Surely there was not nearly enough to keep us out for another full day of discoveries! Our plan was to have a relatively easy day, along with doing our laundry, finding coffee (and breakfast for my daughter – I had eaten earlier), and once again seek out our elusive tea party with the Queen. We had to walk 20 minutes to the ‘launderette’ which meant we were getting quite desperate for coffee. Fortunately, laundry sudsing nicely, and an attendant on duty, we left to find a promising cafe. Which we did. Kukina Bakery & Turkish Street Food where my daughter found a delicious looking sausage roll and we each had pretty good lattes while we sat indoors to discuss our plan for the day. Once everything was put away we headed out to visit two churches just up the street from our hotel that had caught my daughter’s eye.
St. Mary’s Metropolitan Cathedral 1814 – present was such a delight. Entering through a side door into a spacious anteroom gives visitors a few minutes to prepare rather than be bundling coats, clasping bags or whatever last minute things one tends to do when entering a house of worship. Which also leaves you open to be awed. I do not recall seeing such a beautifully painted proscenium arch. (I had to look that up) I found it refreshing, no heavy handed gilt, no overpowering strong colours, not even any subliminal, nor in your face, messages. (Except the majority of the angels seem to be on the blonde side of things)These lamp arms are so interesting. Completely different in all ways from the angels, yet they work. Bold colours, bold patterns, geometric versus the softness of The proscenium arch. Perhaps a nod to the Polish congregation? Mass is offered in English and Polish.Scottish National Shrine of St. Andrew. Two relics of St. Andrew are said to be enshrined here, behind glass, gifted in 1869 and another in 1969. Relics gifted in the Middle Ages were lost during Reformation. This shrine is also not heavily adorned, another pleasant indication that not all that is sacred needs to be encased in gold. (Or silver)
As inviting as the second church appeared, and despite the large ‘all welcome’ sign everything was locked up tight. We could not find a sign indicating when they would open so off we went to finally go to inside the Writers’ Museum.
Nifty stairwell going up inside the Writers’ Museum. We finally made it! All very well to have a warning for anyone going up, but coming down can be a bit of a surprise! The Museum is currently set up to prevent people clogging the stairwells – not always successful.Tall narrow houses were quite normal. Built in 1622, restored in 1897, Lady Stair House was spared from being a wreck, a tenement or, more recently, becoming a B&B. Not that I would turn down a chance to stay.
After a quick, late lunch at The Albanach just off the Royal Mile – not memorable, all I wrote about it is that I paid £6.60 – I most likely had soup with bread and a coffee. There was live afternoon music, that I could only hear, rather than also see the musician, after being tucked practically against the front door and bay window, and with staff running to and fro. Note, anyone travelling with me needs patience of steel. Not that I am trying to be difficult, it’s just dietary restrictions tend to mean checking menus prior to choosing a place and then I pick a place apart if disappointed when something I can eat is not available. Impromptu dining is a thing of the past. We did not want much. We had a tea party to attend and were running late.
Are they taught how to maintain a stand on guard slouch? Knock, knock? Are we too late for tea? Admittingly, closing in on 5:00PM is pushing into dinner time. (Photo from one of the side gates) As we were coming down the last several feet of the Royal Mile towards Holyrood Palace we encountered nattily dressed gentlemen and fascinator adorned ladies dressed to their teatime nines exiting the Palace. Actually walking out the gates. If you look very carefully to the right of the Queen’s banner (Or is it standard?) you will see a very small red speck. Now listen carefully…oh, sorry, I forgot to record. We could hear the whirring sounds of a helicopter before seeing a gleaming red machine gracefully rise above our heads then swing around the palace in an ever up arc and flying off. We had missed the party by mere minutes. Perhaps the Queen was going out for takeaway? Just in case she was inside the shiny red helicopter we waved farewell.Holyrood Palace. Tents coming down. Having missed everything we took a stroll towards Arthur’s Seat, made it as far as the foot of his throne (basically just entered the pathway) where we had great views. Calton Hill in the background. The Parthenon lookalike is an unfinished monument to remember those who died in the Napoleonic Wars. Only one set of twelve columns was finished due to lack of funds and loss of interest. Over the last 100+ years ideas have been bantered about to complete the monument with no concrete success. Banner still flying high. The Palace from the back. Nestled next to Holyrood Abbey, which sadly is temporarily closed; it would have been a wonderful last place in Scotland for us to explore. The Palace was of course closed to the public when the queen is in residence. One of the challenges with photos of massive buildings is taking photos to encapsulate what I see. Although still on the Holyrood Palace grounds this butts right up to the sidewalk. There is not always a lot of space to back up for safe camera angles. This little cottage is known as Queen Mary’s Bath (1542 – 1587) On the gate a sign says there is no indication of there ever being a bath, which makes sense considering the lack of bathing by anyone 500 years ago. She resided at Holyrood from 1561 – 1567. (Interesting note, she was nearly 6 feet tall, very tall for women in those days)A view from near the top of Calton Cemetery gives an idea of how closely knit Edinburgh is. Arthur’s Seat in the background with Holyrood Palace at the base of the hill. (There is an abbey ruin off in the distance a quarter of the way up the hill that we chose to not walk to) As we were readying to finally turn our backs on the Palace our ears picked up drummers drumming and pipers piping! Zooming in I could just make out the red uniforms of guards outside the palace walls. A wonderful send off. With the discovery of the cemetery we also found out how close Calton Hill was to everything, including the route back to our hotel. It made me shudder to think how close the fire from our first day was to everything, especially on a nearly tinder dry slope.A view from below. We could not see any indication of the fire from where we were standing and I am quite sure the black on the monument was from decades of coal burning. What would we discover on our final views of Edinburgh the following morning?
By the time we made it back down the hill from the topside of the cemetery, wondered about the colossal derelict building on the side of Calton Hill (We were told it was formerly the US Embassy or Consulate but I have not found anything to indicate if corr) and tidied up a bit we made the decision to just eat at the hotel where I was pleasantly surprised to have a very good salad and shared a starter of salt and pepper squid. We would sleep well for our final half day before boarding a train to York.
unattended grandma 