What did the fantastic lunch at Arcade miss? Desserts! I had an ice cream shop called Mary's Milk Bar in the Old Town on my "must-try-in-Edinburgh" list. We took a walk there.
It was hard to choose one out of about a dozen flavors. In an article of Munchies, posted in January 2016, the owner of the shop, Mary Hillard said “Our ice cream is 80 percent milk, 10 percent whipping cream, then sugar. It’s a milk ice cream: the cow is queen.” So, I thought I would try their plain "Milk" flavor, but changed my mind. I got salted caramel that was plain milk ice cream with caramel swirls. J chose... hum, I don't remember clearly... dark chocolate, perhaps?
We took our ice cream cups up to the hill at the foot of Edinburgh castle, where we saw people sitting on the grass and enjoying the sunshine.
The ice cream was super creamy. I really enjoyed it even though it was a chilly day.
Then, we took a walk in the Old Town, going up and down on slopes and steps.
We visited Greyfriars Kirkyard at the southern edge of the Old Town to see Tom Riddle's grave. I am talking about "He Who Must Not Be Named," "You-Know-Who," or "the Dark Lord". Yes, there was his grave indeed!
It is said that J.K. Rowling wrote the majority of the Harry Potter books in Edinburgh. The name on the real grave of gentleman who passed away in 1806, aged 72, may have inspired that of Lord Voldemort. Oops, I should have not said that!
We also saw a part of George Heriot's School from its gate. The school was also said to be the inspiration for Hogwarts. Interesting!
We had brief sprinkles, which generated a rainbow! That was the end of our first day in Edinburgh. To be continued...
