Out & About in Edinburgh: A Whirlwind Visit

I recently took a whirlwind, thirty-six hour visit to Edinburgh to see my university friends Nic and Sarah who were visiting from South Africa. I flew up on the Tuesday morning from London City Airport and returned, thirty-six thousand steps later, on Wednesday evening.

There were so many interesting things to see as we pottered about. These were some of my favourites sights.

There are two things you'll see if you drive around the Scottish lowlands - heather and grouse. Naturally, I thought these little statuettes were grouse but I was wrong! Located on Leith Walk, they are pigeons and were sculpted by Shona Kinloch.

Don't you love the clock in the background? I love the standing clocks seen in towns and cities around the world.

We popped into Vinyl Villains for a look around. This tiny store was a collector's treasure trove, full of both vintage and current vinyl, CDs and even VHS tapes.

We walked up Windsor Street and stopped to admire these pretty houses.

I was very amused to see Greenside Parish Church because I went to Greenside High School in Johannesburg. Many suburb names in Jo'burg come from Scotland including Blairgowrie, where I lived, and Craighall, where I went to primary school.

We walked up Calton Hill, which I'll tell you all about in my next post, and enjoyed views for miles.

On our second day, we visited the National Museum of Scotland where I saw a cast of the tomb of Mary, Queen of Scots. The original lies in Westminster Abbey.

This was my second visit to Edinburgh and the first time I managed to get a decent photo of the Scott Memorial. I blame it on the unpredictable weather and the fact that monuments and buildings aren't whitewashed in Edinburgh like they are in London. It was established in 1994 that cleaning the Scott Monument would do more harm than good.

Did you know that the Scott Monument is dedicated to Sir Walter Scott, author of Waverley and Ivanhoe? I didn't until this trip. I thought it was the 'Scot monument' and a dedication to the people of Scotland.

Another sight I'd previously failed to capture - and I've been to Edinburgh airport three times - was the Edinburgh sign. Last time there were tons of people in front of it and none of them were my loved ones!

In the next posts, I'll tell you all about our trip up Calton Hill, a ghost tour, a very pretty street, and a visit to the Scottish National Gallery. In the meantime, you can read all about my previous visits to Scotland and the lovely towns we visited.