No, I haven't won the lottery or come into some dosh from a dead relative. It's half term up here so of course it's raining. But we said "sod that" got on a train to Edinburgh. The plan was go to the National Museum of Scotland but before going there we did a slight detour to the
Museum on the Mound. It's a small museum all about money, built on an old Edinburgh dumping ground and just a few minutes walk from Edinburgh Waverley station. There were lots of interesting bits (quite a few boring ones) about plate design, the different metals used in coins throughout the ages, the establishment of banks in Scotland, the architecture of the bank HQ, about money security, the rise of building societies and insurance. Luckily they had a free trail booklet for kiddo and her Dad to do whilst I tried to read some of the vast information on display. The best part was seeing a million pounds all in £20 notes...don't get excited, all the notes are cancelled....however, this is the only time I'll ever be close to that amount of money and I was amazed at how much space it took up.
It was a pleasure to visit made more so by the wonderful staff .
On leaving the museum, we walked up Lady Stairs Close reading inscriptions on the ground. The reason became clear halfway up when we passed the entrance of the
Writer's Museum. Kiddo asked in exasperation about how many museums there were in Edinburgh and refused to let me enter so we continued onto the
National Museum of Scotland. We have been a few times this year but it's so well laid out and really lovely to visit, even when busy, that kiddo loves going there. This time we treated ourselves to a snack in the brasserie - I wholeheartedly recommend the scones and we also enjoyed brownies and chocolate fudge cake - YUMMY!
By the time we came out, the rain had indeed sodded (?) off and the whole city was glowing with autumnal sun.
