with hardly a dither

Of course this is the quickest way to the Meadows. I'd have preferred to go up the Playfair steps too, then up through Milne's court, then down then up then down and so on, but the festive nonsense outside the galleries makes it unpleasant. They also remembered about the playpark at the west end of the gardens, which used up a bit more time. Sitting still for their lunch made the small one cold, so we went to the dragonmuseum a bit earlier than expected.