Tourists Day Two

Today we went to visit the Great Tapestry of Scotland, which now has a permanent home in Galashiels. It has been on a nationwide tour, but now has the most brilliant building, with an excellent cafe too.

We were at the doors before they opened at 9.30, but they let us in, and we had a decent coffee before we went to see the tapestry. We’d seen some of it many years ago at the Parliament, so knew what to expect. But this time we started at panel number 1 and finished at panel number 160! We had a break for (a splendid!) lunch half way. It is magnificent. Not only the history of Scotland, but the panels themselves are wonderful - any reproductions don’t do them justice. The colours, the textures, the wee tiny details (they had magnifying glasses available) and the stories by the people, all over the country, who volunteered to be part of it. What a project. We bought the book to read more about it, and also to have the history timeline stories too. We were there for nearly five hours!!

A pleasant drive home, and we whipped round the by-pass to pick up Archie, who was quite pleased to see us. He got a fairly good report card from Sam, who says he enjoyed having him and yes, we should do it again soon. 

We all walked round to vote before settling down for a quiet evening (with wifi). We watched a recording of the cycle race on TV to see if we featured, hanging over the barrier to get a photo… and yes, JR’s pink jacket was seen!

We did have fun being proper tourists over the last couple of days - The Whisky Experience, Abbotsford, The Great Tapestry of Scotland.