Old stones and movies that rely on them….

 

Our tour did not start until 10:00am this morning, giving me time for a stroll through New Town to Dean’s village, by the Water of Leith river.  New town was a planned development in the late 18th century, and has retained much of its Georgian townhouses, that often surround very pretty gardens and parks.  

Sadly, these are all private, and locked, which is too bad, because they look lovely and I would have enjoyed walking through some of them….  The streets are wonderfully quiet at 7:30am on a Sunday morning….  

From there, it is a steep walk down to the river and to Dean’s village….

Dean’s Village used to be an industrial part of town, taking advantage of the river for miling in particular.  It is now a posh and quiet part of town, and has a lovely walk along the river- which goes all the way to the town of Leith, on the harbor where we had dinner last night. I did not have time to go all the way, but enjoyed the lovely path.

Then it was on to our tour, which took us up to the Edinburgh Castle.  It is much more than just a castle, more like a small fortified village, and some parts of it are still in use for housing the guards

(who are very good at standing very still. I believe that nowadays, when attack from the English is unlikely, it is their only duty).

 The building started in the Iron Age, and has grown in bits and pieces. The last building- a monument to those who died in the “great” war, was erected in 1927, but using stones from an old barn, so it fits right in. There is a palace (top picture) which we did not go in (it was too busy),

a dungeon that did not look like fun, 

many canons, and nice stone work.  

Also, pretty views all around. (Above is the hill I climbed yesterday). 

It was a bit too crowded for our taste, but our guide assured us that compared to July or August, it was downright empty, and that the Royal Mile is basically shoulder to shoulder that time of year (definitely wouldn’t like that). 

But we found a nice quite pub for lunch, before having a quick look at the cathedral and

at Victoria Street,which J.K Rowling said inspired Daigon alley in Harry Potter.  

They have embraced it and every other store is Harry Potter themed…..

We then drove about 30 minutes out of town to visit Roselyn chapel, a remarkably ornate church dating from the 1380’s.   Every inch of it is carved, and every carving is different.   It had been in disrepair for many centuries, was poorly restored in the 1950th (they coated all the carving with some kind od “protective” paint, loosing a lot of the orignal colors.) The government did not want to invest in fixing it because it was too out of town to attract many visitors… And then a miracle happened in the form of Dan Brown, Tom Hanks, and the film version of “the Da Vinci code”.  Important scenes were filmed in the crypt, bringing many more visitors and money for repairs.  

Anyway, I could post a million pictures, but here is just a taste: one of the many intricate towers, even more intricate inside pillar, mother protecting child from demon, 

Gargoyle that looks like a lion, 

carving of a camel, ttle green men “ (there are supposedly one hundred of them intertwined in the other intricate carvings). 

And an angel playing the bagpipe....

Mother protecting child from demon....

I did not capture pictures of the carving of corn and other plants that did not exist in Scotland in 1380 and have led to many interesting, and I guess plausible , stories of the Scots making it to North America a full century before Christoper Columbus.

We went back to Rose street for dinner and had very excellent local mussels.  

Tomorrow, we board our ship and start our cruise- after a couple more stops around Edinburgh