Edinburgh Fringe Street Scenes

The Fringe spun out of the Edinburgh Festival many years ago and now is by far the largest of the festival's many components--mostly performance stuff, from dance and music and theater and comedy to street acts of every imaginable description. Many of London's comedy clubs simply close in August since the talent's up here.The prestigious Edinburgh International Book Festival has spun off two separate Fringe book festivals. All this goes on throughout the month of August, and pretty much every unoccupied square foot of space indoors and out in the old city becomes a venue for most of the waking hours. When we were in Edinburgh in 2009, we attended mostly the more "respectable" Festival events--symphony, opera, and such. This year, the things that appealed were mostly Fringe things.

Somewhere on Royal Mile, energy, electricity, everywhere

OK, I am not sure which Muse was being appealed to here:
this guy is doing rope tricks; maybe telling jokes...

Miscellaneous adolescent writhing

New interpretation of The Scarlet Letter

Show card for this 200 square foot venue

David Hume takes off his clothes to get into the spirit of things

The long arm of the Law keeps eternal
vigilance

Look closely: in there at the left there's a guy doing balloon
tricks; seriously

And a guy on a unicycle breathing fire

Not every show draws a crowd

Most of it is quite good, however

Quite, quite good

Edinburgh Military Tattoo, 2013

We saw the Tattoo in 2009 and were thrilled. OK, you ask, how thrilled can you get watching a series of military marching bands in what would amount to (in Texas) a high school football stadium? Well, pretty thrilled. These are top-notch bands and entertainers from all over the world that have perfected their performances to the tastes of international audiences. And although the (temporary) stadium seats only 15,000-20,000 (I guess), it is on the esplanade of Edinburgh Castle, the lighting of which (and fireworks from which), is a substantial part of the show. A lot of it is quite folksy and corny (International Corny), granted, but that is part of the considerable charm. And then you have the massed drum and bagpipe bands playing "Scotland the Brave," and if that doesn't get you, nothing will.

Entrance of the massed drum and pipe bands; BBC was filming
that night and were all over

Mass drums and bagpipes: stirring; and that's just the start

The bands this year, or the ones we saw, were from Mexico,
Mongolia (!), Scotland, South Korea, New Zealand...here is
Mexico

New Zealand; their Maori war chants were a hoot; and
watching the Mongolian band march off playing "Scotland
the Brave" was the ultra hoot

Massed bands

On the battlements, the Lone Piper closes the show

Next day we visited the Castle again; here the firing of the
1PM gun by the Master [Matron?/Mistress?) Gunner

And, in the Great Hall, a presentation by this guy on kilts
and warfare in the time of Bonnie Prince Charlie...never ever
seen a better such presentation...

Edinburgh Scenes

We were five days and four nights in Edinburgh. It's a favorite place, pretty, historic, literary, and in August, since the late 1940s, site of the world's largest cultural festival, the Edinburgh International Festival, which is now something in name only, that is, a collection of a score or more independent festivals covering just about everything creative or cultural or intellectual. Still indubitably the world's largest. I'll do a separate post on the mostly Fringe things we saw this time. Also a separate post on the Military Tattoo, another Edinburgh institution as old as the Festival, which we adore. And the Scottish National Gallery. But first just a few almost random Edinburgh scenes. For more, see the 2009 posts tagged Edinburgh. Oh yes, we stayed at the Caravan Club Silverknowes campground, very nice, easy transit into the city.

It was a gray day, something this city seems perfectly suited
for

The Walter Scott monument; I have lots of bad
pix of it; finally a decent one; Edinburgh styles
itself the City of Literature, which may be over-
reaching, but it certainly values its literature,
and not merely in the book festival(s)

A bit of the Castle from New Town

Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde

Cowgate

St. Giles

Royal Mile Armories--don't bother shopping anywhere else
for Scottish goods; Vicki bought enough Clan Mackay
Ancient for a kilt for Penelope; I was captivated by all the
machines doing it the semi-old-fashioned way; it's up by
the Castle, across from Malt Disney, which, BTW, is not so
bad a place for sampling and buying samples...

I made my obligatory trek down the Mile to Cadenhead's, and,
explaining my preferences, wants, and purse, took their advice
and bought a bottle of Cambelltown, which has been a
revelation...

Just another random Edinburgh shot

Familiar pose of George IV, reconciling a bit
with Scotland, near our bus stop coming and
going

On To Pitlochry

We got back to Oban early enough to decamp and drive on, now east, toward Edinburgh, with a stop in Pitlochry. But first we stopped for the night at a lay by--really a pier and boat launch--out in the middle of Loch Fyne. One of our more unusual campsites...

Thus

We were not alone

At all

It was, I surmised, a tidal loch

Next day, driving on, a clan burial ground

Water feature

And another giant loch

In touristy Pitlochry, where we stayed in the coach park; Vicki
reckons that she is of Clan McKay

Out on a long hike we took

Up to see the Edradour Distillery, smallest of the single malt
distilleries in Scotland; a nice malt, I thought, but nothing
particularly distinguished nor memorable

Castle, now hotel, along the way

And a house lived in by another of Vicki's putative ancestors, Robert
Louis Stevenson, in 1881

Isle of Staffa; Fingal's Cave

Our visit to the Inner Hebrides would have ended at Iona, except that the bus driver's description of Staffa goaded us on. Staffa is mythological...it is the Scottish terminus of the Giant's Causeway. See http://roadeveron.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/day-in-nlorthgiants-causeway-carrick.html. It is the place of Fingal's Cave, both mythological and scenic. Fingal is a rendering of Finn MacCool, builder of the Causeway.  It's all out of Jamie McPherson's Ossian, perhaps the greatest of all literary hoaxes. Staffa is of geological significance...those hexagonal basalt columns. It is of musical importance...the inspiration for Mendelssohn's The Hebrides. Etc.

Obviously he was an unusually erudite bus driver. Maybe they all are, but most just drive. Anyhow, mid-stream, so to speak, we decided to extend our trip and take the six-mile open-sea boat-ride to Staffa. We had to go. We are glad we did.

In a little boat like this , 30-40 passengers

Still in the channel, the White Beach on Iona, site of one of the Vikings' greatest
victories: Vikings 68, Monks 0

Out in the open sea now, feeling that Atlantic swell (the Irish Sea is way south);
fascinating islands on the way  

The Isle of Staffa, Fingal's Cave the big one on the right

The boat now docks on the leeward side and you set foot on the island, gawking at
the great pile of basalt

Thus

Walk a couple hundred feet down a cabled ledge, round a corner, and there you
are at the mouth of Fingal's Cave

Me, there

Vicki, too; the sound of the waves crashing against the back wall, 200 feet inside
the cave, and the echo, were unforgettable

The Giants' Causeway disappears beneath the waves in the
general direction of Ireland

In the distance, Iona, the abbey clearly visible on the left

Basalt columns and cabled walkway on Staffa

View from the top of Staffa

And a parting shot, beginning the long rides back to Oban