Off to Edinburgh on Wednesday

An Edinburgh Street scene, the National Museum in its netting, National Museum

A piece of steel bent like a noodle (no mention of Superman), A spinning wheel, a weaving loom

All of these things are in the National Museum where they allowed pictures.

An electric carding machine, Sir Jackie Stewart's racing car, St. Giles Cathedral

Stained glass windown in St. Giles (It's reallly upright in reality.) Flowers by the staircase in Edinburgh (by the Sir Walter Scott monument), City scene from across the railroad valley (taken from under the umbrella in the pouring rain...actually the flower pictures were taken the same way.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Woke up, watched the NBC nightly news with breakfast as we usually do. Pete and Jess get it as part of their free tv channels on their computer. It is a bit odd to watch Brian Williams at 7:00 AM. We worked on the blog for a bit, still behind as I am sure you have noticed.

About 10 AM we left for Edinburgh. We walked to Queen Street Station and caught the 10:15 train to Edinburgh. We had a very nice train ride….calm and peaceful with our table seats. We reached Waverly and headed for the Scottish National Museum. We were distracted by a couple of shops along the way…..sometimes, we are easily distracted. We had great fun playing tourist in the shops. However, we eventually reached the museum, which should be no surprise, is wrapped in scaffolding and is being renovated inside and out. Did we mention that it was raining? Oh well, at least it is a free museum.

The National Museum of Scotland is an amalgamation of the things that Scotsmen have accomplished. We started our tour out of order because we were not really interested in Scottish kings—although I’m sure we would have learned a great deal. We began with Scotland Transformed---from a backward agricultural province to an industrial leader of the world. We saw the spinning and weaving equipment that was operated by hand and the progressively more complex machines that took over the textile industry. From simple hand held carding tools to a complex machine with many sets of rollers that automatically organized fibers into coherent fluff that could be turned into thread. There were models of steam engines and displays of iron and steel making and coal mining all showing the great changes that overtook the country after the Union with England—kind of a shot-gun wedding, and the final end of the Jacobite threat. The next floor was industry and empire which continued the examination of Scottish industry, railroads, shipbuilding, iron and steel, and bridge building. Lots of big artifacts and working models made it an interesting display.

We took a break to look at the Lewis Chessmen, stone carvings from the western islands that are quite ancient. They were used as models for the chess pieces in one of the early Harry Potter movies. And for a bit of lunch. We split a sandwich and a salad and some carrot cake—it was ok, not the least because it was still raining/pouring outside.

Back to the museum proper to look at the dispersion of Scots throughout the Empire and the emigration of Scots to various places. Twenty five million people worldwide claim to be of Scottish ancestry….five million live in Scotland. Finally we looked at Scotland a changing nation and how the lives of people have and are changing. Certainly the time after World War II has been hard on Scotland as the loss of industrial jobs and the decline of British trade have hurt the economic base, but things are slowly improving.

We made our way out the museum and into a steady rain….good thing we bought those rain jackets and umbrellas. We went in search of St. Giles Cathedral. After a wrong turn and an extra walk in the rain, we found the Cathedral. The Cathedral was the home church for John Knox and his statue resides in front of the cathedral. Inside the cathedral, they asked that you pay 2 pounds for a photography sticker. Since they are using the money for restoration, I paid the money, got my sticker and took pictures. The stained glass windows, the Gothic Vaulted ceiling and the magnificient organ, which was being played, all contributed to the impressivemess of the building.

We decided to leave the cathedral and finish the National Gallery, so we walked down hill to the in the rain and into the gallery. We checked out some 19^th century English artists and some older paintings and then they were closing so we had to leave. Where do you go in a rainstorm in Edinburgh when the public venues have closed? Riding a tour bus in the rain didn’t do it, window shopping on Princess Street held little appeal, and we were not walking back up hill to the Royal Mile and a Bit—so we went to the train station, got some coffee—a wonderful mocha with whipped cream and chocolate dusting-- and read a newspaper until our off-peak tickets could be used. We took a crowded train back to Glasgow.

At Pete and Jess’s we checked laundry, talked, watched some tube, read and went to bed. Oh yes, we decided to go to Perth tomorrow. Oh yes, we talked and saw Sarah and Aiden and Gavin through the genius of SKYPE.

Amazingly enough, an even 16,000 steps.