Edinburgh Castle

Sometime in all the Edinburgh rambles we also visited Edinburgh Castle, took the official tour, and enjoyed the history, memorials, and views.

Edinburgh Castle from the Stable Road below

Margaret Chapel, oldest building in Edinburgh, part of Castle

complex

The newer chapel and part of the war memorial

A claymore--giant ceremonial sword--in the

great hall

Old cannon trained on the Scott memorial

A Year on the Road

Monday also was our one year anniversary on the road. On the early morning of August 31, 2008, in great haste, we left Missoula, most of our possessions sold or given away, the rest in storage, and flew, first to San Francisco, then to Tokyo, and then to Beijing, for the beginning of our retirement adventure. It has been an incredible year, on four continents, unlike any previous year in our 41 years together, and, also unlike any previous year, chronicled in some detail in our blogs. We marvel that we have been able to do all this, that we're still together, that the mishaps and surprises have been small and few. And so, without losing a step, we're on to the second year. Perhaps in the new year there will be more time to reflect on what we're doing, how we're doing it, what works and what doesn't. In the meantime, we're still having too much fun....

Ascent of Arthur's Seat

Edinburgh is built on seven hills. No, wait, that's Chicago. But Edinburgh is in the midst of some very old volcanic country, and some of the old cones are important sites and landmarks. One is Arthur's Seat, which rises out of Holyrood Park and overlooks the whole old city area. We had walked the Royal Mile down to Holyrood Castle, but then decided not to do it--more pricey than we felt it was worth. Besides, Vicki wanted to go see the latest Harry Poppins movie and didn't want me around to spoil it, so she saw the movie and, owing originally to the advice of Montana friend Lyndel Meikle, I climbed the Seat. It was every bit as good as Lyndel said it would be.

Arthur's Seat, from the Ribs

Holyrood Castle, which the current Royalty use when on Edinburgh business

Adam's Ribs, which I inadvertently climbed en route to the Seat; never, no, always, 
look at a map before starting out....

A bay of the North Sea, south of Edinburgh, with volcanic cone

Summit view compass

Edinburgh Castle in the distance

It's true, I have a nose for blackberries

Still More Edinburgh



Monday we covered yet more of old Edinburgh, beginning with the Robert Louis Stevenson house on Heriot, the Real Mary King Close, more of Royal Mile toward Canongate, and then an ascent of Arthur's Seat, overlooking it all.

Vicki at (very) distant cousin Robert Louis

Stevenson's house on Heriot; the relationship

accounts perhaps for her literary and travel

interests

I was never in to individual philosophers; but if

I were, David Hume would be my favorite; alas,

this is not how he probably dressed

Ladystairs, now the Edinburgh Writers' Museum

A close, in Edinburgh, is one of the many alleys

that led from Royal Mile back down the hill to

the Forth (the open sewer of Edinburgh till it

was filled in in the 18th century); a close

would be lined in buildings/tenements, many

10-12 stories owing to the slope of the hill.

We toured one of the older ones, under the

present city hall, the Real Mary King Close,

which goes well back into the 15th century.

The tour was commercial and cheesy,

complete with ghost stories, gore, and very

bad jokes, but the environs were interesting.

Pictured is another, older close.

Home of John Knox, the Presbyterian firebrand and

Reformation leader; not a guy you'd want to have a

drink with

Home of "Invisible Hand" Adam Smith, patron

saint of free-market fundamentalists; just

purchased by Edinburgh U Grad School of

Business, to be turned in to a musem (seriously);

I can't believe they had not already done this

The very old toll-house near Canongate, with its

clock and tower, where lots of famous people

were jailed, tortured, disappeared

Vicki adds:

Edinburgh, Scotland September 1, 2009

Mark and I left Rebecca's for Tokyo one year ago today. We have packed so much into this year that it seems much longer. We are enjoying Edinburgh and the festival. August is definitely the best time to be here though everything is crowded. But it feels more exciting than overwhelming. I am sure Mark will post pictures of the Tatoo (which was wonderful) and the the Book Festival. Our commute to town takes 40 minutes each way plus walking 15 minutes to the bus stop. Cities are hard to tour from campgrounds. Edinburgh is putting in a new tram so the roads are torn up which makes bus travel very difficult. Also only the sightseeing busses are allowed to drive on the Royal Mile—if you ever come here one of those passes including the castles would definitely be worth it.

Edinburgh Sights

Sunday we did some more respectable sights, the Georgian House at Charlotte Square and the Gladstone Tenement on Royal Mile, as well as more walking and gawking.

 

One quadrant of Charlotte Square

 

 

 

The National Trust for Scotland is at #7, the

restored Georgian House at #6, and the Book

Festival office is at #5; pretty neat address,

even if in the basement

 

 

 

 

 

Gladstone's tenements, a somewhat restored

look at life on the Royal Mile in the 17th and

18th centuries, for the wealthy as well as the

indigent

 

 

 

 

 

Gladstone's (no relation to the PM); note outside

staircase on left

 

Festival Fringe on the Streets

The Festival Fringe has grown to be larger and wilder than 
the Festival itself....lots of street entertainment, hundreds of 
plays, stand-up comedians, one-person shows, a lot of

experimental stuff...when will these experiments end? I ask. 
Above, one blue man.

Fire jugglers

Shakespeare mockers

Headless persons

Spare parts

And the normal weird stuff

Edinburgh Military Tattoo, 2009

One of the tougher tickets for the Edinburgh Festival is the grand finale of the Military Tattoo. The tattoo, in case you didn't know, is a military band thing. In Scotland, that means drum and bagpipe marching bands, massed. The Tattoo, which supports veterans and their families, has been a favorite since 1947. Somehow, Vicki got tickets, months ago, and Saturday night we lined up with thousands of others to file into the stadium--actually, the grounds of the ancient castle--to see one of the more stirring events you can see anywhere. It goes on for a couple hours. Fortunately, the Edinburgh buses run all night, so we were back to Mortonhall by 3AM.

Backdrop of Tattoo, Edinburgh Castle

Massed bagpipe bands

There were other bands, this one from Tonga

And this one from Xian, China. I wondered how many Scots and others at the 
Tattoo knew of Xian, China's 4th largest city, with a population about twice 
that of Scotland

The drum corps from Basel nearly stole the show

More massed bands at the end

Finale: the Lone Piper on the Battlements

And then, of course, the Fireworks

Royal Mile

Edinburgh's Royal Mile extends between the two royal castles, Edinburgh and Holyrood, and it is an extraordinary mile of history, commerce, architecture, and, of course, the ongoing festival. We visited a number of shops, then, with some time to kill before the big event of the night--the grand finale of the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, which started at 10:30 PM--we went downtown and saw a perfectly dreadful movie, The Time Traveler's Wife. This is the price I pay for those extra shots of Bruichladdich, Talisker, Laphroaig, etc.

Royal Mile was bustling on Saturday morning

Looking across Waverly Bridge

More cityscape

Tasting at a Royal Mile whiskey shop...my first Bruichladdich, an Islay, smoky, 
fiery;  Vicki always asks for a taste, sniffs, then hands it to me for further 
investigation...

Cadenhead's is Edinburgh's oldest whiskey shop...the first to bottle scotch, way
back in 1842; introduced me to single malts in 1989

Cadenhead price list for bottling direct from the independent 
single malt producers

Edinburgh Book Festival

We spent a few hours at the book festival, mostly at the book store. The only two writers I was really interested in, Margaret Atwood and Alain de Botton, were both long-sold-out. All events are ticketed--not "free and open to the public."

The Edinburgh International Festival was in

full swing when we arrived. It goes on the

better part of a month and is really a cluster

of festivals...music, theatre, literature, etc.

And then there is the Festival Fringe, which

is all manner of other arts and entertainments,

hundreds of things from plays and musicals

to street performers.

Not least of the festivals is the book festival, begun in 1950,

one of the oldest and largest there is. It goes on for two weeks

and this year featured some 750 authors. Edinburgh, in large

part because of the festival, was the first city to be recognized

a UNESCO "City of Literature."

The whole book festival is held in Charlotte

Square, in the Georgian New Town. Well,

the book festival itself is held in temporary

structures on the square. Very compact...

but nice.

Here is the authors' yurt

And the whole thing proceeds a few blocks

from the Walter Scott Memorial, one of the

more impressive literary tributes around

Mortonhall

From Holy Island we drove north along the coast, into Scotland, making our way eventually to Edinburgh and the Mortonhall Holiday Park, our home for the next several days.

 A Highland bovine in the Mortonhall complex; this is what a hippie longhorn 
would look like

Mortonhall was a large baronal or ducal (or whatever) estate in years past; now 
it is a holiday park, holiday homes, condos, a golf course, tennis, restaurant, lounge, 
farm, and, yes, a crematorium; diversification is everything these days.

Tenting out of a Porsche; I love the style; Vicki and I did it in the   80s out of my
beloved 911SC; I still relish a moment in Colorado when, the battery dead, she 
actually pushed the monster to start it, while I sat in the driver's seat, laughing 
hysterically; she was afraid of it; with good reason;  but I now prefer our current 
rig; when camping

One sees all manner of rigs; this world-traveler is from Switzerland

Braes of Mar interim report

After a busy week in Edinburgh, we have moved on north to Braemar, a few days off prior to the Braemar Gathering, the Royal Highland Games, which HM the Queen usually attends. There is no wifi, no coverage, no internet here, except a machine at the local youth hostel. Consequently, there will be no blog for a few more days, but then tons of stuff from Edinburgh and here. Scotland is incredibly cool. Also cold, wet, blustery. But Scotland.