Around The World Without Flying: Edinburgh Part 1

It was a wonderful experience entering Edinburgh for the first time, with its lovely old mansions, its very impressive castle on the top of the hill and its palace, which is known as ‘The Palace of Holyroodhouse’ and is where Mary, Queen of Scots, also once lived. (Poor Mary had to move around due to her precarious position.) The only problem was that I could not photograph many of the most interesting, classic buildings due to the speed of the coach and the reflections in its windows. But I could well see why Edinburgh is called ‘The Athens of the North’ with the lovely columns in front of some of its important buildings.

Edinburgh was crowded with tourists when we arrived, because not only is August the month in which the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo takes place, but also the famous Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Book Festival were also taking place. We saw all sorts of colourful, if not a little weird, street performances taking place, and very long e queues of people waiting to get into the Book Festival.

This famous Scottish city is home to my favourite Scottish author, Alexander McCall-Smith, who writes so beautifully about many characters in Edinburgh as well as in other places. I was first introduced to him through his delightful, charming book series about the ‘No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency’, which is set in Botswana. He knows their traditions and little quirks of language so well you could swear he has lived there all his life. (I love the way they describe people who are overweight as ‘traditionally built’!) But apparently he did live there for a while. In this very stable African country, he is a hero for his insight into and clear love of the people. I then started to read his Scotland Street series about the very intelligent, very young Bertie with his overbearing mother and timid father, and their fascinating neighbours. His stories are told with immense kindness and gentle humour. I once heard him interviewed on the ABC radio - a wonderful man!

We were most impressed with the sights along Princes Street and ‘The Royal Mile', which is the set of streets leading up into Edinburgh Castle from the palace. There were many shops selling Scottish kilts and other lovely woollen goods, such as cashmere scarves, not to mention Scottish whisky. You could spend a week browsing through them all, and at least another week browsing through the galleries and museums. There is so much history, so much cultural heritage and so much pride here.

This was carried on in the restaurant where we had a meal on our first night in Edinburgh. I just had to have the Scottish salmon, which was just delicious, though I assumed it was not wild salmon caught by a fisherman in one of the lochs. That would be something. (I had been reading in a British newspapers about their salmon ‘farms’.)

However, one aspect of the city that did detract from its beauty was dark staining on so many of the old buildings. We were surprised to be told that the grime from all the old coal fires and so forth cannot be cleaned off. Apparently the usual methods simply make matters worse. It was interesting that some buildings seemed to be built from a brown stone that did not appear to be as badly affected.

In my next post I will talk about our visit to The Palace of Holyrood House, now the Queen’s residence whenever she visits Scotland on official business. (Windsor Castle is about three hours drive further north and is used as a retreat.)

Sorry folks - the Post is playing up and I have already sent almost 2 hours of costly WiFi time on it. I will create a second post with the remaining photos.