Edinburgh zoo, chocolate soup, and arthurs seat

Today was wonderful! Marc had the day off of his internship, so we spent the day walking around and exploring. We spent the morning at Edinburgh zoo. It was very nice, but somehow all the exhibits seemed to be uphill. Very steeply uphill; you need hiking shoes for this zoo. The animal species and enclosures are fairly typical of most zoos in the states, with a few things I was impressed with. The public education of research was really neat; they have entire buildings illustrating the research they are doing with capuchins and squirrel monkeys. It shows there research set ups, and you can access the equipment and do the test task. They also have computer monitors showing spectrograms of vocalizations. Wonderful :) Also, I had never seen a bush dog before. Very rare, from south america, about the size of a cat. They live in family groups and make a neat squeaking sound. The zoo is most famous for its penguins. Not only do they have a voluntary penguin parade each day, but one penguin is honored by the military each year at the tattoo festival. His rank just continues to go up, and this past year he was knighted.

We then refreshed ourselves at an award winning hot chocolate place called chocolate soup, and then walked to Arthurs seat. We proceeded to hike to the top, and enjoyed a great view of the city. It is a very steep climb up, but since it is steep it goes quickly. With all the melting snow and ice, that also meant it was slippery, and there was lots of falling (at least for me...Marc is wiley and managed to stay on his feet most the time). But it was alright...with all the water, the scottish grass is more sponge like, so it cushioned the fall. This also turned me into a giant mudball.... but the view was worth it, you could see the whole city in rolling fog.

Bobbie's bar and the Elephant Cafe

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After visiting the museum, went to Bobbie's bar and the elephant cafe for refreshments. Bobbie was a small dog whose owner passed away. He pretty much lived at his owners grave, only leaving to get meals at this pub. Bobbie has since passed away, and was buried with his owner. But now the bar was renamed in his honor. And the Elephant house is the birthplace of Harry Potter. The girls bathroom is covered in nerdy Potter graffiti.

National Museum of Scotland

Visited the National museum of Scotland today. Very large, took most of the afternoon to just breeze through everything. A few of the gems:

The Lewis Chessman: Chess pieces dating back to the 12th century, made out of walrus ivory. One of the oldest complete chess sets in the world.

Mary Queen of Scots tomb

There was a very interesting section on the death rites in early Scotland. Mourning periods were long; for a parent the mourner wore black for at least a year. Another interesting piece was a group of 17 mini caskets, found on Arthur's seat in 1836. No one knows what they are, why they were there. They were very detailed; the little figures are hand carved with custom clothing, hand painted in lots of detail. One guess is that they represent the 17 people Burke and Hare killed and then proceeded to sell the bodies for dissection at the University. Others think that they were used for witchcraft, or perhaps by sailors for good luck.

View from flat

Happy boxing day :) The snow is finally melting, but the view of the mountains with the snow is just to pretty, I had to get a good panorama before it was gone. This is just outside our apartment.

Christmas Eve at St. Giles

Marc and I attended the Christmas Eve sermon at St. Giles cathedral. The service was led by the head of the church of Scotland. The church dates back to 1243, and has been in its present cathedral form since 1635. Beautiful building, with unbelievable stain glass windows. The acoustics are also phenomenal; music reverberates and seems to amplify within the building.

After service, on our way back to the bus stop, Piemakers (you guessed it...a pie shop) was closing down and gave away goodies. Marc was very excited, and tried to eat them through the bag on the trip home. We have lots of delicious pies for a Christmas feast now :)

Museum of Childhood

While wandering around City Centre, I found a wonderful free little museum. It is a children's toy museum. It had all sorts of goodies, including some penny machines. You put in 5 pence, and a scene plays. One was a haunted house, where ghouls come out of the walls. Even better, they had a Sweeney Todd one where you saw customers come in, but not out :) They also has classics like Punch and Judy.

City Centre

While Marc worked, I played in the wonderful downtown city centre. Lots of fun shops, and beautiful buildings. There are pictures of St. Giles cathedral, Edinburgh castle, as well as the Royal mile and prince street.

Royal Botanic Garden

While Marc was off being productive and working towards his degree, I went and explored the Royal Botanic Garden. For one, I love the bus system here. There is no worry; you can catch a bus to anywhere in the city, and for the directionally challenged like myself it is pretty much foul proof so you can't get lost. The buses run at least every 20 minutes, if not more frequently, like at Disney ^_^

The garden was lovely, though many of the outdoor exhibits were buried under snow. There were several nice indoor gardens. I am fairly ignorant about plants so it is hard for me to say what makes this garden special, but I do know they have the second largest collection of plants in the world, and do some great horticulture research. They have great education buildings, teaching the next generation of little scientist.

I am a bit ashamed, but one of the most interesting things to this mammalogist were the squirrels. There were some other visitors feeding one peanuts, and then they all started to join in. But the Scottish squirrels have a different body plan than those in America...they are huskier, with broader shoulders, stouter legs, and smushed in faces.

Once Marc is off from work, we are heading off to a pub for a game night. Nothing better than mixing beer and nerdy Scots.

Christmas Market

Today mostly consisted of business...getting a bus pass, joining a gym....but tonight Marc and I went to a tasty Indian restaurant and enjoyed some curry. There is a large Indian population here, and it is easy to find authentic food.

We then headed over to the Christmas market, a festival held in city centre. Lots of booths, rides, and tasty foods. Marc enjoyed some German potatoes and pickles, and I had Fire Punch (a rum mulled in spices).

In city centre is this statue of Sir Walter Scott, and he was so beautifully draped in snow I had to share the photo.

First stop Scotland

With a large pond separating friends and family, I have worried about keeping in touch. The solution? A travel blog. This seems like an excellent way to stay in touch, and also keep track of some wonderful adventures!

The trip to Scotland was long, but Gabby and I arrived safely with no problems. Marc met us in Manchester, and took the train with us up to Edinburgh. That was wonderful; 2 suitcases, 2 carry-ons, and a cat would have been a challenge to manage alone. Couldn't really see much of the countryside in England, but once we moved North into Scotland there were wide open plains, rolling hills, and tons of sheep.

The first few days in Edinburgh have mostly consisted of catching up on sleep and settling into the flat (Marc did an excellent job finding a place to live! It is beautiful, has a large bedroom by the UK's standards, and is away from the hustle and bustle of the big city but with easy bus access). I have gone out a bit with Marc exploring: we have walked around the main streets, up the royal mile, and saw St. Giles cathedral and Edinburgh castle. It is very humbling looking at buildings that are older than my home country...

The area has a very large population of Hindus, and so there is lots of veggie friendly food available. Much more than stateside :) Marc is trying valiantly to get me to try the veggie haggis...I am not sure I want to try anything haggis flavored, meaty or not. Marc did take me to a very classy vegetarian restaurant called David Bonne, which also specializes in vegan food. It was wonderful, I have never had a better risotto.

It is strangely cold here; snow is an oddity, but so far that is all I have seen. There are a couple feet of snow on the ground, and it has been snowing on and off all day. I went exploring the neighborhood today, and there is a beautiful park nearby. At least what I can see of it :) As you can see from the photos, it is a bit snow covered. I found a picture online of what it will look like when it thaws :)




A fun thought...I am the one with the accent here. Weird to think that a Colorado accent would ever be exotic.