Day 13 - Thursday 12th October 2023

Thankfully we were able to sleep in this morning. An 8am start here in Edinburgh was much more civilised that the 4:30am start yesterday in Iceland.

When we woke up, it was a chilly 6C outside and there were dark grey clouds and some blue sky and sunshine. It wasn't raining.

At about 9am, I went out to get some pastries for breakfast from a coffee shop around the corner in Thistle Street that we'd noticed last night on the way to the pub.

Suzy had organised to catch up with Vicky (one of the Suzy's cousins and the mother of the bride) and her husband John (father of the bride) at 10am in a different nearby coffee shop.

It was good to catch up with them - the last time we'd seen them was about four years ago when they were living in Perth. The time before that was when we stayed overnight at their house when they were living near Aberdeen in Scotland and we were travelling throughout the UK.

Just before noon, the four of us walked up a couple of blocks to a park outside the National Gallery where we met up with Julie (another cousin of Suzy) and her husband Drew and Lynette (who is a cousin of Vicky). Julie and Drew live in Sydney and had come to Scotland too for the wedding on Saturday.

It was a great location. We could see the castle on the hill beyond the National Gallery building. There were impressive old buildings on the other side of the park. In the courtyard, there was a man in Scottish kilt playing the bagpipes.

Suzy and I then went across the road to the Marks and Spencer department store to get some supplies for our apartment such as fruit and coffee.

Suzy had organised for us meet Bobbie and Allan at The Dome which is a few blocks away from our apartment. Bobbie is the sister of (another) Allan who is married to my sister, Annie. The Allan we met today is Bobbie's husband.

Bobbie and Allan live in Scotland. Although they've been to Australia, we'd never met them before. Annie's Allan is delightful and so we expected his sister to be delightful too and this proved to be correct.

We spent a most enjoyable afternoon with Bobbie and Allan. They are very nice people.

The Dome was a great place to spend the afternoon. It's a grand building. Apparently it used to be a bank back in the days when banks had impressive premises (like the Commonwealth Bank in Martin Place in Sydney).

At about 5pm, we said goodbye to Bobbie and Allan and headed to the Oxford Bar where Suzy's relatives were getting together for a drink. This pub is also only a couple of blocks from our apartment but in the opposite direction from the Dome.

Apart from Vicky, John and Lynette, there was Jim (another of Suzy's cousins) and his wife Sue, Andrew (another cousin) and with his son (tall) Paul and daughter Laura, Drew and Julie's daughter Annie and her boyfriend Dan.

Some of them we haven't seen for a while and some (the sons and daughters) we'd never met before. It was a great opportunity to catch up and chat.

At about 7pm, Suzy and I headed back to our apartment. On the way, we bought take-away Thai food from a restaurant in Thistle Street.