Morningside

Yesterday Joe and I set out on a mission: to have new adventures that would result in something interesting to post on the blog. The situation is dire, I told him. I've resorted to posting about laundry. Things must change. And so was born our weekend of fun. Happily, it actually was fun.

Saturday morning we were greeted with clear skies and a very bright sun. It was crisp outside, but we bundled up and prepared for a day spent outdoors. On the agenda for the day: to explore Morningside (an area of Edinburgh) and to locate and tour a park I once caught a glimpse of while riding the bus.

All totaled, we walked about 7 miles and were gone for about 5 hours (we stopped for lunch, to take pictures, and to sit and soak in the scenery).

Outside a florist's shop

Among our favorite sights were some beautiful homes:



I love houses with names. I love it even more when the name is written out in the wrought iron.
We also saw some beautiful churches:



And, happened across a well-known pub (no cameras allowed inside!):


And, finally, we came to our ultimate destination: The Braid Burn Valley Park (Burn, by the way, means river). This is a beautiful little park with a great view of the Pentland Hills. It's on the very south side of Morningside (furthest away from our flat) and has lots of open green space on either side of the Braid Burn. The park is home to 100s of young cherry trees, which blossom in the Spring. We'll definitely have to make it back to see that.





On the way home, we meandered some more, taking in more of the beautiful scenery and the various shops lining the streets. We stopped for lunch at a cute little cafe, The Yellow Cafe, where we warmed up with some homemade soup, delicious bread, and a tasty panini.

All said, it was a really lovely day spent getting to know our not-so-new city and finding some new favorite spots.