2 bears - and 2 exhibitions

What a wonderful day I had in Edinburgh with Chris, (despite having to get up before 6am for the early train she’d booked).

However we used the time to walk via St Andrews Square to see Paddington then along George St to a cafe she fancied for breakfast. I had a cinnamon bun and coffee while she had pancakes. Revived after our early start, we walked via Water of Leith to Modern 1 for the Evelyn Nicodemus which was excellent - well curated and such a variety of mediums. Such an interesting artist who had a traumatic life being subjected to racism in Sweden then moving around Europe and back to Tanzania before settling in Edinburgh. Her art reflected her quest for equality as a woman and in particular as a woman of colour.

It’s a shame the bus doesn’t run between the National Gallery and the Modern (I should have downloaded the Uber App but didn’t think in time) as we had to walk up to Haymarket, calling in at the episcopal cathedral, and from there along Princes Street Gardens where I was happy to see Wojtek the Polish soldier bear. (Look him up - a fascinating story I listened to on a history podcast).

We walked up the Mound then down the High Street to Banns for a delicious relaxed lunch which I treated Chris to for a belated birthday.

She wanted to see the Colourist exhibition at the Dovecote so that was easy to get to after lunch. I was disappointed as I’d seen most of the Colourists before though it was good this included some women. It also showed contemporary English and Irish painters lauded by Fry who ignored the Scottish painters in his Post-Impressionist exhibitions. There were a few from private collections which were new and also some work of Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell. I think the contrast of the privilege of their lives with that of Nicodamus was stark. We both enjoyed her so much more.

By then it was after 4 so we headed back intending to have a cocktail in the Balmoral but we walked out - £20 no thanks! We were flagging but I persuaded her that Harvey Nicks would be fine so back up to St Andrews Square we went and she loved it. We had a window table looking down to Paddington and across the Firth to Fife. £10 for a Cosmopolitan for Chris and the same for my margarita. They were small and the service was slow. 5 men servers hanging about and when I finally got the attention of one he sent the only woman over. (The water was free!)

We just made it to the 5.34 pm train as it was from platform 7 which, being further down from 6 and almost out of the station, added a lot to the daily steps. 18332 steps. Almost 8 miles on pavements. Thankfully Mr C met us off the train and drove Chris home.