Wednesday, November 27, 2019

A few days in Edinburgh

Edinburgh is quite far away from Cambridge! It takes about 5 or 6 hours on the train. Since it is winter, the sun sets in Edinburgh before 4 pm, so we arrived in the dark. Close to the train station they now have a Christmas market and fair, with rides and food and a million LED lights.


We are familiar with Georgian architecture by now, but were still astounded by the number of chimney pots on these New Town houses. The landlady at our B&B explained that even the bathrooms would have had a fireplace, and the elegant high ceilings allowed life to go on below while the coal smoke rose to the heights.


The geology of the area is interesting, with Castle Rock, Calton Hill and Arthur's Seat being old volcanic plugs. We had to go see some basalt, so we made the trek over to Calton Hill and then walked around the Salisbury Crags, above and below.


It was not sunny, but not rainy either, thank goodness. If you want pictures of basalt, you'll have to consult my husband! I know he took a few... dozen.


Closer to where we were staying was the Water of Leith. We were given the key to a private garden, so we could go through a very well tended ravine to the river.


Someone once thought the waters were beneficial and made this elaborate temple to Hygeia above a well. The water is dark as peat and for many decades in the pre-steam years powered mills all up and down here.


It was a lovely walk along the river, and through the Dean Village. The foliage did provide some colour on the grey, grey day!


Edinburgh is small enough that we kept finding ourselves back where we'd been before, and after the rural-seeming riverside walk, we ended up in the Princes Street Gardens

This fountain was splashing away. In Toronto you don't see a working fountain in November, but apparently the Scots are not worried about anything freezing! 


Very elaborate.


The four women at the top represent various arts and skills.


The mermaids below are just mermaids, I think.


Tomorrow I will show you the treasures of the museum we went to.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments are now moderated. You can be anonymous, or just use your name, without signing in to anything, though.