Baden-Powell Council BSA
at the
2006 Blair Atholl Patrol Jamborette

Day 7  - July 17th - Edinburgh
























Princes Street is just a short bus ride from the Scout Hall. As we got off the bus we could see Edinburgh Castle across Princes Street Gardens, high upon its volcanic cliff. From this direction, there's no wonder it was considered impossible to storm. 

 

Our tour guide took the group into the Castle, then up past the ancient St. Margaret's chapel to the War Memorial and the Honours of Scotland - the Scottish Crown Jewels and the Stone of Scone. 

We went through the War Memorial (look for the sculptures of the animals who served in the Great War, put there at the insistence of the 8th Duchess of Atholl) and the Great Hall, then down into the dungeons for the new exhibition there on Prisoners of War in the Castle. 

Left: Matt and the view over the Dog's Cemetery, with the Firth of Forth in the background


The Castle Commander's house

View from the Great Hall window
After lunch, the group toured the Camera Obscura - the top floor is the Camera itself, a marvel of Victorian high-tech, with a periscope projecting a live view of Edinburgh on a bowl in the middle of the darkened room. After the show, you can walk down through the rest of the building, with many different examples of optical illusions, holograms, etc. 

The group at the Camera Obscura Show

Matt using a spherical mirror to shake hands with a real image of his own hand. Kind of a spooky picture, actually. 
The Castle and Camera Obscura are at the upper end of the Royal Mile (left), which stretches down along the volcanic ridge of the Old Town to Holyrood Palace at the lower end. Most of the western part of the Mile is taken up by one gift shop or restaurant after another. "Thistle Do Nicely" (below) is one of my favorite shop names. 


"Our Dynamic Earth" is a science museum near Holyrood Palace on the end of the Mile. As we went in, we were stopped for a picture with some of the organizers of the Edinburgh Cow exhibit - the city was full of oddly decorated cows, including a skeletal one which glows at night and "BraveMoo" complete with blue-painted face and broadsword outside St. Giles. 

The group, with cow, outside the Dyamic Earth

 On a hot day, Joe likes the glacier, made by condensing and freezing the moisture from the air (mostly visitor's breath)
The wall of the new Scottish Parliament, near Holyrood Palace. Its rather unusual architecture has aroused strong opinions among the Scots - each of the oddly shaped protrusions from the wall at right is a study for a Scottish Member of Parliament. 
At left is the statue of Greyfriars Bobby, the Skye terrier who spent 14 years next to his owner's grave in Greyfriars Kirkyard. It's the most visited statue in Edinburgh, apparently. At least, we visited it (and the grave, too). 
Men in Kilts: Matt, Nick, John, Taylor and Matt in their newly acquired kilts. 

We packed up Monday night, and on Tuesday morning the coach arrived to take us to Blair Atholl. 

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