Maybe you can guess from Bob's outfit that we've been to Scotland, not so much a holiday but more of a road trip doing things so I haven't got very good pictures to share.
Bob was outside a lovely little bakery cafe, Mackenzies in Strathpeffer, I like Strathpeffer it's a beautiful old spa town with wonderful architecture. The weather was a bit grey though to get snaps but here is a delicious savoury herb scone at Mackenzies and they also have an amazing selection of malts.
This snap is Strathpeffer Victorian station, now tearooms and a couple of little shops.
Carvings are at the station too.
Our road trip took us through Perthshire and I have to say I was completely taken with the beautiful swathes of bluebells across the countryside. It seemed once you drove into Perthshire bluebells appeared everywhere in vast carpets. Sadly I didn't get any better pictures than these whizzing past in the car. I don't think the bluebells are visible on the pic with cows but they are there in the distance.
Bluebells, pink bells and white bells. Anyone know why, is it a soil thing why some are different colours?
One lovely stop off on the trip was Aberfeldy and a visit to our friends coffee shop, the Habitat Cafe. We saw the fabulous new espresso machine which had arrived that week and sampled some tasty and delicious award winning drinks.
Bye bye Scotland until next time. I didn't get to see the Kelpies which I want to at some point but here is the Stirling mermaid.
We spent last week in Scotland and Bob the Bunny visited some lovely new places in Edinburgh, Perth, Aberfeldy and Inverness.
We start our eating and drinking by seeking out a newly opened veggie place in Perth called Spring Greens Bistro.
A lovely little place and I think the highlight after a tasty light bite starter was the dessert. We found rocky road with vegan marshmallows, yum, and below you can see their version of a 'healthy' granola style peanut butter cup, very moreish!
The next day we went to Edinburgh and on the list of things to do was seek out a particular coffee shop who do fab coffee of course and a good range in veggie food. The place was Brew Lab and the plan didn't exactly go smoothly.
It was pouring with raining and we had a long way to walk to find this place, near to a college. Of course we got there very wet and it was full of students, there was no room whatsover to stay and eat so we had to make do with a take out brew (which was nice) and a long walk back to Princes St. Now I don't object to it being full of students but I do get a bit mad when I see them all sat at the tables, laptops open not buying any food and probably only bought one drink which has been consumed hours ago in order for them to stay there and use the free WiFi. I also felt very old and uncomfortable in that environment so I comforted myself by saying if there had been some space, I would've no doubt felt very awkward sitting and feasting alongside the young people.
Here are some Brew Lab pics.
Slightly more successful on the Edinburgh trip was a visit to Hendersons, this place is often to referred to as Scotland's first veggie restaurant, dating back to 1962. It was huge so we easily found a table and we didn't feel old in here so big tick!
It was quite late in the day so we just had a little salad bowl followed by a rather tempting vanilla gateau with fresh fruit.
Onwards and upwards north to Aberfeldy, I've saved the jewel in the coffee crown until last. One of our coffee friends has a cafe called the Habitat in Aberfeldy and it sits nicely in prime position in the square.
The cafe has won the BSA (Beverage Standards Association) National Award for Best Espresso in the UK 2013, this is a fabulous achievement as they've only been open a year. We couldn't wait to get inside and offer our congratulations but what a shame, our friend was off that day, maybe he'd run off if he'd heard we were coming!
Not to worry, the staff made us wonderful coffees, I enjoyed this brew followed by a delicious flat white and then of course an amazing Costa Rican espresso.
We also tried the food, the feta salad was lovely and then I tried some gingerbread which seemed to go very well with my coffee.
I liked the Habitat Cafe, nice atmosphere and Aberfeldy is a lovely place with some quirky little shops and galleries.
Lastly, but there's no food pic, we found a little whole food, organic cafe in a natural therapy centre at the other side of this bridge in Inverness.
It was a bit more of a socks and sandally sort of place, tiny, but we had a lovely sweet potato and coconut curry.
I think that's it for our eating and drinking around Scotland, thanks for sticking with me to the end!
