Be careful what you wish for ...

After an appointment in town we took a stroll round the Parliamentary Quarter. In a previous life I would hurry into Holyrood for cross-party meetings with no time to take in the surroundings. Today we had time to admire the reflections and evaluate the interface between the new Parliament building and the Old Town that had propped up the foot of The Royal Mile for centuries. I think the architectural synergy works.

Round the corner we had our first encounter with the new U.K. Government’s HQ beside Waverley station. On the hill behind we had our first view of the new St Jame’s Quarter with its controversial skyline spiral finial!

The standout impression of our 3 mile city walk was the virtual absence of tourists and all the boarded up tourist souvenir shops. We used to mutter at the lack of pavement space due to selfie grabbing tourists. Now they are suddenly not here and we worry about the impact of their absence on the short term viability of many, many city centre businesses.