A Grand Day Out

Last weekend, we headed south of Edinburgh to the Border Country.  Some of you may remember that we almost had a match in Melrose, so we thought we would take a trip down to see what we had missed.  We could have taken a direct, motorway route, but decided to visit Peebles first and then over to Melrose.  We are certainly glad we did!  It was a lovely day out, and our drive took us through some lovely countryside, although it is proving hard to find countryside that isn't lovely (today's word would appear to be "lovely").  Having never been to Peebles, we didn't know what was there (believe it or not, Bob didn't even do any preliminary internet scouting, which his usual modus operandi), so we parked in the first public car park we found, which was next to a small river. 

The photographer, kitted out.

In stealth mode.

We explored the streets near the car park, with a couple of nice shops and sights and thought it was nice, but in a whim we headed uphill and to our pleasant surprise, we found beautiful downtown Peebles!  What an interesting main street it has and what a hopping place it was - people and traffic (boo hiss!) everywhere, but there was so much to see it didn't bother us - too much.  Bob's newest fixation is just about every town we visit and saying that he could live there, and Peebles certainly filled that desire.

A sighting of the very rare tartan patchwork deer (Cervus tartanis patchiatum) whose usual habitat is standing surreptitiously near kilted Scotsmen at Highland Games where the deer's natural camoflage comes into play.

Old

Older (with the coat of arms of Peebles)

Oldest

Oldest-er (or something like that!)

Main street Peebles.  This road would take us out of town and on our way to Melrose.  We could have done without the other traffic.

 

Grand church (Church of Scotland) at the end of the High Street.

And what would a grand church be without a nice pub practically attached to it???

And so, having found our way out of Peebles, we were off to Melrose and drove along the back routes to get there, which brought even more of that wonderful scenery we keep mentioning.  Once in Melrose, it may have taken us as long to find a parking spot as it took to drive there.  We hit that perfect storm of a tourist destination with a rugby match taking place.  Fortunately, after making a few loops of the center of town, we found a spot on the other side of the rugby stadium and walked back to town, which sounds impressive but, if you knew how close it really is, you wouldn't exactly be in awe).  First order of business - lunch!

We chose to eat here, which turned out to be dog friendly.  Unfortunately, we weren't and had left Dougal at home...ahem.

Next on the agenda,the abbey.  Melrose Abbey is an impressive ruin, which is Bob's preferred state of abbeys and castles as they seem to have much more character that way.  It is run by Historic Scotland, so we bought a yearly pass as we figure we will visit a lot of their properties.  It allows us to go through Edinburgh Castle without having to wait in line and, as it is just up the street, we may visit there a few times throughout the year.  We can't really do it justice trying to describe it, so we will let the photos speak for themselves, more or less, starting with a walk around it!

There is an area of the abbey in which you can climb up for a spectacular view of it as well as the surrounding countryside.  It came as a surprise to us, our legs and our cardiovascular systems just how many uninterrupted stairs you are required to climb.  Fortunately, they at least installed a pad at the top of the stairs so that you don't bang your head on the low door at the top, unlike some tower in St. Andrews that could be mentioned and, well, just has been. 

Boo.

Of course, what would an old abbey be without some cool grave markers?

Some like them old...

...and some like them creepy!

Can you spot the grinning skeleton and the flying, kilted pig???

And so, we said goodbye to Melrose.  As we were walking back to the car, the rugby match was in full swing.  A player kicked a field goal (or whatever the equivalent is in rugby) that was not only successful but also ricocheted off a parked car - luckily, not ours!!