lacked the horseradish. The bill came to a tad over £75 which is a lot to pay when two of you have only enjoyed the glass of wine and the coffee, so we did that most unbritish of things and complained. We cringed inwardly as we did it, but we did it nonetheless. V and I were relieved of the necessity of  paying for our main courses which was good, but really - we'd rather have had a nice lunch. We won't be going back there again.