According to our tour guide, Scotland is where the inspiration for everything came from.  Robinson Crusoe, Robin Hood, Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde…

By day Deacon William Brodie was a respectable cabinet-maker, who repaired cabinets and locks for important people.  But by night he was a thief and a jerk.  During his day job he would make case people’s houses and make copies of their keys; then at night he would break in and steal all the good stuff.  He used the money to pay his mistresses, his illegitimate children, and to gamble with. 

It’s also said that he built the first gallows in Edinburgh and, after his arrest, was the first person to be hung from it. 

Aside from inspiring Robert Louis Stevenson to write The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, he’s also got a pub named after him.

For one of our last meals in Edinburgh, Kristen and I decided to eat there (we tried the day before but it was too crowded).  The upstairs was more restaurant-ish, while the downstairs was more pub-ish – we ate upstairs, mainly because there was seating available up there. 

It was a comfort-food kind of day and I was craving a sandwich, so I ordered a chicken/bacon sandwich with fries.  Sorry haggis – not today.  Initially I wanted to try cranachan – a Scottish dessert that I saw on a lot of menus – but the restaurant pre-made them and they were sold out.  According to the waitress it wasn’t that good anyway so I was better off not having it.  Instead of dessert, I decided to join Kristen in a drink.  I can’t remember what she ordered (just that it had beer in it), but I had The Earl Grey – a mix of Bombay Sapphire Gin, Earl Grey Tea, and cloudy lemonade.

The food was good, although nothing to write home about, but the drink was delicious.  I have to recreate it somehow…

After we’d received our food the waitress said that they now had cranachan available and asked it I wanted to order it.  Considering her previous review I decided not to.  My drink was good enough.