Edinburgh alone would have been enough. It is high on the list of favorite places visited in the UK, it made me want to be a wee Scottish too. Next time I am back I will have to remember to purchase one of those kilt towels, the classic souvenir for the real cultural enthusiast!
In addition to being in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, I had the good fortune to visit the Fringe festival 2010. One of the most incredible collection of ideas, performances, art, music, dance, theatre and comedy in UK. The energy was tangible and a city that is already beautiful buzzes with the art infusion. As you can see from the photo of the Royal Mile above, the Fringe is not short of followers.
In order to prep for being inundated by tourists (and being part of the crowd!) I took a walk up Aurthur's Seat; a nice hill in the middle of the city with allegedly great views if it is not overcast, though I thought that the cloudy views were pretty lovely as well. It seems that there are over 100 different ways to get to the top of Aurthur's Seat; I chose to climb the steep stairs that end in a rock face and scramble my way up. I wouldn't not recommend it, but there are more comfortable routes that stick to main paths that might be slightly less strenuous. :)
Above is a picture out of the window of Chocolate Soup, a cozy coffee shop off the high street. I recommend their mocha if you are in the mood for a hit of real chocolate with a splash of coffee.
Harry Potter! Yes, I have read the books, but I did not eat at this cafe. Seemed a bit overpriced and was certainly over crowded. Instead my friend, Amy, and I snagged a couple of jacket potatoes from a cafe up the street. My first jacket potato on the go!
A cool thing about the Fringe Festival is that there is much free entertainment to absorb just by walking down the street. These guys were an a capella group promoting their later performance. The program for the Fringe rivals many university text books, so I advise to leave plenty of time to map out your visit. One could literally be at a performance or show from 9AM until 5AM the next day. The venues can be pretty spaced out so plan carefully and you can see a ton! Or do what I did and plan hardly at all and still see a ton!
This is Black Friar's Bobby. The dog statue commemorates a pet that apparently guarded his owner's grave for over 14 years... I mostly am noticing in the photo how much work I need to do on my "can I have a treat? begging puppy" face.
I had a wander through Princess Gardens and stumbled upon (metaphorically) these lovely roses. Though roses in a bouquet fail to impress me much, roses on a bush rarely disappoint.
I thought this scene was interesting as there are two families picnicking and playing amongst this circle of willows and in the center of the scene is a grave; life continues.
This is Jill. Jill is from Glasgow and is a friend from church in Chester. She is all shades of lovely, generous and kind. We had the good fortune of ending up in Edinburgh at the same time and took advantage of the opportunity to explore the city together and see some shows. For Jill, visiting Edinburgh was a kind of homecoming, and it was nice to be shown the city by someone who knows it so well and loves it so much. For dinner one night, Jill and I went to have a curry at the Edinburgh Central Mosque. The Mosque developed a food ministry that I think would be great to put into practice at more places of worship. They have cheap, delicious food and created a covered area in the back of their property where people from the community can come and eat and have fellowship. It is a pretty effective program of building relationships in the community and I think it is a model that would be great to put into place in more churches.
This is Jill and I about to watch Hamlet the Musical. A six person cast, an on-stage band and an hour and a half well spent! The humorous adaptation of the Shakespeare classic went down a storm and had the audience rolling. Highly recommend this particular show and the Fringe Festival.
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