View from Braid Hills

Having "mastered" the Lothinair bus system in just two days, we are now in charge of life in Edinburgh.
ha

It is easy to catch the double decker buses just 50 yards from the hotel and travel the three miles from our Best Western hotel to downtown Edinburgh.  We visited the Holy Rood Gallery Friday, our first day here.  The usual art there was removed so we could see art borrowed from the Royal residences.  Our timing is perfect to see and hear much of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in a few weeks.

We tried to tour the Holy Rood Palace yesterday, but royal family was in residence (they don't say who) so the tours were shut down.   We'll try again today or tomorrow; after these two days, there are very few until August because of the Royal Family's schedule, and as the desk clerk said this morning, the Queen's Summer Garden Parties.   Sounds posh, doesn't it?

When Stan was finding us a hotel here in Edinburgh, we looked at several on the map; this was the farthest one out.  It was easy to imagine the three miles of city buildings that we'd have to pass to get to the Old Town castles and museums.  But I never envisioned looking out the hotel window and seeing all the roof tops all the way to the Edinburgh Castle, high on its volcanic hill, glimpses of the Firth of Forth behind it, dark stone buildings (rarely more than three stories) with slate roofs, a few spires from churches, the huge chunk of rock to the south of the Castle that is called Seat of Arthur (no clear reason why).  It is a perfect postcard view.  Hotel manager Clare has been talking to her coworkers for months about "Memphis" people getting the room with the view...and we are appreciative.  It is worth every step of the three flights of stairs.

We've already found the basic touristy info about our respective Scottish clan heritage, bought a few tiny items with appropriate tartan plaids as we've walked the old town areas.  There really are people on the streets wearing plaids: slacks, coats...not just the employees at palaces, hotels, etc.  And the shoes just aren't as nice as in Eastern Europe, whether it's the weather being so rainy or different access to leathers, or just taste.   There are many discount types of stores in town; some are the organizational ones that I know through internet only: SERRV, OXFAM; some are locally run.  There appears to be more acceptance of recycling all things household and clothing, not just the "throw away" items we typically sent to charities.  Tea shops, coffee shops, tiny food shops are also everywhere.  

The darkness of the stone used in construction is high contrast to the colors we saw in Istanbul and Ukraine; the dirt in flower beds appears extremely dark, too.   The ornamentation is far less, too.

Having been on the road 19 days, we are both reading papers here...but then, our ability to read Cyrillic alphabet was limited, wasn't it?   The main paper, offered free at the hotel, with shops every few blocks, is The Scotsman.  The earliest publication was edited several years by a Craig; isnt' that funny?