Edinburgh Scenes, 1

We were in Edinburgh August 2-13, at a nice one bedroom apartment in Stockbridge, along the river Leith, a little less than a mile from the center of the action, the Royal Mile and environs. Several of the venues we got to were in New Town, even closer. The apartment--I'll find a photo eventually--was well-located for us, quiet, secure, and within walking distance of everything we needed. Expensive, yet Spartan, but pretty much what we were hoping for when Vicki booked it through AirB&B months ago. We were pleased. It was our fourth and longest visit to Edinburgh, which most of the time seems a pretty staid place, but which in August goes fairly wild and crazy because of the thousands (yes, thousands) of events associated with the Edinburgh Festival (many festivals) and the Fringe, the wilder collection of events that evolved over the long course of the the Festival. The Fringe, so it seems to me, now dwarfs the Festival. Be that as it may, we were in Edinburgh mostly for the Fringe, but also the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, and then also for the botanical gardens, the art and history museums, some shopping for favorite Scottish products (both liquid and solid), and not least, the electricity when 3 million visitors descend upon a place with mostly art and intellectual expression on their minds. So it's going to take several, no, many posts to convey what I can and also what I want to remember. I've done more conventional posts on visits to Edinburgh, in 2009 and in 2013, in August of those years, easily found via the search box or the blog archive to the right.

Just walking around is part of the fun, here in New Town, an Art Nuvo edifice

Central Edinburgh is mostly gray Georgian or neo-Gothic, so it's interesting to find
something really different

Looking down Princes Street, New Town, the Walter Scott Monument, etc.;
how many major cities feature an author for their major landmark? It's a Festival
city, to be sure, but also literary city, home to still the largest of book festivals

Just panning around the horizon

Other side of the gulch

All kinds of things happening here

The ferris wheel was in action except on the windy days

National Gallery complex, Fringe events

Rare dorsal view of the Walter Scott memorial

More conventional view

Among Edinburgh's many kissing alleys

Street scene just off the Royal Mile

Over-looking a bit of the West End Fair, a market of some hundred or so crafts-
persons...interesting stuff, no crap

We did our share stimulating the Scottish economy

One of the Festival venues, high-falutin' stuff; I think we saw The Flying Dutchman
here one year; obviously, our tastes have gone downhill...

These artifacts all over town...

In our neighborhood...a market no more, however, just more residential blocks