Edinburgh - part 2

Continuing our weekend in Edinburgh. One of the great things about doing an open top bus tour is that you get to see things that you might not notice from down lower, for example the back end of a cow that was sticking out of a wall and a lovely little lion/imp on top of a wall.

I also fell for this cute pig that was being used for advertising outside a shop.

One of the legends of Edinburgh is that of Greyfriars Bobby. This is a little dog that stayed by his master's grave until he himself died (some people say that it's not true but I think they're humbugs). Because of being a dog he wasn't allowed to be buried near his master because of hallowed ground, but he's not too far away. What's really sweet is that along with flowers, people leave sticks and dog toys on his grave.

Statue of the little dog

The rest of the graveyard has got some great headstones (yes I know I'm a bit sad) and is very atmospheric. One of the continuing themes seemed to be skulls and skeletons - a selection below.

This one intrigued us as it only has initials- I was imagining all sorts of reasons

The church is quite small but it has some beautiful windows.

One of the other places we hopped off the bus was Holyrood Palace which is the Queen's  official residence in Scotland.  It was founded in 1128 as a monastery. There was a lovely cafe nearby and if you showed your bus ticket you got a free shortbread shaped like a crown.

Holyrood Palace

Give us a biscuit shaped like a crown and what else did you expect us to do - no, I didn't notice any funny looks.

Everywhere you turn in Edinburgh there are beautiful sights and I loved these steps leading up to the old town - we didn't walk up them, my excuse is that it was raining.

The entryway below led to a fancy restaurant - I bet it looks magical at night. I love finding cute things like this.

When we did go for our evening meal we ate at a lovely little place that had tables in the basement - as there were no windows they had painted the skyline of Edinburgh on the walls which looked fabulous and was very romantic though we don't need any excuse.

Here are a few more shots of the amazing buildings in Edinburgh - one of them has a great name, the Carlton, though it's bittersweet this week after my Blue boys are now out of the AFL finals. The Carlton and the Scotsman stand guard at the end of one of the bridges,very dramatic.

This lion was in one of the parks - I really like how it's been carved out of one rock, and it makes you want to touch it.

That's it for now just one more from this weekend, our visit to Glasgow.

Until next time, be good, look after each other, and enjoy the small things in life.

Pamela and Ken
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

P.S: Final shot of the castle for you to enjoy.

Edinburgh - part 1

Last month (I can't believe it's that long ago) Ken and I went for a long weekend in Edinburgh - Scotland's beautiful capital.  Shockingly neither of us had ever spent time there so thought we better correct that oversight, especially as Ken is from God's chosen country of Scotland.

Despite only being there for 3 full days, we took lots of photos, so I thought I would spread it out over a few posts.  During August the Edinburgh Fringe Festival is on, and according to one of our taxi drivers the population of Edinburgh doubles in August - it was quite busy, but there was lots to see.

One of the nicest things we saw was the below sign in the window of a cafe - really warmed my heart and restored some faith in the human race.

We of course went in and gave them some money for drinks and food for anyone that needed one - a good chance to pay it forward.

To see as much of the city as possible we did an open top bus tour, hopping on and off to have a closer look at the places we wanted to.  It was a great way to see some of the amazing architecture that Edinburgh has to offer - really ornate older buildings and of course the castle which is very imposing on it's hill overlooking the city.

Took this shot because of all the chimneys

When it was time for lunch on one of our days we went into a restaurant called Food like mum used to make, and the servings were huge!!  I ordered a chicken pie and I had enough to feed 3 people - Ken was a good Scottish boy and ordered Haggis, neeps and tatties.  It all tasted wonderful, but I couldn't finish it despite making my very best attempt.

There were lots of street performers all around the city - you don't really need to pay to go to a show, just find a street show and watch that, sometimes these are the best.  The funniest one we saw was a lad who was doing juggling, comedy, and crowd interaction.  He was great - anyone that walked past too close to him would incur some sort of joke or even being followed down the street.  The pictures below are of him passing his body through a tennis racket.

This band were great - electric guitar, bagpipes, and drums - take note of the man with the high vis jacket on, if it wasn't for the lamppost he wouldn't be standing still.  We think he'd been drinking just a little bit.

Note the battered guitar - the sounds coming out of it were incredible, very talented young man

Very odd man who was standing with a flower - some sort of inner performing we think

Super Mario brothers

I took this photo because I liked his outfit, and the week after we'd been to Edinburgh this man was in our Big Issue

Of course there was time for coffee and cake during our wanders and we happened to fall down the rabbit hole into an Alice in Wonderland themed one.  It was really lovely and these photos really don't do justice to it but hopefully you can get a sense of what it was like.

I haven't put the photo up the wrong way - this was on the ceiling

During the London Olympics any UK athletes who won a gold medal had a post box painted gold in their home town - Sir Chris Hoy the cyclist has two in Edinburgh and we happened upon this one.

Now during the festival they of course have the military tattoo on, and at the end of the show they let off fireworks - really pretty sight over the castle.  The challenge is trying to time my photo taking with the fireworks going off, so here are my best two attempts - there were alot with just smoke in the air.

So I hope you've enjoyed this first visit to the lovely city of Edinburgh - more to come soon.

Until then, stay safe, look after one and other, and maybe see what you can do for someone less fortunate that you today.

Pamela & Ken
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

P.S:  All around the arena for the tattoo they have flags from all around the world - now the romantic in me was really pleased to see that the Australian flag was next to the Scottish flag.