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Calton Hill

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    • Scotland, Yr 1, Home 3
      Day 2

      Walk around Arthur’s seat

      May 2 in Scotland ⋅ 🌬 52 °F

      Today I took a walk around the mountain named Arthur’s seat that we see out the windows of our apartment. It is in the center of Holyrood park, a park of mostly grass fields and wilderness next to the parliament building and royal castle. It took me about an hour to circle the mountain.
      Many people were also on the path. All in better shape than I am.
      I’ve got 4 weeks to change that deficit.      Read more

    • Scotland, Yr 1, Home 3
      Day 5

      Edinburgh Parade

      May 5 in Scotland ⋅ ☁️ 57 °F

      Our last adventure in Edinburgh was 2019 and we walked through the town with flaming torches on Hogemany. The Scottish celebration on New Year’s Eve day. In that case, walking with the flaming torch had us, as the parade. This time the parade was for peace, or ecology, or global warning, or worker’s rights. It was hard to know which as every group was included. Still colorful and there were bagpipes so very Scottish.Read more

    • TravelerNeujahrstrip nach Edinburgh
      Day 2

      Citytour

      January 6, 2019 in Scotland ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C

      Aufwachen mit tollem Panorama aus unserem Zimmer auf den Athur's seat mit dem Hollyrood Park, den wir auch gleich als Morgenbewegung besucht haben. Anschließend haben wir uns die Stadt mit Calton Hill, Castle usw. angeschaut.
      Zum Tagesabschluss noch ein Bierchen im guten alten JollyJudge und leckeres Abendessen!      Read more

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    • TravelerScotland 2019
      1

      Edinburgh

      June 22, 2019 in Scotland ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

      I have arrived safely in Edinburgh via Glasgow. I had a three and a half hour lay over in Iceland. Iceland Air is pretty good for short layovers. The majority of the people left on outward bound flights after an hour. The airport went from being supper busy to ghost like. I nodded off for a few minutes. After two hours it became frantic again. I took the 500 bus in from the airport and I was befriended by an elderly couple who turned out to be a retired Presbyterian minister and his wife from the outer Hebrides. They insisted on helping me find the 900 bus to Edinburgh. God was looking out for me I guess. My Air BnB was only a short walk from the bus station located in New town. The Air BNB is wonderful. It is on a quiet side street . It is a one bedroom apartment with a fully stocked kitchen and a very comfortable bed. I fell asleep at 9 and woke up at 8. I did a self guided walking tour through New town last night also known as the Zombie walk as I was quite tired from the trip.

      Today I did a bicycle tour of part of Edinburgh led by a restaurant owner. I met him at his restaurant the Smoke Shack and we peddled for about 12 miles including making it down to Lith on the North Sea. It was a little light on the history but lots of interesting information about running a small business in Edinburgh. I was the only one on the tour. I had contacted him in advance to see if he would run a tour on Sunday and he had generously agreed to. I think he was bored of running the restaurant. He had run various bars and nightclubs so he had lots of stories to tell. He also ran two air BNB properties in Edinburgh and one in Austria. His restaurant was 1 block from where I was staying so it couldn't be more convenient. After the ride I had a cup of tea with him before he had to dash off to his next business venture.

      In the afternoon I headed off to the national gallery beside Waverly station. It was a small gallery but hit pretty high with some notable pieces. When I visit galleries I try to concentrate on their notable works first and if I have the time and energy I will go back and look at the other paintings. They had a number of renaissance paintings by Botticelli and Raphael. There was a self portrait by Rembrandt. I guess he painted about 150 so what's a gallery without a Rembrandt. Of their impressionist paintings, the most famous was probably Sargent's Lady Agnew of Lochnaw. A very striking portrait. The very knowledgeable and engaging docent explained that the reason it is so striking is that her head is painted with total realism but the rest of the painting is smudged or indistinct.

      I had thought that the gallery would have taken a little longer but it didn't so I headed off to the queen's palace in Edinburgh known as Holyrood palace. It is at the far end of Royal Palace opposite to Edinburgh castle. I was fortunate to have headed off today as the queen herself is showing up tomorrow for the Royal week including the Royal garden party. The queen and members of the Royal family meet important Scottish people at the garden party. The palace was built on the site of a Abbey where Scottish royalty had been living in off and on from the 11 century. The present castle had been built in the 16 and 17 century. There was an excellent audio tour. Notable occupants of the castle included Mary Queen of Scots and for a short period Bonnie Prince Charles. After the tour you were allowed to walk on one path through the garden but you had to stay off the grass. I wondered whether I could see the current Prince Charles off in the garden weeding. Prince Charles prides himself on being a master gardener but has come under criticism as supposedly he doesn't like to get his hands dirty or actually do any of the work . His expertise lies in organising the gardeners. I wanted to ask him how he kept the weeds and grass out of his Thyme walkway. Alas as I wasn't allowed to walk on the grass to go and ask him I will never know.      Read more

    • TravelerScotland 2019
      1

      JK Rowling, Scottish Museum, Royal Mile

      June 24, 2019 in Scotland ⋅ 🌧 13 °C

      I have had a very two busy days. Monday they were calling for rain. In fact they had severe weather warnings in effect so I thought that I should stay inside. The Royal Scottish museum seemed to fit the bill. It was about a 20 minute walk from my place. It was misting and very foggy. Any views of Edinburgh were totally obscured. The Royal Scottish museum was absolutely huge. Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's husband had helped raise money in 1880 to build the building. Inside it was made of metal with sky light roofing. It was supposed to look like the Crystal Palace in London. I took two guided tours and hardly scratched the surface. I learned all about Scotland dating back to the pre Roman Scoti and Picti tribes, the effect of the Roman occupation on Scotland, the Norse who controlled northwestern Scotland after the Romans left, the Normans, Robert the Bruce, the Stewart dynasty and Mary Queen of Scots and the Jacobites. I have always had troubles keeping track of the English monarchy but it gets even more complicated when they started marrying each other and killing each other. Other curios included Dolly the cloned sheep, Ghanian coffins, Scottish camels and the millennium clock. By about 2 I had to flee the museum as I was just getting everything muddled up. I realized that I was in Blackfriars which is where JK Rowling of Harry Potter fame would hang when she was writing. Also home to Blackfriars Bobby the dog. Some of the character's from HP names are drawn from names on the graves in Kirkyard cemetary. Herriot school a prestigious private school is located beside the cemetery and was the inspiration for Hogwarts. Although I never was that into the series, my kids and one of my close colleagues loved the story so I felt compelled to go. Lots of tours being led by witch-like people wearing black and wearing capes. Elephant Cafe where she wrote some of the books was absolutely packed. I still had some energy left so I thought I would check out the entrance to Edinburgh castle for Tuesday and the Royal Mile which connects Edinburgh castle to Holyrood Palace. The RM especially around the castle was just crawling with people. I learned today when I visited the Edinburgh castle that in August it gets even busier. This time of year there are 6 thousand guests at the castle daily but during the Festival it hits 20000. They told me that there isn't even space to move. After checking out the castle entrance. The RM consisted of kilt shops, tweed shops, whiskey shops, gift shops, Harry Potter shops which seemed to just repeat themselves for th Royal Mile. After walking about half of the mile I had had enough and headed off to my Air BnB to call it a very full day.Read more

    • Traveler2019 Europe Trip
      1
      Day 7

      Day 6 Edinburugh, Scotland

      August 6, 2019 in Scotland ⋅ 🌧 17 °C

      Edinburgh, or the Dunedin of the North as some with a very vivid imagination might describe it. We arrived to a really great Scottish summer’s day, well it was raining and about 17 degrees so pretty typical I guess. It got better as the day went (see photos for evidence) and didn’t rain during our entire time ashore.

      We docked in Leigh which is a seaside suburb and were berthed right next to the former royal yacht Britannia (more of that later). We did not have a tour booked so went into the city and walked the Royal Mile which runs between Edinburgh Castle at the top end and Holyrood Palace/the Scottish Parliament at the other with a few side excursions into the small lanes and surrounding streets.

      The Edinburgh fringe festival was well underway and the Edinburgh Military Tattoo is about to start it’s run, so the city was packed and really lively. We walked for bloody miles interrupted by a stop at the Castle Arms for a drink and the World’s End pub for lunch (photos attached...). We didn’t go into the castle grounds as it was chaos up there with thousands of people on site. Lots of Harry Potter themed stuff around as it was the place where J K Rowling wrote the first of the novels. Loved the city, it’s extremely picturesque and well laid out.

      After returning to Leith we went and did the tour of the Britannia which is well worthwhile if you’re ever in town. It’s smaller than you might imagine but did play host to most world leaders at some point up until it’s decommissioning in 1997.

      Ship life update - our newly formed trivia team (4 Americans, 2 Canadians and us) finished second on day one of the ship team trivia contest, beaten by a team that got a perfect score. On day 2 we were forth (there are about ten teams) and the same team that won on day 1 got a perfect score again, I’m a little suspicious.....

      The photos show... The Royal Mile, leading up to the castle; the Elephant House cafe above which J K Rowling wrote the first of the Harry Potter books; Victoria terrace overlooking Victoria Street; Edinburgh Castle with me in the foreground; the Tollbooth Tavern on the Royal Mile; the grounds outside the Castle ready for the Tattoo; the World’s End pub with me in the foreground again; the Queen’s bedroom on Britannia; the Royal yacht Britannia; the Castle Arms where we had a drink on the terrace.      Read more

    • TravelerThe UK & Ireland experience
      Day 58

      Edinburgh day 58 Tue 19 Jun 2018

      June 19, 2018 in Scotland ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

      Breakfast at Dorstan Guest House Edinburgh, then caught bus to Waverley Bridge. Picked up our bus tour tickets and took the green bus to Holyroodhouse Palace the Queen’s official Edinburgh residence. Very interesting audio tour of the historic apartments including the former rooms of Mary Queen of Scots as well as the State apartments with their fine plasterwork ceilings, tapestries and fine furnishings. The Great Gallery contained portraits of all the Kings and Queen of Scotland. We also looked at the adjacent Holyrood Cathedral ruin and the palace gardens. Then back on the green bus and hopped off at Edinburgh Castle. The seating used for the Military Tattoo was being set up probably for the Queens visit in a weeks time. (The Tattoo is held each August). Once inside the Castle beyond the area where the Tattoo is held we ate cheese, cucumber and crackers near where the one o clock cannon was fired from a modern cannon even though Queen Victoria had naval cannons installed for appearance that have never been fired. We joined a short introductory walking tour and then visited underground cells, the tower where Mary Queen of Scots was living while her husband appeared to live a floor below and the Scottish War Memorial. Back on the green bus to finish the tour, then we swapped to the red bus for another city tour. Dinner in a pub in the Lawnmarket area of Edinburgh, then Lothian bus back to Dorstan Guesthouse on Priestfield Road.Read more

    • TravelerEDIMBURGO
      Day 2

      Calton Hill

      October 18, 2018 in Scotland ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

      Per finire andiamo a Calton Hill, l'Acropoli di Edimburgo, con il Nelson monument dalla forma di un telescopio capovolto. Ci sono anche altri monumenti che vogliono imitare il Partenone greco, per commemorare i caduti scozzesi durante le fiere napoleoniche.
      Anche da qui si ha una bellissima vista sulla città.      Read more

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    • TravelerMarcelle Carbon
      Day 8

      Edinburgh

      May 24, 2019 in Scotland ⋅ ☀️ 11 °C

      Edinburgh
      From organic medieval and planned Georgian, to neo-classical masterpieces and the über-modern, Edinburgh’s varied architecture creates a ginormous juxtaposing palette of styles.

      In the 12th century (c.1130), King David I, established the town of Edinburgh as one of Scotland's earliest royal burghs, protected by his royal fortress, on the slope below the castle rock.

      And there the day begins!
      We viewed the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the official Scottish residence of Her Majesty, the Queen at the end of the Royal Mile. We were then joined by Alan our Scottish guide for the morning who guided us to and through Edinburgh Castle. We were very appreciative to have seen the inspection and changing of the guards on the forecourt of the castle.
      From the castle esplanade you could see a school that was said to inspire J.K Rowling’s.....The Hogwarts.
      After a leisurely lunch with my new found friends we headed for a tour of the Royal Britannia. The ship is berthed in Leith a buzzing port district in Edinburgh. The interior of the vessel was very modest and filled gorgeous photographs of the Royal family, it gave the impression of years of happy memories.      Read more

    • TravelerTay’s UK Adventure
      Day 7

      Up to King Arthurs Seat

      May 28, 2019 in Scotland ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

      Arthur’s Seat has no known historical importance. It’s an ancient volcanic prominatory that is a popular hike that yields fantastic views of the city. Now, whether we had the hair-brained idea to hike to the top because the sun was out, we were still happy from lunch.... and wine, because KK mentioned it was on her to-do list, or Taylor still needed to do some hiking to break in her boots, we decided a hike to the top was in order.

      From the palace you can see many people hiking along the ridge and at the top. When you get closer to the start of the trail, it looks pretty high, and you start to second guess your choice to tackle it. However, when you look around, there are tons of people, old and young alike, and the start of the trail is paved. Well, all of this is very misleading. This is not an easy trail and all those young and old people didn’t make it to the top! There was even an ambulance that had to be called to extract a young hiker from the trail via a stretcher! What had we gotten ourselves into here? I’m not ashamed to admit that all of us stopped a time or two to “look around and take in the views”. About 35 mins later we made it to the top, and the views did not disappoint. Stunning 360 degree views of Edinburgh- in one direction Edinburgh Castle, down below Palace of Holyrood House, amazing landscapes all around, and still in full sunshine! We took a minute to look around, but we had a very full day already and we had tickets for a ghost tour in a few hours so off we went traipsing down the mountain. The girls took the same route down, us adults went through the spongy grass that was easier on our old joints and off the beaten path from all those other hikers. We hustled around the palace to get to the bus stop in time to catch the last bus of the day. We were all thankful not to have to walk the mile back to the Hilton.      Read more

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