Sept. 5+6 Edinburgh

At Edinburgh Airport—a zoo if ever there was one—flight delayed, tired, will be a lot more tired before the day is over, but time for a review of life off the trail, post Richmond.  

Arrived in Edinburgh by train at the conveniently located station about ten minutes a pied from hotel, after you figure out which of about ten exits to take, on a rare sunny and cool day. ¡Qué suerte!

Off to Palace of the Holyrood, an obligatory stop at the foot of the Royal Mile. (The other must see is the castle at the top of said street.  Of that, more below.) As you can see, it looks like many other Important British and Scottish Structures:

The palace was so memorable that I am not quite sure what I saw other than lots of portraits and dark wood.  Then went to museum where the display of shoes rivalled that in a Neiman Marcus for creativity.  One pair in particular was made of shiny copper coils, and, like most of the others, had a platform that would lift the wearer several inches off the ground and require feats of balance  to stay on one’s feet. So much fun! 





Surrounding the shoes were fashions from different eras.  It is terrifically interesting to see how people decorate, display, hide, and otherwise treat the body fashion-wise, is it not?  There was display of masks, which was impressive, and a whole variety of other things, but the shoes, clothes and masks grabbed my attention most.

At yet another museum, saw a Rembrandt exhibit.  That was pretty wonderful.  I am not sure I quite get the greatness of, say, the Mona Lisa, but I do get the greatness of Rembrandt.  (That may not be a valid comparison, but anyway....) 

This rhino, whose horn was not made from endangered materials,  did not escape from a museum, but there was no good place to put him, so here he is:

Back to the Royal Mile and all its shoppees selling cashmere and non-cashmere memorabilia, so many shops selling the same things, but I popped into one that was a bit different and espied boxes of the fabulous melt-in-your-mouth tea cakes that James back at the Ashton in Lancaster had in a jar for guests to take, and so I did tell the lady that I would be back the next day to purchase some.  And indeed I did do that. 

Piggy with eyelashes y todo!  The nether part of piggy has become sandwich meat:

His and hers wedding attire:

After more wandering about and a stop and Marks and Spencer to pick up some dinner returned to hotel to settle in.  Discovered that there are circular walks one can take in the city that have directions and gpx support, so chose two to do the next day.  Best idea yet, especially since rain was forecast but not until mid-afternoon.

7:00 a.m. set out to walk along the Water of Leith.  How beautiful the sky was and the city, still asleep. Passed through lovely upscale neighbourhoods, and the park wherein is the Museum of Modern Art, which is huge.  Was sad, though, that I was too early to gain access to museum, so missed the Nolde exhibit.  At least there were some sculptures outside.  

Not The Thinker.  Maybe The Doer?

This guy reminded me of that fantastic sculpture of partially buried cars in the Hamden Plaza parking lot:

The walking instructions instructed one to "Turn left at the Henry Moore," so I did:

Had a ticket to visit the Castle:



so after the Water of Leith walk, headed on over.  Oy!  What does one see at the Castle aside from the Order of the Thistle (which I swear I saw yesterday at the Palace of the Holyrood) and the Order of the Garter?  Why swarms of people!  That is what one sees.  After taking in the view:

and the genuine impressiveness of the structure, but bypassing the whiskey tasting, I left with no regrets for having spent maybe thirty minutes there.

Back at hotel, grabbed a snack from my supply of bread, cheese and fruit before taking off on the second walk that went through the delightful town (suburb?) of Stockbridge and the Botanic Gardens.  Did not spend enough time in the gardens, but this was as gorgeous a walk as that of the morning.  More museuming, another stop at M&S for dinner supplies, and return to shop to pick up the teacakes.  Alas, that was all there was time for.  The time has come to pack up and go home, as it inevitably does.