Freezing cold weather today. The wind was ice. While we scoff at the inability of locals to deal with "heat wave conditions" it was their turn to laugh at our inability to deal with the dreadfully cold winds today.
We marked the passing of another week with a morning service at
St Giles' Cathedral. This was a lovely, small service in one of the side chapels and a great way to begin our day.
A short walk through town brought us to
Edinburgh Castle. Of note during our visit were the Royal jewels, St Margaret's Chapel and The Great Hall. It was very crowded though and I soon tired of people entering rooms and stopping dead in doorways, or the habit of a certain group of tourists who barge directly into you as though you are invisible. However, for all that, it was a lovely morning at the castle.
We then headed to
Surgeons' Hall Museum to immerse ourselves in the history and development of surgical training. The boys had fun trying their hand at laproscopic surgery and wandering around the pots in the Pathology hall.
Finishing our day with a visit to
Mary King Close, a long buried part
of Edinburgh consisting of a number of closes which were originally narrow streets with tenement houses on either side, stretching up to (at times) 14 stories high, was certainly a fun tour! We heard stories of life in the Closes, tales of the plague, and ghost stories.
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| The crowds and the castle |
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| View over Edinburgh from castle |
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| The stands being prepared for Edinburgh Military Tattoo |
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| Royal dog cemetery. The New City on the other side of the parks, and the Firth of Forth in the distance. |
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| Entering the War Memorial |
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| The boys have become reasonably proficient at decoding the symbolism of royal emblems and heraldry. |
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| In the Great Hall. This led to a thoughful discussion with Ben about why "Alexander's soldiers" (the Macedonian phalanx), did not carry pole arms, which Ben is convinced are the most awesome weapons ever. |
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| Pattern recognition: sword, sword, polearm, sword, sword, polearm ... Followed by "pick your favourite pole arm". |
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| Dungeon for prisoners. 3 to a bed on the bunks, and two layers of closely-packed hammocks. And no daylight. |
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| Effing cold! |
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| Sentries |
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| On our walk through Edinburgh, we came across the Medical School |
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| Heading into the Surgical Museum, wearing a new jumper. |
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| Learning to use a microscope. "It's all pink!" |
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| Diorama of Mary King's Close, the city under the city. This close was the second _widest_ (!) street in the city, and at its narrowest, I could touch both sides at the same time. Into the laneway projected wooden spiral staircases (going up 10 floors at times), and market stalls. The population density in the city at the time (?1700) was about 15,000 per km2, which is about half that of modern Manhattan - astonishing for a city before skyscrapers. |
