Day 10, Aug 19 (Sunday)

This was just neat.  That's the castle, in the background.

I still love Barry

yes, boxing friends, they have THIS compass, too.

Day 10, Aug 19 (Sunday)

Up early today, took the bus to see Georgian House.  Georgian House is an example of New Town fine living by the wealthy.  It was neat, but pretty small considering how large a space they have.  It would be nice if they would restore more of it and open that to the public as well.  It’s another rainy day in Edinburgh.  We are pretty fed up with tourists and their umbrellas by now.

We beat feet to make a musical show about antibiotic resistant bacteria, but that show was not on (flyer said it was).  Thought about going to Holyrood, but decided to skip it as well.

Instead we stopped at another café for a mocha and treat, but instead got shortbread bar with caramel.  This is now a must-do for our next party.  Apparently we need to learn to make shortbread next.  Diane said the loo had an air freshener that made it smell like a damp kitten belly, the best smell ever.  Early return to MacKenzie for packing to leave for the castle bed and breakfast.

An interesting coat of arms on the old church, near Tolbooth Market, our favorite venue.

Once again, some inky fingers...

I never got tired of the views down the streets.

We saw a lot of people promoting their shows by doing weird things in the street.  Basically they want to be interesting enough to get you to take a flier and attend their show.  This person is undoubtedly in the cast, in her costume.  They hustle hard for their audiences.

Another common strategy to get people to accept a flier.  He was hawking his wares hard.

Up and down the Royal Mile there are "fountains" that were installed back in the 1700's.  In many cases their are original, in others they were updated in the 1800's.  This was part of a public works project that started with hollowed out log pipes to bring clean water to Old Town.

The last underground tour included a torture implement museum.  The guide explained how each piece was used.  Like all the guides, she had her own unique style and was quite knowledgeable.

One last tour of underground fun!

This is the person who booked us on the tour earlier in the day.  It felt super sketchy, and she was a little more "friendly" than we were accustomed to seeing in Edinburgh.  If I met her in a bar, I wouldn't have let my drink out of my sight, and I definitely wouldn't have accepted one from her.  Turned out she is a Spaniard, living in Edinburgh, working on her English skills so she can get certified to be a tour guide.

Various torture implements below.  These all dated from the Cromwell era and the religious wars around that time.  I think they were used through the last of Jacobite uprisings in the 1700's.

This one is my favorite, just for the appearance.

One last series of pictures in the vaults.  I don't know why I'm drawn to this kind of photography, but it gets me every time.  They are damp, smelly, and creepy.  Feels like home.

Day 9, Aug 18 (Saturday)

Late wake up.  Diane warned us that Edinburgh is a night time experience, and our schedules have definitely adjusted.  Did the Gladstone’s Land tour (no relation to the pub in Leith).  This was another historical tour and museum of a house from the 1500’s through the 1700’s.  It included a model of the property and how it grew over hundreds of years to be what it is today.  Great context, I wish we had done this at the beginning of the trip.  This also put a lot of things in Craigmiller in context as well.  The furniture was great too, we saw 200-300 year old antique furniture that was in amazingly good shape.  My favorite was the desk with all the hidden compartments; there were something like 5 of them that they had found so far.

 

cool gold bird out front of Gladstone's Land

The original ceiling art from the 16th century.

This clock only has one hand.  Apparently in the 18th century, the fraction of the hour wasn't terribly important.

We then hoofed it North from the top of the mile to the Royal Botanical Gardens.  This is the place where, on a nice Saturday afternoon, one takes one’s shrieking spawn of Satan for a nice outing.  It was crawling with crotch fruit, like a bad noisy infestation.  Fortunately we found some nice places that were actually quiet and took some fun pictures of the gardens, birds, and each other.  Laying the soft grass was very peaceful and relaxing.  Nothing like it here, the grass there almost feels like fur.

Beautiful view from the Botanical Gardens

 

Guess what? Duck butt!

boo likes the grass

Possibly the same huge-leafed plant I hung out by, in 2007!

Diane’s knee was in bad shape by this point, so we walked to a local “chemist” (pharmacy) for a knee brace and some pain killers.  The pharmacist was very nice and quite helpful.

Double Duck Butts!!!

Everything is so very green in the gardens.

Getting a little artistic with the landscaping...

No idea what these shy little birds are.  If someone knows, please leave a comment.  They were pretty hard to capture too; the little fuzzy chick really wanted to stay in the weeds.

Success on our sweater quest!  We finally found a nice little shop towards the bottom of The Mile run by a Sikh gentlemen, eager to score with Diane, sell us wool, and tell us all about his religion and culture.  It was a bit surreal.  He had a thick Glasgow accent that was at times hard to understand which just added to the weirdness.  Anyway, we got the awesomely warm and Scottish sweaters we sought for the past week.

caution! Workmen shoveling shit!

Oink for pulled for sammiches for dinner.  Oink is the new pig craze there.  It was definitely good, although for American BBQ definitely no better than average.  The most unique thing was the haggis in the Sammy.

Another view down one of the many closes in the Old Town.

The golden hart at the top of the church.  Complete with raven.

More inky fingers!

On the way back swung by Tolbooth Market, which has now become our venue home base even though the beer selection is mediocre and the music in the bar is loud.  We managed to catch Sheraz Yousef’s stand up on becoming a man an being “manly” and he was great!  Very funny, and we had a lot of fun.

yet more Fringe tech.