Salisbury Crags
“Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is beauty, admire it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfill it.
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is too precious, do not destroy it.
Life is life, fight for it.”
It’s Wednesday (Dec 14) and Pam arrives tomorrow. We’ll be off to see all the main attractions then, so this morning I set out on one final walking trek through Edinburgh—this time up Salisbury Crags.
Yes, it’s sunrise, but it’s also well past 8:30 in the morning too! Edinburgh is at the same northern latitude as Moscow and the bottom of the Alaskan Panhandle, so the sun is late to rise and early to set.
Arthur’s Seat on the left and Salisbury Crags on the right.
Look, near the summit, it’s Frosty the Jihadist! (Hey, it was 20° F outside!)
The early morning sun paints the town in a warm glow—what a view!
I’m accustomed to the Sierra Nevada being called The Range of Light, but I think Edinburgh should be called The City of Light—the light and shadow on the buildings is always shifting in interesting ways.
A view west through the crags over the city and the Pentland Hills beyond.
Here comes the sun! (With this mustache I feel a little like Tim Allen in The Santa Clause, it just keeps coming in white.)
Some cool volcanic formations along the top of the Crags. (That’s as high as the sun made it by 9 am.)
A couple of cool shots from the sweeping Victorian Cockburn Street in Old Town.
We finished out the Wednesday afternoon on a return exploration of the cavernous National Museum of Scotland.
The National Museum of Scotland’s foundation stone was laid in 1861 by Prince Albert, a driving force behind Britain’s 19th century museum movement. The main hall (above) was modeled after the Victorian Crystal Palace at the 1851 Great Exhibition in Hyde Park in London.
In a large exhibit on clothing, this simple empire waited dress really stood out to Amanda. Its from c1810 and made out of cotton muslin. Having spent the last many weeks surrounded by all things wool, she really liked the cotton fabric, and, of course, it’s nod to Jane Austen. Below is a close-up of the intricate detailing at the top and the subtle embroidered flowers throughout.
Amanda also loved the detailing on this wooden panel of a mother with her four children (below).
The exquisite detailing on this goblet from Italy c1866-72 caught Amanda’s eye as well (below center).
It’s Thursday morning (Dec 15) in Edinburgh and Pam’s Wednesday evening flight from LAX is at 35,000 feet somewhere between Newfoundland and Greenland.
While we waited for her flight to arrive, Amanda and I had a healthy breakfast at Seeds for the Soul.
We walked home to burn off all that sugar and passed the beautiful Barclay Viewforth Church of Scotland.
Off The Royal Mile we used Advocate’s Close to descend the northern slope and passed this door.
In the sweet auld Scottish tradition, the initials of both husband and wife and the date they moved into the house, were engraved in the lintel. Clement Cor and Helen Bellenden built the tenement c1590 and the Latin inscription SPES. ALTERA. VITAE. translates to “Hope in the After Life.” Such an amazing tradition.
This is the sign from the park the lies just outside our front door.
Hey Clint, we were looking in thrift stores for books to read and saw this one (ah, fond memories of a great read):
With the snow and cold over the past week, Pam’s connecting flight from London Heathrow (LHR) to Edinburgh was cancelled. She was automatically rebooked; however, they moved her connecting flight to a plane departing from London City Airport (LCY). LHR and LCY are both in London in name only. In fact, it was a monstrous 2-hour Uber drive for Pam to get from LHR to LCY! As if the 10.5-hour flight wasn’t enough already. 😩 Thankfully she had plenty of time to complete the drive from Heathrow to City, and her plane departed LCY on time at 7:45 pm.
2130 hours
The Eagle has landed.
The package is secure.
The cake is in the oven.
Elvis has entered the building.
The baby is in the bath.
The fox has entered the chicken coop.
On the bus from Edinburgh Airport to the city center.
A wee dram, then it’s off to bed for some well-earned 🛌 😴 💤
