Edinburgh Scenes, 2

More not exactly random scenes from our time in Edinburgh...

Not your classic, greasy fish and chips joint, but certainly the best I had on this
campaign in the UK of GB

The Royal Mile can approach gridlock in August with street acts going on every
hundred meters or so

One wonders what David Hume would have made of the melee?

More proper view of a favorite philosopher; one wonders
what he would have made of being dressed up as a classical
Greek

We had a couple lousy meals, but some great ones too; if you're in Edinburgh and
feeling homesick for Parisian fare, visit Chez Jules in New Town; bistro fare as
good as it gets outside of France, and very affordable too; also very popular

Skyline

The Scotch Whiskey Experience: skip the experience and head for the retail store,
where you'll find the best selection and prices for single malts in town

Another Royal Mile scene (royal because it runs between the
two royal castles, Edinburgh and Holyrood)

The Tartan Weaving Mill, best selection/prices if you want
to dress Scottish; evidently many Asians do...

Very weird pop-up on a church building...

Another Royal Mile scene

Pipers generally out in force, adding to the mix; some very
good, some just getting paid to practice....

Cathedral not visited

I discovered Cadenhead's way back in 1989 and have always made the pilgrimage
to the store on Canongate; if you want to know what scotch really tastes like,
straight from the cask, not blended, not watered-down, not colorized, etc., visit
Cadenhead's, Scotland's original bottler; I treated myself to a small bottle of the
1842 line Islay; at 59.7% ABV you really have to cut it; but the best Islay ever

Huge old building near the train station

"Mr. Stanley, I presume?"

New Town shopping

Visits Scotland once and gets a landmark monument...

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

Promenade In Prestonpans

Astute readers of this blog will recall that the plan for our 2019 European campaign was to finish up in Edinburgh, renting an apartment and enjoying almost two weeks of the Edinburgh Festival and Fringe. This necessitated finding a place to store Le Duc for the fall and winter and also getting our little traveling home packed up and ready to store. Having made the storage arrangements weeks before, we decided to spend a couple days cleaning and packing at a campground outside Edinburgh. But first we stopped, within striking distance of all, at Prestonpans, on the coast, east of the Festival City, for a final relaxing night in the camper. Prestonpans--so-called for the salt panning that started there in the 12th century--has a free seaside car-park open to motor-homes and a long coastal walk that we followed after dinner.

On the walk; the white thing in the center is the camper car-park

Thus, right

It's not a swimming beach, actually

Interestingly, as you can see, it's more of a low-tide trail

John Muir was born not far from here, and the Scots are rightfully proud; there's
a John Muir National Park not far away; we'll be in Yosemite in mid-August

Other interesting murals

Historically significant pubs, too

See below

The Scottish diaspora went pretty much everywhere, not
least, British Columbia, from whence this tribute to
Prestonpan's 1000 year anniversary came

No window on the world

Welcome splash of color

Back on the main street, things begin to get weird: not only does this appear to
be a funeral home in a container, but

It is associated with this supermarket

And, another block or two down, there's another...food market and funeral home

"Fred! I think we've got an eater!" https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x35g9ib

Not a little history here at Prestonpans

Anyhow, after two days sorting, packing, repairing, cleaning, Le Duc is parked at its
new temporary home, in storage, and we are checking into our Edinburgh apartment