I had enough packing to do and details to take care of to keep me inside - especially after my extensive morning walk, but I just couldn't. It was daytime in Edinburgh, and I was still here. I could pack at night and could catch up on sleep eventually! So I took off again and once more journeyed down the lovely Circus Lane, which I know I have posted pictures of before (mostly looking the other direction), but it's another one of those things I can't get enough of. I hadn't had lunch, so I decided to eat one of the creations Salah had made for me earlier that day, a traditional Kurdish preparation of aubergine, served in a completely non-traditional way. I've never had aubergine before, but I needed some sustenance, and it was quite good. It got me re-fueled very well for this new venture out the door.
I walked along Circus Lane and into Stockbridge and up the Water of Leith Walkway and into Dean Village, all of which I believe I have posted pictures of more than once on this blog. It was so wonderful, though, to have those places become so familiar and well-trodden rather than just being one quick visit during a stay, which is usually the case. I got to really inhabit this space instead of just sort of dropping in.
I found a better way to get to the modern art galleries, and that made me really happy. I'd been to them in my previous two visits, but I was mostly lost as I did so and kind of got there eventually by mistake somehow. Now I know right where to find the little hidden door above. I came at Modern 2 in a way that gave me a different view:
It also made me really happy, by the way, to have opportunity to get to the "Moderns," even though they were closed by the time I got there. (I find that things like this close early in Europe.) I enjoy the grounds as well as the inside.
I posted the image below on facebook, and someone put a sad-face emoji on it, and at first glance it does seem like a sad or irreverent art installation, especially with the spires of St. Mary's Cathedral in the background, but there's actually a cool story that goes with it. I'll tell it best I can here at the moment, and I'll come back later once I've looked it up and re-verified what I think I know. Many centuries ago there was a town in France that was renowned for miracles happening there. The sheer numbers of people flocking to that town at the time were causing problems (sanitation and whatnot), and the king was fed up with what was going on, so he made a proclamation that said, in part, "There will be no miracles here." There are many ways to read this sign, but in one sense, to me at least, it's like God's going to do what He wants to do regardless of the proclamation of a king.
I love the Modern 2 building. (I love it more when there's not a little cart out front.)
Also on the grounds of Modern 2 is this sculpture by Eduardo Paolozzi (1924-2005). There is a MUCH larger version of this in the plaza in front of the British Library in London. I just love the modern take on the art of William Blake.
Can you see why I'm happy to be on the grounds even if I can't get inside?
Between Modern 1 and Modern 2 was this advertisement for a Ray Harryhausen exhibition - sure wish I could have seen that. It is described on their site as: "Film special effects superstar Ray Harryhausen elevated stop motion animation to an art. His innovative and inspiring films, from the 1950s onwards, changed the face of modern movie making forever. This will be the largest and widest-ranging exhibition of his work ever seen, with newly restored and previously unseen material from his incredible archive."
Across the street and onward to Modern 1 -- I see again the iconic Henry Moore sculpture and the message "Everything is going to be alright." OH! And I learned on this trip that this building used to be an elementary school. My host Toby was a day student here in his childhood. (I bet the message above the entryway wasn't there when he was a kid, and I bet he and other students sure could have used it at the time!)
And then there's the water feature right out front that is so inviting.
I sat here for a while. As with New Calton Burial Ground I found the grass to be so very soft. Here I could lean back against the terraces of the water feature and really relax.
I had a beautiful view above and a positive message to the right.
But I did have to move on eventually, and I went once more to St. Mary's Cathedral. I find I've used the phrase "I love" an awful lot in this blog, but it is the case that I love these doors.
And I love the carvings in the arch above the doors.
I have posted pictures of the interior already, but I do a lot of careful masking. I don't think I had let the art displays show. I think these are part of the Fringe Festival. I know there are performances taking place here as part of that, and I think that these visual arts as well as those performing arts are part of Fringe.
I should have read up more carefully on the display below. I'd love to know more about it - what it represents, how exactly it works. I'm not even sure what to call it . . . a loom?
As I stood and looked at the loom(?) the memorial just above it caught my eye, and I am once again reminded of how much I love it (there I go again) that people's stories used to be told on their memorials. This is so sad, yet so sweet: "This tablet is placed here in the remembrance of a life spent in the faithful discharge of small daily duties . . ."
As with this morning, I did have a destination in mind, but I traveled there in a very round about way. My destination was an odd one (in anyone else's mind, I imagine), and I got kind of lost again heading there (and hadn't bothered to take my phone with me for GPS). But I'm comfortable enough with the area, that I know if I wander around a bit, I'll eventually find what I'm looking for. And, sure enough, I saw this bridge that I had only ever seen from the other side before, and I knew right where I was.
The upcoming pictures aren't the most beautiful. In fact, I'd say they're a little gritty maybe. I've often been to the intersection below, the intersection of Princes Street and Lothian Road, but I never take picture of the big, messy scene. Or, if I do, I never post it. I always get up close to these churches and the castle, and I mask them off and show them as gloriously and purely as possible, but here they are in context: St. John's, St. Cuthbert's, Edinburgh Castle. (I remembered later that there's a new Johnnie Walker whiskey tasting place behind me that is so new it was opening a couple of days after I left, and I didn't even think to turn around and look! It's been under construction for years, and I didn't even look!)
But I did look in the window across the street, and I liked seeing the churches and castle in reflection. And there I am too - though nothing more remains of me there now than this ghost that once was there.
This was the first Taco Bell I'd ever seen in Europe. I love Taco Bell. No, I didn't stop. Maybe next time.
I continued to Stafford Street and down it to Queensferry St. Lane.
And I found what I was looking for No. 11 Stafford Street - former home of Mark Napier (1798-1879) who was a descendant of John Napier (1550-1617) and who wrote the definitive biography of John Napier. For some odd reason Mark's address was in the Wikipedia article on him, so I thought I'd go find his house. I also read that his grave is in St. Cuthbert's Kirkyard, but for all the times I've walked through there I haven't seen it. I guess I'd better go back! :-)
His house is still there . . . sort of . . .
So, for whatever it's worth, I have seen the former house of Mark Napier, biographer of John Napier. And then it was back towards Dean Village. This time I took the "high road" and walked across Dean Bridge. The church in the photo below features in a lot of my pictures, but always from below, usually seen as I look up from the river.
Turning back to make my way back down, I saw this sculpture on the side of a building at the end of the bridge. "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread. Gen 3 verse 19 Anno Domini 1619."
Cool benches:
More flowers:
Rowan berries above the Water of Leith:
Dean Bridge (and the church)
Dean Bridge
Water of Leith
My favorite spot:
In my first post in the 2021 segment of this blog, which was titled Looking Forward, I posted a half-minute video clip of the Water of Leith mentioning how much I was looking forward to relaxing here once I arrived. I did this earlier in the trip, and it ended up also being the last thing I did before packing up and heading home.
On the morning of my last day it was time to take a big walk around Old Town and especially to get to the Canongate area where I hadn't yet spent any time and also to New Calton Burial ground, which I had never visited. Everywhere I walked I saw flowers. The photo above was taken in New Town as I walked down Hanover Street toward Princes Street. Below is a peek through the fence at Princes Street Gardens with the castle in the background.
Up the Mound across Princes Street Gardens and toward New College
In front of New College we have, what else, more flowers!
Milne's Court - I just can't get enough of the "closes" and "wynds."
I think this was the first time this trip I made it to the castle esplanade.
And I decided to turn around and take a picture looking away from the castle and down the Royal Mile, despite all the people. You can see the Camera Obscura (tall white building on the left) and the Hub (steeple on the right).
I went down the stairs just east of the esplanade, heading south to Grassmarket - wanting to get to the Vennels for some shots of the castle.
The pictures above and below are of the castle above Grassmarket.
The next three pictures are of the castle from the Vennels.
And just a bit further up is a bit of Flodden Wall -
And then looking back down the Vennels along Flodden Wall to the castle.
And then back up Grassmarket to West Bow and Victoria Street. The shop below with the nose and glasses on it used to be painted bright orangish red and was the "Aha Ha Ha Jokes and Novelties Shop." I sort of think it was the inspiration for the Weasley Brothers joke shop in Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter Series. Now it's a clothing store. I used to find it kind of garish, but now that it's painted dark green and clothes instead of novelties are being sold (despite the nose and glasses still being on the store front) I find myself kind of sad.
And then out onto the Royal Mile (yes, I'm making a big "fast"(?) circuit) - taking my leave -
There were Fringe Events here and there along the Royal Mile (and everywhere else in the city). Above is a guy with a piano - not quite sure what was happening there as I hurried by. Normally the city would be BEYOND PACKED for Fringe, but the pandemic has the numbers way down. (Normally I wouldn't want to be here in August, which is when Fringe takes place, because I don't like crowds.)
I swung to the left quickly for a peek down Cockburn ("Coh-burn") Street - another possible inspiration for Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter books.
Since my last visit I learned that the gold bricks in the cobble stones mark the location of the original city wall. This section is right by the World's End Pub - called such since the edge of town was the end of the world!
I also took a quick detour off the Royal Mile down Jeffrey Street to peek over toward the Calton Hill area - where I would end up after swinging through the Cannongate area.
I love the old Tolbooth with its turrets and clock
Canongate Kirk - which is where the Queen worships when she is in town. It's a stone's throw from Holyrood Palace and is where her granddaughter Zara Philips got married - reception held in the garden of Holyrood Palace, of course!
I recently heard that Adam Smith, author of The Wealth of Nations, was buried in the Canongate kirkyard, and sure enough, I looked down and saw a brick with his name on it below my feet just in front of the church. There was a path of these little bricks leading to his grave. I've been here 2 or 3 times before and had never noticed this!
Canongate Kirkyard - Smith's grave enclosed within the iron fencing in the middle of the picture below - against the building:
"The property which every man has in his own labour, as it is the original foundation of all other property, so it is the most sacred and inviolable." ~ Adam Smith
I always come pay homage to poet Robert Fergusson who died at the age of 24 in Bedlam. I love the honor done him by other poets who took it upon themselves to provide the stone and improve the grave. See placard three pictures down regarding Robert Burns and Robert Louis Stevenson, which is at the foot of the grave.
" . . . the gift of one Edinburgh lad to another."
I adore funerary art. Too bad nobody can afford this sort of memorial anymore.
Looking across the kirkyard, I see the Burns Monument on the hill above, which I will also eventually get to! (I must have walked for 4 hours or more! I think I was trying to take the whole city into myself so it would be with me always.)
While winding up my walk around the kirkyard, I found the following humble grave next to the wall and was completely taken aback when I read the plaque above it!
This is thought to be the grave of David Riccio, secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots, who was dragged from her small supper room in Holyrood Palace that they were in together by her husband and other men and murdered, stabbed multiple times, in her bed chamber right in front of her while she was pregnant with the future King James VI/I. (Every time I'm here I find something new to me; just look up, look down, look around, and there's something more to see every time you look!)
Right next to the church is one of the hidden gems of Edinburgh -- Dunbar's Close Garden. It is split into multiple little gardens, and people sometimes come to sit and read or have lunch or play the guitar, as the case may be. Any time I have ever been here there have never been more than 3 or 4 people inside - each with his or her own private little space. Sometime I'll have to give myself time to actually sit and relax instead of staying on the move. It is such a tranquil, beautiful spot - so quiet and right in the middle of town - directly off the Royal Mile and almost directly across the street from the Scottish Parliament.
And then back out onto the Royal Mile, having started in the far west of it (castle), now near the far east of it (palace).
. . . and more flowers . . .
The north side of the Scottish Parliament building. I love all the quotes embedded in the wall.
I see scripture on a lot of old buildings, but here it is on this very new building as well, "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord my strength and my Redeemer. Psalm 19:14" There are many poets, novelists and philosophers quoted as well.
The picture above and the picture below are taken ALMOST from the same spot - one looking north and the other looking south. Though I've seen it so many times, it always awes me to see Holyrood Park with its crags and mountain right in the heart of a city - a world capital! Look to the side, and it is wilderness!
Holyrood Palace
The picture below gives an idea of proximity. On the left are the outer buildings of Holyrood Palace, in the middle is Salisbury Crags, and on the right is Parliament.
The crest of Scotland that used to be over the gatehouse of the palace, and with the inscription James 5th (IR5). You gotta love a country whose official national animal is the unicorn!!
And then it was time to swing west again but in a slightly different way than I had before. Given my love of cemeteries, I can't believe I had never come across New Calton Burial Ground. This was actually my destination when I left the flat multiple hours before; I just took the long way 'round. :-)
The tower in the center of the picture above is a guard tower to keep watch so that "resurrection men" wouldn't steal freshly buried bodies (to sell to medical schools for dissection).
The grass here was so soft. I did sit down for a little while. Below you can see the guard tower again and the Burns Monument on the hill above it.
The Stevenson family members interred here are related to author Robert Louis Stevenson. The family was known for building lighthouses.
I beg pardon of those few of you following along with me for the many pictures I took of Arthur's Seat and Salisbury Crags. I just can't get enough of them, and every view seems, to me, to highlight it a little differently. This is definitely a cemetery with a view!! The palace and the parliament are also somewhat visible in the following 4 photos.
This next view is taken from the Burns Monument rather than from New Calton Burial Ground.
When I turned around, this was what I saw:
I have never seen this open before . . . well, except in 2016 when I happened by and there were some construction workers there who asked me if I wanted to look inside since they had it open because of their work, a rare thing at the time. Back then it was pretty barren and dusty, but it was still cool to get into something that was generally closed!
This too was housing a Fringe Event - again, they were all over the city, big and small. I captured a bit of it on video. It was amazing to step inside and be surrounded by the music of this sound installation. The song is Auld Lang Syne, which is thought to have been written by Robert Burns. Here it was sung in Scottish Gaelic by "citizens from each of the 27 nation states of the European Union, who currently reside in Scotland." This "offers a response to the ongoing theatre surrounding the UK's departure from the European Union."
As a mathematician, I couldn't help noticing the floor tiling. This coming week I teach my students about tessellations, and this picture is going to make it into the class lecture as an example of a semi-regular tiling. What is has to do with Robert Burns, I have no idea, but I'll take it!
And again we have Salisbury Crags and Arthur's Seat. In the foreground is the back of Canongate Kirk and the kirkyard.
And then on up to Calton Hill - of which I took very few pictures - was wearing out by this time and eager to get back and pack. I was flying out the next day, after all. The monument you see at the top is to Dugald Stewart. Edinburgh is a city of monuments and is known as the "Athens of the North."
This is a view from Calton Hill toward the city that I don't usually take - just a quick snap before heading home. If you look carefully you can see the crown spire on St. Giles Cathedral, the Hub, the castle, Balmoral Hotel, and, to the far right, the new shopping mall with the whippie-dip top. (I think it's called St. James Quarter - obviously, shopping is not my thing, nor is modern architecture.)
A quick peek into Old Calton Burial Ground without stopping in. This was my first ever "sight" on my first visit to Edinburgh in 2016 - was there to visit the grave of mathematician John Playfair - but these gates were closed and had a sign on them stating that the burial ground was closed for repairs, which was very disappointing to me at the time: the first thing I tried to see on my first sabbatical was closed. But so much else was open, and it all ended well. Since that time I've been in twice to pay homage to Playfair (his brother William and David Hume and Captain John Gray and others).
The Melville Monument in St. Andrew's Park.
More flowers as I headed back into New Town
The last 3 pictures are of the buildings near where I was staying in New Town. I'm including the one below because of the blocked off windows. It might seem like that's the sign of a condemned building or something, but it's actually that the residents used to be taxed on the number of windows they had, so to avoid taxation they bricked in some of their windows. I'm not sure of the exact timing, but I think it was in the Victorian Era. You see a lot of this in the New Town.
Edinburgh is quite hilly. It's a city of 7 hills - like Rome. I don't know if you can tell here - perhaps by the buildings being at lower and lower levels as you go - but there was a lot of up and down as I did my walking! In this way and in others it is a lot like San Francisco.
And once again back to the flat (just a couple of doors away from where I'm standing).
This was to be my last walk - my leave-taking of the city. I was planning to spend the rest of the day packing, signing in to my flight, printing boarding passes, taking care of some school-related stuff, etc. But, if you know me, you know that isn't what happened. So I have one more post to put up before I'm done. That will be titled "Afternoon Walk - Last Day." I don't have one of those fancy watches that keeps track of steps, but if I did I probably would have exceeded its capacity on this day!
