Edin-brrrr!

So, what of Edinburgh?

"This braw, hie, heapit toun" (Lewis Spence)

While you are thumbing through your ancient Scots-lish phrase book for that one, chew on this one:

"This accursed, stinking, reeky mass of stones and lime and dung" (an obviously pissed off Robert Carlyle).  

The Edinburgh-lovers among you would probably take offence at that one, so I'll find some nicer things to say about the place later!  But really, people, who in their right mind wants to live in a place that requires 4 layers of clothes, a rain poncho and a woollen hat as mid-summer clothing??  Not moi... 

The Gothic Rocketship -
egads!

I am a desert dweller, which means it's boringly sunny and hot all year long. It also means that my system now takes extreme exception to less than perfect weather.  I noticed this first last year when I went back to NZ in wintertime, and went into hibernation mode as soon as I got off the plane.  Well, arriving in Edinburgh, the same thing happened, and Tony had to lever me out of the B&B with a crowbar after hiding under the bedcovers for nearly 24hours!  My whole system shuts down - brain power (yes, more than normal..!), will to live, etc.  So I was not feeling that charitable about this place of grey skies and dark buildings.  Edinburgh is like the English town of Bath on steroids, and thats just the New Town area.  The Old Town is a dark mass of gothic splendour piled high on the ridge of an ancient volcano and dug into the crevasses beneath, topped off with the famous castle of Edinburgh Tattoo fame.  Everything is monocoloured browns and greys, with the odd smoke-blackened super-structure as embellishment.  The horrendous 'gothic rocketship' (Bill Bryson) which is the Scott memorial is case in point. I am dead certain that thing scares the hell out of any child who happens to see it.  Speaking of smoke-blackened, I hate to think what the air pollution would have been like in the old days, as if you look skywards there are hundreds upon hundreds of chimneypots on the roofs.

"You might smoke bacon by hanging it out of the window" (Robert Southey, 1819).  Ok, that bad...

Och, wee Bobbie...

Anyway, yesterday the 'Scottish Mist' (yes, euphemistic expression for rain here) had briefly lifted enough for me to be willing to poke my nose outside, and we made it into the city and up to the castle.  It's really a magnificent place, and due to the foul weather we didn't have to queue, which was a real bonus.  After that we walked a little down the Royal Mile and ran into one of the dozens of street performers here for the Fringe Festival. He was an ex-Cirque du Soleil acrobat, so it was an amazing performance. Today the sky was light grey,  Scottish for 'fine weather'.  I put on an extra layer just in case. We went wandering to find the wee Greyfriars Bobby statue (*sniff*), and his wee grave (*sniff*) at Greyfriars Kirkyard near his auld master Jock (*sniff*)...I always feel teary thinking about the wee dog standing vigil for 12 long, cold, scottish-mist-filled years at the graveside, don't you?  Then we got on a tour bus to go out to the Queensferry area, and take a boat out and under the Firth of Forth Rail Bridge (the first Firth of Forth bridge, and now they're going to make a Third Firth of Forth bridge...try saying that fast!!) and over to Inchcolm Island and its medieval monastery ruins.  That was a great afternoon out, watching seals watching our boat, seeing the thousands of birds nesting on the island, the melancholy but beautiful ruins, and seeing the amazing bridge architecture up close. In addition, the bus tour took us through the different rings of architecture of the city, and gradually the place began to grow on me.  It really is a spectacular place, full of amazing buildings and some damned hardy people.  And so to end this blog, I'll add this observation

"Came to Edinburgh by night, astonished at the city next morning, wild dream of a great genius. Finest city in Europe may be, in time, the world" (Benjamin Haydn, 1820)

"Piled deep and massy, close and high

Mine own romantic town" (Sir Walter Scott - he of the gothic rocketship...)

Photos from our Edinburgh travels can be seen here.

Old Town skyline