Readers, you were entirely correct in guessing that the reason for our recent trip down to Edinburgh was not, in fact, to attend one of Taylor Swift's three weekend gigs at Murrayfield Stadium.
It turns out that Caryl, a lovely American lady Gail met 18 months ago on her Cuba bike tour, was in town for a couple of days and Gail had promised to take her for a hike up that well known Edinburgh landmark, Arthur's Seat, on Monday morning,
We were super-lucky that some other lovely friends, John and Françoise, were in residence at their top floor flat in a beautiful Victorian house near the Edinburgh University King's Buildings, and they kindly allowed us to stay there overnight.
I made myself quite at home, of course.
On Monday morning we found Caryl, finishing her breakfast in a congenial and dog-friendly café in the Canonmills area of Edinburgh.
This intrepid Florida-based lady had just completed a cycling tour around northwest Scotland. She'd been doing battle with gale force winds (not uncommon in this part of the world) and was undaunted by the prospect of ascending Edinburgh's famous extinct volcano.
The weather was fine, and how wrong Gail was in thinking it might be quiet up there on a Monday morning. A good proportion of the plus 200,000 fans who'd attended Taylor Swift's concerts at the weekend appeared to have stayed on and were also clambering around the craggy summit of Arthur's Seat, enjoying the spectacular view of the city.
On the way down we ran into these delightfully attired young ladies from London.
I do believe that meeting me was the highlight of their trip to Scotland's capital city, although Gail is cautioning me against entering into a popularity contest with a certain Miss 'Tay-Tay'! She says I wouldn't want to inspire the megastar to write a song about my shortcomings...
Anyway, all in all it was a splendid couple of days.
