On several FB pages I followed when planning our trip and that I still follow. (Trying to be helpful when I can.) Several questions pop up with regularity, they can be summarized as: Should I go to Edinburgh or Glasgow, or will my time be better spent in smaller towns? I chuckle when I see it, as that answer depends on the individual asking and who they are traveling with. To see a lot of Edinburgh you need to walk it, the Royal Mile Especially. Which for some people is hard physically, it was a consideration for me and my wife as we are in our 50's and some things are harder than others for us. It also depends on your style of visitation, tolerance to crowds, need for dining variety tolerance to cheap trinket shops etc... etc.. etc.. We opted for a medium late start to the day breakfast at our B&B and a leisurely drive in, parking at Waverly Station (The Train Station) as it was pretty central and reasonably easy to walk from. We then wandered the Royal Mile, toured Edinburgh Castle, had lunch, a break in our car for a nap and the Military Tattoo at the Castle in the evening, fancy cameras were not allowed into the tattoo so I left it in the car. I had anticipated possibly driving around town and just sightseeing from the car, I have ancestral ties to Lasswade, Bonnyrigg and Tranent and the New Town is easier to see from a car, however, there simply was not enough time to do everything I wanted to do and see. Plus I HAD visited those places before.

Of note, we were there during the Fringe Festival, which could have been diverting except for the crowds. So. Many. People. I am not a fan of large groups of people honestly. That said, what defines Edinburgh for me is the older bits. The parts with less planning and more... texture. Plus old things impress me and Edinburgh IS old. This pic shows what I am talking about, you can see the age in the style of construction, the old door or window that was filled in with the thinner straight up and down rocks that formed the lintel over the top. Texture.

You can see the age of the rock in the weathering of the cut stones, this is newer than the stuff in the previous picture, I think anyway, as it was shaped more and things look more planned. I love how something way up high is painted and has gilt on it. It's just cool.  

Princes Street is across the gardens from the castle and the Royal Mile, officially, however this street sign is off of Canongate which is on the Royal Mile, at least according to the embedded GPS location. Photography geek sidenote: The fact the my new Pentax K1 has built in GPS and encodes it into the RAW file is really cool and I will NEVER not want to use it. Second side note, I remember dithering a little on this photo in regards to aperture, this is the kit lens zoomed in to 105mm at that focal length the base f number wide open is f5.6, I chose to stop down 1 stop for sharpness and less blur in the background. I distinctly remember thinking that I could blur the background more if I switched to my 100mm f2.8 macro lens, but I consciously chose to not do so, I think keeping the background blurry but not too much enhances the photo, giving setting to the subject, yet still allowing the subject to stand out due to being sharp. Do you think I made the right choice? Tell me.    

The building that houses the Scottish Parliment is described on google maps as "Modern" my brain wants to call it more of a "brutalist" design, but I don't think I am qualified to make the determination. It WAS interesting. 

I thought painting stone with gold paint, or possibly applying gilt was interesting. I had not seen it done before, the overall effect was pretty, but I did find myself wishing the entire arch was painted, it could have been spectacular, possibly overdone, but spectacular nonetheless.   

AS much as I loved Holyrood House the full tour was too much to add in, it is rather nice though to look at from the outside. I mean, who does this to a hinge? It does not change the function, it is a hinge. Unless the purpose is solely to impress in the vein of: We have so much freaking money we can put gold on our hinges, you should be impressed! Which, if that is out of your league could be impressive. I mentioned that the Unicorn is the official animal of Scotland, right?

Impressive, just because we can be again yes? When does it become ostentation?  

There are many details that you may not catch if you are not looking.   

Ne earthly idea how old this is, but the textures, or patina maybe?   

I bet it used to be a fountain?   

The street performers were in full swing, I believe that people will go only for the fringe and not venture out of the main city.   

Personality is a MUST.   

You cannot have gotten this far in this series of blog posts without a sure and certain knowledge of my affinity for stained glass. But if you just arrived, I love stained glass, I love how it is used in sacred spaces, I love the richness of the colors and the stories that are told by them. Stained glass is simply beautiful and I love the richness of the colors and how it adds to everything. So this is St. Giles Cathedral, not the biggest, or the most ornate, but I think one of the most tastefully done cathedrals we were blessed to visit. Photographers note: Digital cameras and the ability to review images helps so much, I guessed back in the film days and most frequently failed to get the exposure right. The ability to change ISO at the spin of a button is glorious. In the film days, if you had outdoor ISO/ASA 100 or 200 film in your camera and you went inside, you were unlikely to be able to get a photo without a tripod as the shutter speed was far to long to hold steady. With my DSLR, I turn up the ISO and keep shooting. Amazing.

If there is just one photo, JUST ONE, that captures the glory of stained glass it is this. This light on the stone surround of the window literally stopped me mid step. The light illuminating plain stone and making it beautiful, from simple to glorious, mundane and functional to ethereal and uplifting.

Heavens! A person crept into a photo, ah me... This spot though. At first I was questioning why there were Slytherin House Banners before I shook off the weird thought and simply brought it all into awareness. Photographers sidenote: As I talked about in prior posts perspective can be problematic, our eyes adjust things to make them vertical when we know they are indeed vertical, the camera does not. The camera was tipped up to take this photo and all the columns were tipping inwards, it took simple software tools and a few minutes to fix that. The angle does skew the bottom of the window frame a little, but that is inescapable without over correcting the photo and losing the composition I chose. Some whiz kid will inevitably comment how easy it is to fix and steal the photo and mess with it. IF that is you, please don't, I like it how I did it. If I had not mentioned it would you even notice?   

Zooming in a little and correcting for vertical perspective a little less on this photo, maybe more natural? Or should I have made the columns perfectly straight?   

The value of standing in the right spot cannot be under rated, If you get in the geometric center of the arch, things get easier to fix, problem with the old buildings is that things don't always line up. Either from tolerance stacking during construction or settling of the building. When you are faced with that, you just try to split the difference and hold the camera straight

Sometimes the best approach is to embrace the perspective and not try to get anything level or straight.    

The intense Blue of the ceiling is more striking than a highly decorated fresco would be to me.   

Reluctantly, leaving the peace of the church, we headed back out to the crush.   

Think he will fill that bag up with money? If it is coins would be be able to carry it?   

Military Fort or Garrison as much or more than residence is Edinburgh Castle. It IS full of history, and yes I felt it was a site to not miss. But lots of walking and inclines to go up/down take a toll.   

Princes Street Garden, the Scott Monument and eventually the water of the Firth of Forth are your view.     

Leaving the castle and heading back I remembered to take a photo of the outside of St. Giles.   

I really WANT to be a good street photographer, I am not, but wanting counts right? I think this is one of my favorite street type photos I have ever taken.   

I'm not sure what he did to deserve to have his statue thus besmirched, but what are you going to do?     

AS always thanks for reading and looking to the end of the post. If you have comments or questions please do write!