Monday 6 May 2024--My apartment in Edinburgh is rather a splurge, with a nice view over Princes Street to the Royal Scottish Academy and up toward the castle. The ninth day of an eighteen-day trip is the perfect time to do laundry--I'm traveling with just a carry-on, a first for me. It's a good lesson to see how much I can do without. I can certainly do without the luggage carousels. The flat has a combination washer-dryer, and it's just big enough to wash everything I have. After a first run through the dry cycle, though, I have the impression that the Brits don't understand what it is a dryer is supposed to do. I guess it's overloaded...I take out all of the quick-drying synthetics and drape them around the room, leaving about half a load of cottons. It's all dry at about the same time.

I catch a bus this afternoon to the Commonwealth Pool, from where I walk along the south side of Holyrood Park to Duddingston. This neighborhood was once a village far outside the limits of Edinburgh. My destination is the Sheep Heid Inn, which purports to be Scotland's oldest public house, established in 1360. They don't hide the fact that the current building is mostly 18th- or 19th-century, but they don't shout it, either. I think there's a bit of old wall out back. It's a nice enough pub for dinner and pints, in any case.

I bus back to the vicinity of the Museum, and walk through the Grassmarket and up to the Bow Bar to close out my evening.