Yesterday I was in Edinburgh doing some missionary work for those reprobates in the east. Edinburgh is another country. The hue of the city is different. It's dry and cold rather than warm and wet. There are a lot of suitcases. A lot of tourists. And they have a castle. And some other stuff. It is said that in Edinburgh you will get stabbed in the back. Glaswegians stab you in the front, so you see it coming. I had my inoculations and off I went.
I thought you might be interested in a photo journey from place (A) Waverley Station, to place (B).... a place of interest. Edinburgh is built on either side of a deep fissure. Princes Street and Harvey Nics on one side, the Castle and the Queen's hoose on the other. This blog follows the walk along Princes Street, then a left turn, a right turn and into Charlotte Sq. Which is a place of wonder.10 mins max. I think Cara has a French phrase for this type of walk. We call it a donner. But it sounds better in French.
On top of the train station. You can see the outline of the castle in the distance.
The crags
Posh hotel at train station
people do lie down a lot in Edinburgh. This is intellectual lying down, not drunken lying down as we do in Glasgow.
The view across the train station - Holyrood, the Royal Mile are all over there
Princes Street
Places Ian Rankin loves to chuck bodies off
Right above train station.
Top end of Princes Street
these are everywhere!!!
Your guess is as good as mine.
looking over to the older part of town, this is a bridge over the railway line
view along Princes Street. I think Mr Rankin has used that in novels as well.
Scott monument
On Princes Street, looking across the gardens
It's very difficult to cross the road here
Statue of Allan Ramsay.
The poet, not the one who sang Sugar Baby Love.
Might like to see this...
Like I say..it's Edinburgh, anything goes here
All piped out
castle in full view now
I'm turning right up here
and left into Rose Street -
the street that has most pubs in the world
or in Europe or in Edinburgh or something..
New verb? to vape. I have vamped but never vaped.
And I'm not going to start now
A wee bit o' cultur
My destination
My mission
Inside the gardens
Right location in the space time continuum. ( a miracle!)
One copy!!! Whit!!!
Why am I always sandwiched against Mr Rankin!!!
Better now!! A whole shelf of me
Defo right place
Our stage for the evening
The after event drinkie pooh place
The before event coffee place for authors. The Yurt.
I was quiet. For A full ten minutes. Hard to believe I know.
Yip. Defo me
Edinburgh rain, they all scarpered...
The wonderful Laura And Moira. Fellow writer and my PR person.
Lee Randall, our chair. American. New Yorker. But not Italian American New Yorker...
but she agreed with Annamarie's recent blog...
Fellow Writer Nicola. VTP, (very talented person)
Photo shoot - stand there and be quiet
Being quiet!
in the spotlight
signing
going home!
Caro 15th August 2014
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Only in Scotland (and a few other weird places) does 'height' rhyme with 'state'!
ReplyDeleteAnd how DARE they expect you to do two things at the same time??? Stand there, AND be quiet??? Sheesh. At least they didn't ask you to chew gum...
And it's fine with us if you don't vape, but we DO expect you to vamp for us once in a while!
Ahh, what beautiful memories you raised for me, Caro.
ReplyDeleteTwenty-five years ago, on my first trip to Edinburgh, I did a forced march atop both legs of the fissure, first up the Queen's, then the Princes', ending in a park where our host--a friend from Mykonos--extended his arms for pigeons to light on him as if he were a statue.
To be honest, that isn't actually where the tour ended, just all that I can remember of it, because right after our scene from "The Birds" we popped into his favorite pub where I quieted the place by turning down an offered scotch and announcing I didn't like the stuff.
Having unwittingly insulted a nation, I quickly compounded the rapidly deteriorating situation by saying that obviously was because I'd only tasted what's available in the US. The last thing I remember were two dozen shot glasses of single malt laid out along the bar--courtesy of the owner--and my being told to "run up the line from lightest to peatiest." Memory ended somewhere at Glen Wathamakalit closing in on Laphroaig.
Bottom line, it did turn me into a scotch lover. Fear can do that.
And does that close the case for the defence Jeff? You were forced into tasting whisky??
ReplyDeleteAnd to be honest EvKa, I can't vape. Used to vogue. But now I'm vague.
As far as closing the case is concerned I'd have to say no, for as best as I can recall I drank the whole thing!
DeleteTomorrow. I'll be in Edinburgh! Will you still be there??
ReplyDeleteApparently I have statues of two relatives there - James Watt (hot air) and James Simpson (fast asleep). At least that is the family lore. Seems like a good combo.
And I have to say the gods of weather and golf have been kind to me - a week of golf with no rain,despite Bertha. The Firth of Moray was wonderful!
you're a 'flaneur' Caro - flaneuringitup round Edinburgh. Would love to have heard you and Nicola! Stan, beware of yurt coffee
ReplyDeleteStan, was it the long-winded Watt's hot air that put Simpson to sleep? I have relatives that do that to one another.
ReplyDeleteLovely wether for golf? are you sure you're in Scotland? "if it's nae wind, and it's nae rain, it's nae golf," is how I have heard it.
Alas Stan, I am now back in the wet west flaneuring with purpose if one can do such a thing. Big statue of James Watt in George Sq Glasgow - and indeed the local college is called after him.
ReplyDeleteWhen we meet up next week, maybe you can explain to me the point of golf. And golfing trousers? Good walk wasted and all that.....
I'm a little embarrassed to report that I had to use a real-time Google translate to understand some of what my Firth of Moray hosts had to say. And I thought my "broad, bricht moonlicht nicht" was enough, or my ability to recite the opening stanza of Tam O'Shanter. But nay, 'twas not enough, MacDuff. I dinna ken what you are saying.
ReplyDelete