It's very hard to believe this is our last week in Scotland clearly five weeks has come and gone all too quickly. Nevertheless, we did very well in saving the City of Edinburgh for last as it proved to be an amazing place to visit. This week was even further highlighted by all activities surrounding the "Fringe Festival". As you might imagine, we soon immersed ourselves in as many activities as time would allow.
The Edinburgh Fringe Festival has been going since 1947 and is the largest arts festival in the world and takes place each year during the last three weeks of August. Thousands of performers (big names and the unknown) take to hundreds of stages situated all over the city to present shows for every taste (comedy, dance, circus, cabaret musicals, etc). Listed below is a short sampling of a number of our highlights.
#1 "Close Up" Sitting in the front row and watching these four acrobatic artists perform with such beauty and physical intensity was a performance no one should miss.
#2 "Gobsmacked" Featuring world class voices, and amazing harmonies using sounds that embrace all forms of a cappella.
#3 "Comedy" Starring Fred MacAulay, a regular at the Fringe for 27 years, with humourous dialogue of his life since leaving BBC Radio Scotland, why he left after all those years and the various punches thrown.
As we can all agree a city needs greenspace and here you'll find dozens of small parks all within a short waking distance from the center of the old city. ( note: too funny, the new city was built in 1885). Naturally a must visit was the Edinburgh Botanical Gardens covering 70 acres. These gardens play a very important role in a worldwide network of institutions seeking to ensure all good things in the form of biodiversity and sustainability. They claim 273,000 individual plants 13,300 different species that are grown here or in combination with three other smaller satellite gardens located in other parts of Scotland. Please find a few photo's below ... Center shows cloning of little garden helpers (I managed to get some seeds for friends back home)
A pub or formally a public house is in many places a focal point of the community. Since the history of these pubs can be traced back to the Anglo-Saxon-alehouse where windows were made of frosted glass to obscure the clientele from the street, we thought it was of significant importance to check a few of them out and have a pint or two.
Sandy Bell's pub is truly a real Scottish pub with a sign out front that says it all: Purveyors of fine ales and spirits "Home of world renowned folk music". We stopped in for a wee pint and immersed ourselves in the fun and relaxing environment.
Here is my eager travelling companion and I'm glad she wore that orange jacket every day so I wouldn't lose her in the crowds!
Conan Doyle pub is across the road from Picardy Place, the birthplace of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is a veritable shrine to the author and his famous fictional creation with loads of information about Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes. Being the perfect slueths ourselves we took time to suss out the veggie burgers.
All in all a wonderful adventure and we would encourage anyone who visits the UK to take advantage of the beauty of Scotland and the Scottish people.
Cheers,
1 comment:
Aye, lad and lassie... you two had a positively grand adventure with which you can regale eager listeners... documented with many bonnie pics... and plenty of fab bevvies and scran in many a pub... well done world travelers, well done... :)
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