A funny thing happened on the way to Ingleston

We lost our hotel!!! I did an on-line booking into one of the Premier Inns only 6 minutes drive from Ingleston but when we arrived at the spot it should have been it wasn't there!! We'd left home around tea-time and with a stop en route it was dark bythe time we got into Edinburgh and there were, of course, roadworks. We drove down the A8 until we reached the Zoo by which time we knew we were well off track. I jumped out of the car and accosted two ladies who after a long discussion decided there'd never been a Premier Inn on the Glasgow Road. Next I tried the Holiday Inn next to the Zoo, they couldn't find it either, then a garage on Glasgow Road, no luck there. By now we were getting a bit panicky and stressed. We stopped a taxi driver who told us he knew where it was. Turn left before the traffic lights he said, its there. So we did and ended up in the car park of the Marriot Hotel. Taking my nerve in my hands I went and asked them if they knew where the Premier Inn was. No, they too hadn't heard of it but the Concierge was a star. He told me to tell Keith to park up and he'd ring round to see if he could find where we were booked in. The address on the confirmation gave 111 Glasgow Road. Two minutes later he came out asked my first name and said "you're booked in here". Phew were we pleased.

Friday morning we were up and off to the Quilt Championships at Ingleston. It was a lot smaller than I had imagined and we'd done the rounds by lunchtime. So we had lunch and did them again.
I did take photos of some quilts but as I don't have permission to post them I thought I'd better keep them in my albumn. This though is a fragment of my friend Ros Pollock's quilt. Her quilting is exquisite and there always such a lot going on in her quilts that each time you look you find something else.

We thought as it took such a long time to find the hotel we'd better stay another night. On Saturday we went into Edinburgh and this time I had time to actually go to the Art Gallery. The exhibits this time were from Goya to Picasso. We enjoyed it very much, especially the impressionists but it was too hot for Keith and he went and sat outside.

One disappointment with Edinburgh was the roadworks, most of Prince's Street seemed to be under construction so it was difficult to get a decent photo of the castle. You can just see the diggers in the bottom of the photo.

Last time we came there was a service going on in St Giles Cathedral so I couldn't take any photos. But this time I managed to get a couple. There was a sponsored music practise going on inside the church and when we were there a small girl was playing "Happy Birthday". I liked the idea of a sponsored practise, if they'd been one when Sy was learning to play the violin I would willingly have paid for him to practise elsewhere.
St Giles from the Royal Mile.

One of the many beautiful stained glass windows.

Keith thought this man's wife had sent him outside to practise too. We were piped out of Scotland. - actually he was quite good.

Before we went to Ingleston I'd been to a beading day run by my friend Jenny. We made beaded tassels and I promised her I would finish it before I went away and I did.