We're here in Scotland. We've not actually played on any piers yet - that starts tomorrow - but we had the long journey up today, and are staying in Edinburgh tonight (courtesy of Clare's friend and long-term Extreme Cello fan Caroline). The picture is from her flat - looking up at the fantastic escarpment in Holyrood Park. We head west tomorrow to do Scotland's only two piers, Dunoon and Rothesay.
Exact timings will depend on ferry crossings - not to mention the weather, which is looking somewhat stormy after the balmy summer weather of the last three days - but we're hoping to play on Dunoon pier at 11.00 and Rothesay pier at 14.00, before heading back south to England.
In some ways this feels like a bit of a false start: we had originally been planning to do this two days later, and go straight into the English piers on Saturday. However, plans went a bit awry after Clare's daughter's graduation was scheduled for Thursday, so we need to be back in Sheffield for that! The 56 piers in England & Wales will be done in 13 consecutive days from Saturday, which still sounds quite impressive I think. It's certainly challenging enough!
Quote of the day: [on the phone] "Are you really going to play at the end of Southend Pier?" - a local newspaper reporter queries our intentions for the world's longest pleasure pier...