Monday, October 02, 2006
Updated 5/10 - Saturday 30 September - Monday 2 October 2006
Edinburgh - No3 in the list of I could live here if it weren't for the winter
A day of discovery. I'm staying in a very dodgy, but very central hostel, right in the middle of the Royal Mile. Have discovered early that I will spend as little time here as possible and take in Edinburgh and all it's beauties. Edinburgh Castle is built on a volcanic plug and the old town is built on the ridge running down from here. On both sides of the ridge are steep slopes caused by glaciers that erroded the surrounding coutryside and left 2 valleys. I believe them when they say Edinburgh invented highrises. Everyone wanted to live near the castle and on the ridge so they built up to 12 stories of tenements down the sides of the ridges into the valleys. You can imagine this happened from the 1200s to the 1800s and they got bigger and rattier and more smelly (In fact that is the best way to consider my digs - a tenement).
So walked up the Royal Mile (High Street) to the castle and started there . Interesting castle and good intro tour by a appropriately accented guide. Joined a walking tour of the old town after and spend a few hours exploring Closes and Wynds that run down off the ridge between the tightly packed buildings (like lanes between the buildings). Also visited old Parliment building that happened to be open, a couple of historic tenements open for historic visits. Very interesting - most of these buildings are only 6m wide and all butt against each other upwards and upwards. You were posh if you lived above the street out of the smell and sewerage but not more than 2 stories up or the stairs would kill you and not down the alleys or the stink would kill you!
Also visited a hidden 'close' that had been closed off when the city fathers were modernising the city. It was rediscovered by a developer about 15 years ago and they have stablised it and you can go under ground and explore this part of the 'old' town'. Facinating, lots of spooky stories of course but much of it is as it was when they evicted the tenents and boarded it up.
This evening I opened my eyes to the literary pedigree of Edinburgh. Some of Europes best poets and writers both historic and modern were Scotish and spent at least some of their lives in Edinburgh. There are some great spots to experience their contributions including a writer's museum, storytellers museum and a literary pub crawl. What fun exploring the city that inspired such writing. And the bonus in two of the pubs was some great local music. If anyone wants to buy a heritage listed but economically unviable pub that was the haunt of Robert Louis Stevenson - it's for sale.
Went to Greyfriars, followed the Flodden Wall built after the battle of Flodden in the mistaken belief it would save them. And explored lots of other historic places - Edinburgh oozes old!...
Saturday was a great weather day and I remember the emotion it wrought in me at one point. I was walking down the Royal Mile and the air was clear and cool. The horizon was clear right down the street across the roof of Hollyrood Palace and onto the lower slopes of Arthur's Seat (the hill behind the palace). On each side of the street were buildings full of history, a piper was busking next to a statue of a forefather, people wandered across the shared cobbled street. The colours moved and blended with the people. It was a Eureka moment "this is why we travel!" A perfect moment on a perfect day.
Sunday...
Started this morning at the bottom end of the Royal Mile. Another beautiful day. And spent a couple of hours exploring the royal residence in Scotland. A very informal Palace compared to the few I've visited - more like a grand family residence. The staff were so friendly - filled me in on all sorts of titbits on royal protocol. The Queen is a very spritely lady for 80 - still attending 2-3 functions every day. Hope I'm that good at 80.
After exploring opulance, I took off up through the park surrounding the Palace to climb Arthurs Seat. It looks a fair way and I'm guessing about 6km round trip. Actually it is quite a difficult climb with very slippery stone steps and badly eroded slopes to cross. There were passing showers as I climbed, some went right past without touching me and others dumped on target. Fascinating actually, to watch the weather pass right by you while you stand in sunshine...Great view off the top (no seats though...what they did with Arthurs is anyone's guess...) and it took half as long to get down as up. Certainly a walk for good shoes. How a couple of girls got up in thongs without injuring themselves....
The park is very popular with local joggers and dog lovers and being a weekend there were plenty around.
Popped in to the new Scottish Parliament House - they got self government in 2001 (I think) and built a horrible modern building. I looked at it from every angle including above and couldn't see the beauty in it. Supposed to be symbolic of a whole lot of Scottish cultural beliefs. But it was just ugly to me. I believe it has caused a lot of debate locally about it's looks and it's horrific cost. megga millions...
But....the highlight of the day was going to a live football game! I bought myself a ticket to a Hearts of Midlothian (Hearts - one of the two local Edinburgh teams) vs Dundee United (the away team). What emotion. I was in the cheap seats (in a corner), but still surrounded by season ticket holders. And the Dundee supporters stand was at right angles to me on the other corner. The two groups traded insults throughout the game - in fact more action and attention seemed to go on with this activity than into watching the game. And although everyone had a seat they stood throughout both halves - they reckoned it was easier than getting up all the time to cheer and see the angled play. Anyway Hearts won 5-0 and flogged Dundee. 18000 people attended the game and they emptied the stadium in about 10 minutes. It was Sunday afternoon and everyone was trying to get back to town by bus - but crazy - they didn't have any extra buses on. So every bus that passed my stop was already full. I decided to walk into town which took about 30min.
What a day. Full on Scots.
The weird thing of the holiday happened tonight at the hostel. I'm in a mixed dorm of 8 - told you it is a tenement...anyway the guy above me was out to the count and rolled out of his bunk (no safety rail at all). Thunk! 100+kg straight onto a concrete floor. After a lot of groaning, and us cajoulling, we managed to get him to agree to calling the ambulance. It turned out he had broken his back (similar to Perry Fox off his horse, I imagine). We thought he might have cracked some ribs. The hostel never noticed the noise, the ambulance, etc at 2am - and gave us grief the next day when the hospital rang to organise getting his gear removed. I told you the Edinburgh hostel was a dive....and the broken back incident is just the start. While I'm crucifying them they also had a mouse family living in the kitchen, only 1 shower of 4 working, and full bins for days. Never mind the forest growing out of what may have been carpet in a previous life.
Please let me now defend hostels. Every other hostel I have stayed in has been clean, well run and usually in amazing buildings - if a bit out of town. The thing going for this one was it was RIGHT in the HEART of the Royal Mile. And when you're in Edinburgh Friday to Monday night there are not a lot of options for relocating - it is very busy weekends here. Hey it's all fun and what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
Monday...
Pretty much spent today visiting Rosslyn Chapel and wandering around, doing bits that needed doing, etc.
For anyone who HASNT read the Da Vinci Code. Rosslyn Chapel is a church built in the 1200s which has some of the most exquisite and mysterious carving of any in Europe (and possibly the world). It is only small and was built as a private place of worship for a very rich family who were tied up with the Nights Templar, Freemasons, Christianity, Royal lines and politics of the day. It is full of mysteries and fables and you can spend hours looking at the workmanship of the carvings alone. Oliver Cromwell stabled his horses in the chapel for 10 months while he was sacking the countryside and it got badly damaged then. The weather of the past 800 years has not been kind to the outside particularly but since the book was released visitation has gone from 40,000 to 140,000 (I think I remember - it could be 240,000 now) and they have more funds to get restoration moving more quickly. It is living under a steel shed roof to protect it from further weather deterioration and they hope to have it stabilised for futher restoration over the next 15 years. So I imagine it will take 30 years to see a major difference/ improvement. But then it took over 40 years to build the original 800 year old church so what a few years between friends.
Edinburgh - No3 in the list of I could live here if it weren't for the winter
A day of discovery. I'm staying in a very dodgy, but very central hostel, right in the middle of the Royal Mile. Have discovered early that I will spend as little time here as possible and take in Edinburgh and all it's beauties. Edinburgh Castle is built on a volcanic plug and the old town is built on the ridge running down from here. On both sides of the ridge are steep slopes caused by glaciers that erroded the surrounding coutryside and left 2 valleys. I believe them when they say Edinburgh invented highrises. Everyone wanted to live near the castle and on the ridge so they built up to 12 stories of tenements down the sides of the ridges into the valleys. You can imagine this happened from the 1200s to the 1800s and they got bigger and rattier and more smelly (In fact that is the best way to consider my digs - a tenement).
So walked up the Royal Mile (High Street) to the castle and started there . Interesting castle and good intro tour by a appropriately accented guide. Joined a walking tour of the old town after and spend a few hours exploring Closes and Wynds that run down off the ridge between the tightly packed buildings (like lanes between the buildings). Also visited old Parliment building that happened to be open, a couple of historic tenements open for historic visits. Very interesting - most of these buildings are only 6m wide and all butt against each other upwards and upwards. You were posh if you lived above the street out of the smell and sewerage but not more than 2 stories up or the stairs would kill you and not down the alleys or the stink would kill you!
Also visited a hidden 'close' that had been closed off when the city fathers were modernising the city. It was rediscovered by a developer about 15 years ago and they have stablised it and you can go under ground and explore this part of the 'old' town'. Facinating, lots of spooky stories of course but much of it is as it was when they evicted the tenents and boarded it up.
This evening I opened my eyes to the literary pedigree of Edinburgh. Some of Europes best poets and writers both historic and modern were Scotish and spent at least some of their lives in Edinburgh. There are some great spots to experience their contributions including a writer's museum, storytellers museum and a literary pub crawl. What fun exploring the city that inspired such writing. And the bonus in two of the pubs was some great local music. If anyone wants to buy a heritage listed but economically unviable pub that was the haunt of Robert Louis Stevenson - it's for sale.
Went to Greyfriars, followed the Flodden Wall built after the battle of Flodden in the mistaken belief it would save them. And explored lots of other historic places - Edinburgh oozes old!...
Saturday was a great weather day and I remember the emotion it wrought in me at one point. I was walking down the Royal Mile and the air was clear and cool. The horizon was clear right down the street across the roof of Hollyrood Palace and onto the lower slopes of Arthur's Seat (the hill behind the palace). On each side of the street were buildings full of history, a piper was busking next to a statue of a forefather, people wandered across the shared cobbled street. The colours moved and blended with the people. It was a Eureka moment "this is why we travel!" A perfect moment on a perfect day.
Sunday...
Started this morning at the bottom end of the Royal Mile. Another beautiful day. And spent a couple of hours exploring the royal residence in Scotland. A very informal Palace compared to the few I've visited - more like a grand family residence. The staff were so friendly - filled me in on all sorts of titbits on royal protocol. The Queen is a very spritely lady for 80 - still attending 2-3 functions every day. Hope I'm that good at 80.
After exploring opulance, I took off up through the park surrounding the Palace to climb Arthurs Seat. It looks a fair way and I'm guessing about 6km round trip. Actually it is quite a difficult climb with very slippery stone steps and badly eroded slopes to cross. There were passing showers as I climbed, some went right past without touching me and others dumped on target. Fascinating actually, to watch the weather pass right by you while you stand in sunshine...Great view off the top (no seats though...what they did with Arthurs is anyone's guess...) and it took half as long to get down as up. Certainly a walk for good shoes. How a couple of girls got up in thongs without injuring themselves....
The park is very popular with local joggers and dog lovers and being a weekend there were plenty around.
Popped in to the new Scottish Parliament House - they got self government in 2001 (I think) and built a horrible modern building. I looked at it from every angle including above and couldn't see the beauty in it. Supposed to be symbolic of a whole lot of Scottish cultural beliefs. But it was just ugly to me. I believe it has caused a lot of debate locally about it's looks and it's horrific cost. megga millions...
But....the highlight of the day was going to a live football game! I bought myself a ticket to a Hearts of Midlothian (Hearts - one of the two local Edinburgh teams) vs Dundee United (the away team). What emotion. I was in the cheap seats (in a corner), but still surrounded by season ticket holders. And the Dundee supporters stand was at right angles to me on the other corner. The two groups traded insults throughout the game - in fact more action and attention seemed to go on with this activity than into watching the game. And although everyone had a seat they stood throughout both halves - they reckoned it was easier than getting up all the time to cheer and see the angled play. Anyway Hearts won 5-0 and flogged Dundee. 18000 people attended the game and they emptied the stadium in about 10 minutes. It was Sunday afternoon and everyone was trying to get back to town by bus - but crazy - they didn't have any extra buses on. So every bus that passed my stop was already full. I decided to walk into town which took about 30min.
What a day. Full on Scots.
The weird thing of the holiday happened tonight at the hostel. I'm in a mixed dorm of 8 - told you it is a tenement...anyway the guy above me was out to the count and rolled out of his bunk (no safety rail at all). Thunk! 100+kg straight onto a concrete floor. After a lot of groaning, and us cajoulling, we managed to get him to agree to calling the ambulance. It turned out he had broken his back (similar to Perry Fox off his horse, I imagine). We thought he might have cracked some ribs. The hostel never noticed the noise, the ambulance, etc at 2am - and gave us grief the next day when the hospital rang to organise getting his gear removed. I told you the Edinburgh hostel was a dive....and the broken back incident is just the start. While I'm crucifying them they also had a mouse family living in the kitchen, only 1 shower of 4 working, and full bins for days. Never mind the forest growing out of what may have been carpet in a previous life.
Please let me now defend hostels. Every other hostel I have stayed in has been clean, well run and usually in amazing buildings - if a bit out of town. The thing going for this one was it was RIGHT in the HEART of the Royal Mile. And when you're in Edinburgh Friday to Monday night there are not a lot of options for relocating - it is very busy weekends here. Hey it's all fun and what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
Monday...
Pretty much spent today visiting Rosslyn Chapel and wandering around, doing bits that needed doing, etc.
For anyone who HASNT read the Da Vinci Code. Rosslyn Chapel is a church built in the 1200s which has some of the most exquisite and mysterious carving of any in Europe (and possibly the world). It is only small and was built as a private place of worship for a very rich family who were tied up with the Nights Templar, Freemasons, Christianity, Royal lines and politics of the day. It is full of mysteries and fables and you can spend hours looking at the workmanship of the carvings alone. Oliver Cromwell stabled his horses in the chapel for 10 months while he was sacking the countryside and it got badly damaged then. The weather of the past 800 years has not been kind to the outside particularly but since the book was released visitation has gone from 40,000 to 140,000 (I think I remember - it could be 240,000 now) and they have more funds to get restoration moving more quickly. It is living under a steel shed roof to protect it from further weather deterioration and they hope to have it stabilised for futher restoration over the next 15 years. So I imagine it will take 30 years to see a major difference/ improvement. But then it took over 40 years to build the original 800 year old church so what a few years between friends.
# posted by The Essence of Good Taste @ 1:26 PM 
