Melrose July 23+24

When you take a wrong turn, you never know whom you will meet:

A view on the way from Selkirk to Melrose:

Following my shadow:

Alex and Alex, if driving tanks over cars dis not satisfy, this could be your next adventure:

Completed the Borders Abbey Way at 11:00 a.m.  Photo of Abbey taken from Harmony Gardens a bit away:

Lots of tour busses stop in Melrose so that people can visit the ruins of the Abbey.  The town has several upscale tea shops and cafes, an independent fruit and vegetable store (first in a long time), AND a shop selling fine ice cream.  Happy to have a rest day here.  B and B lady was very nice today and I have a better room that boasts the teeniest frig you ever saw, which makes a big racket, considering its size, but will hold a pint of milk for tomorrow's coffee.

Because this was a rest day, a long-awaited one, at that, I decided NOT to walk the three+ miles to Abbotsford House, but to take the bus.  It is quite intimidating (for me) to take public transportation in unfamiliar places, but I did, and just to add to the anxiety was the fact that the bus did not drop you off right at the place, but at a big, and I mean big, roundabout about 1/3 mile away.  Google Maps, however, performed admirably pointing me in the right direction.  Of course I arrived early, so there was time to walk some of the surrounding paths, which were heavily treed and quite lovely.

This is Abbotsford House—NOT to be confused with Abbotsbury in England where there are subtropical gardens and a swanery—the home of Sir Walter Scott:

You would think that a tour of its rooms would take up the better part of a morning.  Such was not the case since visitors can access only a handful of rooms on the first floor.  Quite a disappointment.  There are also gardens, but they are of the flowers-planted-in square-beds-variety, so, again, not a thrill.

Sir Walter really liked weapons a whole lot, so to welcome you, as you enter, all the walls are covered—artistically, to be sure— with guns and swords and suits of armour, that sort of thing:

There were a couple of lovely windows:

And more walls of the finest oak decorated with more weapons.  That large curved sword at the bottom made me a little bit sick:

The dining table could seat thirty guests.  It is rather sparely set, don't you think?

Good-bye, Abbotsford House:

Lady who directed me back to very big roundabout passed me as I was waiting for the bus.  "You are standing on the wrong side of the street," she insisted.  "No, I don't think so," I said waveringly, and as the bus was due to come any minute, I did not want to be wrong, which, in these matters, I tend to be. Fortunately, this was one time I got it right, and for £1.70 the bus whisked me back to Melrose where I bought a double-scoop ice cream cone, raspberry jam, which I hope will be as good as the almost finished raspberry jam I bought on Arran Island, some nuts, a loaf of bread, yet to be sampled, and a couple of other things.  Mostly, I have been R E L A X I N G, catching up on crossword puzzles.  Soon it will be time to head over to the CoOp to purchase the daily ration of chicken.  Tomorrow's walk to Lauder is billed as 10 miles, so that will be almost like having another rest day.