Edinburgh!

Last modified 19 July 2006 01:00 Eastern Time

Wow, what can you say about Edinburgh in the summer during the Festival? We had one day to explore this, which was nowhere near enough. I suspect staying for the entire 6 week period might have worked, but even then I have doubts.

I recently noticed that the web logs showed a certain interest in the AVI I posted of the Military Tattoo, so I figured there might be interest in more. Certainly I've got more, some more from the Tattoo, and of what I saw earlier that day as well. Some of which I consider quite good.

We got off the motor coach and split up. I paired up with Patricia for the day since we had some similar interests to check out. Wandering across the ravine (name?) up hill toward High Street, I saw this wonderful view, spoiled by construction cranes. I've “healed” the cranes away in this particular image.

Once we got to High Street, we found what we were both looking for fairly quickly. This store contained these. Yes, headless dummies. We were looking for headless dummies. Nononono... wait. Nevermind. We were looking for kilts.

Our salesman was all too happy to measure me for a full kilt kit. I picked out a colorful tartan which turned out to be the Black Stewart. After I finished wincing, I decided that if I got that one, I'd be sure to avoid Her Majesty. I guess it'd go over pretty well in Scotland, though. Our salesman, whose picture doesn't seem to be here, though I know I took his picture because he was dressed very sharply, priced it all out and told me it'd come out to something I estimate, after currency conversion, to be around US$1600. I'd look fantastic, but I couldn't figure where I'd use it here in the US, so I reluctantly gave up on the idea.

To give that price a bit of perspective, I was in what I now realize was a very pricey shop in a very pricey location. (This has since been verified by Edinburgh locals I've spoken with online) I could certainly have gotten such kit much cheaper elsewhere if I could justify the cost.

Continuing up High Street, we found a nice courtyard filled with these and a statue. Nice place. If I had more hosting space, I'd probably include more images of this.

Further, we (well, Patricia probably) found this view of the Scott Memorial. I'm undecided whether that one or this one is better. Probably the second one is better.

We encountered a row of booths selling various items of Scottish manufacture, such as these artificial thistles, real ones of which are a major symbol of Scotland. Then we found this young lass, another symbol of Scotland. Or she should be, anyway. I've got her in motion, but rotated. I wish I could figure a way to fix the orientation. I also wish I knew whether she was doing a good job with the dance. She was fun to watch, so I guess that was enough.

Having reached the upper end of High Street, which terminates at Edinburgh Castle, we found a store containing a tartan weaving exhibit. There was an operating weaving machine, running off a chain of cards. I'd have loved to have examined the programming. Wandering around a bit, we found these tartans for sale. And these tartans for sale. And these other tartans for sale. On closer examination, we found the US Marine's “Leatherneck” tartan! Well, someone has to make it, right? Looks great, too.

After that, we wandered into the parade ground where we'd see the Edinburgh Military Tattoo later. We decided that, at £9.80, we didn’t really want to go into Edinburgh Castle. Probably a mistake. Oh well. I got this neat picture, though.

Starting to wander down and away from High Street, we saw that Edinburgh has some interesting looking taxis. And houses. And bridges (from which I took the pic of the bluff).

While the Sir Walter Scott Memorial is a real eye catcher from all directions, I still say that it is looking a bit grungy and needs a good cleaning. Pray they do a better job than I did. I asked about this, and was told the locals like it the way it is. (shrug) Far be it for me to act more like a tourist than I have to.

We caught a number of performers on the walkway over the Gallery, most of whom were really good. For instance, there was this group of drummers and a bagpiper, who were going at it when a maintenance man showed up and proceeded to cordon off a square in the floor, from which an elevator rose, interrupting the performance. Once the man had gone on his way, I captured part of their performance (29.8MB) with my camera. Wish I'd a better view and a real video camera, but one does what one can with what one has, no?