A Day Out in Edinburgh

Edinburgh is a large city with a lot to see.  Two worthwhile sights are the National Museum of Scotland and Edinburgh Castle.   

The National Museum has an eclectic collection that defies easy description. Nevertheless, we rambled around the large collection and saw some interesting artifacts—some historical, some scientific and some natural.   Here are a few items we liked.

The chair below is especially interesting.  A while back, while watching the English TV program Escape to the Country, we learned about a furniture maker who actually grows furniture, like the chair below.  The creator cultivates small trees and then trains and prunes the branches to make everyday furniture.  The pieces take many years to grow and they are sold for very high prices.  We were pleased to see one of the fully grown chairs in person.  

The building housing the museum is itself a marvel.  A large Victorian building (pictured below) holds half of the museum’s collection.  The other half is located in a contemporary Gehry-like building.

One great feature of the new wing of the museum is the roof terrace, which provides panoramic views of Edinburgh, including the Old Town (pictured below). 

The most prominent feature of the Old Town is the Castle (to the far left in the photo above).  The site is very tall rocky mount that dominates the skyline.  In fact, the site is a long extinct volcano, which has been occupied for thousands of years.  We toured the Castle and were rewarded with amazing views from its walls.  We also visited the Scottish war museum, the WWI war memorial and the royal apartments.  Susan’s favorite part of the visit was seeing the Scottish Crown Jewels (no photos allowed).  The Stone of Scone was displayed with the jewels.  Also known as the Stone of Destiny, the stone has been used for coronation of Scottish Kings since about 500 A.D. and monarchs of the United Kingdom like the late Elizabeth II and will soon be used for Charles III.  

Here are a few photos of our castle tour.   Below. a random hottie and dude in front of the Castle.  

The War Memorial was built 100 years ago, but it looks as if it were constructed several centuries ago.

In the Royal Apartments, we saw the ornate coat of arms of James I of England, the first Scot to sit on the throne of England.

The timing of our visit to the Castle was fortuitous.  Every day at precisely 1:00 pm, a cannon atop the Castle is shot to let everyone the time of day.  In centuries past, people all over the city and in the harbor would know that it was 1:00 pm.  The cannon (pictured below) sounded during our visit and it was very loud. 

Thanks for joining us for a day out in Edinburgh.