* cababarant *

Friday, January 20, 2006

Edinburgh pics

We just got back last week from a few days in Edinburgh, where the kids enjoyed some Scottish taste surprises (see Crispy Waffle for the details). Of course, they enjoyed some other things about this fair city. Oh, and it was the first place I've ever gone where English is spoken, yet I didn't understand a thing!

My kids became immediately obsessed with Greyfriar's Bobby, the statue of the cute little dog that mourned its owner by staying by his grave for fourteen years. Fourteen years. Oh, and he also ate lunch at a nearby pub every day. I mean, the dog was Scottish, ya know.

Edinburgh castle, as seen from the top of the Camera Obscura museum (which the kids really liked)

View from Edinburgh's Royal Mile, the main tourist drag going from Edinburgh Castle to the Palace of Holyrood House.

Oh, at my sister's request, we also went to this wacky (but really cool!) little museum called the Sir Jules Thorn Exhibition of the History of Surgery. It's open for only like 2 hours a day and it's free entry. It was really interesting, and had some gorey stuff that the kids enjoyed. We learned that, yes, hundreds of years ago, barbers actually did perform medical procedures. (As Steve Martin said, "Who's the barber here?") Yikes. As you can see from the photo above, we also learned that doctors have also been playing golf for hundreds of years. I'm guessing the first pager to get Dr. Rattray off the green was invented shortly thereafter.

I also got to see one more Vermeer (21 more to go!) at the National Gallery of Scotland. This one, Christ in the House of Martha and Mary, is thought to be Vermeer's earliest work, and I think his only religious-themed work. It is just huge, and it's the first Vermeer I've looked at that wasn't under glass (this made a huge difference!) It also helped that Edinburgh's public museums all have free admission so in a way we did a "Vermeer run-through" and were in and out of there in about 30 minutes. Oh, and did I mention that when we weren't looking, Dari sat in a chair that was about a thousand years old? (It was roped off, and while I was looking at a Jan Steen painting, he sat in it and the ancient guard tapped me on the shoulder and alerted me to it. Whoops! But what other baby can say they sat in a medieval chair?)

Crispy Waffle: Curry and fried Mars bars
Greyfriar's Bobby: The Story
Rampant Scotland: Edinburgh's Royal Mile
Wikipedia: Barber Surgeons
Essential Vermeer: Christ in the House of Martha and Mary

posted by sheryl | 10:18 PM |

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