July 15-30, 2023
| 15th - Arrival | 16th - Dean Village | 17th - Portabello Beach | 18th - Union Canal | 19th - Baird & Blackford |
| 20th - Mercat Cross | 21st - Cramond Beach | 22nd - Botanical Gardens | 23rd - Stirling | 24th - Scottish Museum |
| 25th - Duddingston | 26th - Pentland Hills | 27th - Glasgow | 28th - Gardens | 29th - Rugby game |
Monday
Today we’d stick “close to home” and do some of the more traditional Edinburgh Tourist Activities. The first one was to see the Royal Mile early in the morning, before it became cluttered with people. We were there by 7:15 and it was blissfully quiet.
The quiet streets – taken over by delivery trucks
One of the “secrets” that we had stumbled upon was that the Parliament House was open to the public during certain hours. This is a building that I had walked by countless times and never noticed. Today we made the effort to go inside (where I honored the “No Photography” signs) and looked around. There was only the one room to see, but it was a very beautiful room with heavy old timbers, stained glass, and framed portraits.
Outside of the Parliament House
Oops – looks like someone else didn’t follow the “No Photography” rule! (stolen from TripAdvisor)
The “other side” of Edinburgh
I love the entrances to the various “Closes” (how does one pluralize that word?)
No water for you!
It was now a more respectible time of morning and we stopped by the City Art Center to see an exhibit by Peter Howson, a Scottish painter who had a very distinct style. It was an interesting exhibit and it was time well-spent in looking at the variety of canvases and their descriptions.
After checking out the art exhibit we walked over to the National Museum of Scotland This wasn’t the first time that we had attempted to visit, but this was the first time that we actually went inside.
Hello Dolly!
I like museums, but sometimes it feels like they are all the same. They have the same dead animals, the same suspended planes, the same cultural carvings. I am glad that they exist, and allow people from all over to experience the knowledge and science behind them. And while I’m glad that we went to this museum, I can’t say that it was that much better than others I’ve been to.
It had been a long day and it felt good to go back to our room and put our feet up. I had been watching the seagull family across the street when I noticed some songbirds hanging out as well.
