Still Crazy After All These Years.....

Today, July 18, Bill and I have been married 41 years. Surely has surprised a lot of folks, but not us!

Greyfriars Bobby, a statue taken from life, right before his death.

We head to the National Museum of Scotland, arriving before it opened. Guess what is directly across the street? The statue of Greyfiars Bobby! If you were a kid in the 60's in the US, on Sunday nights you watched The Wonderful World of Disney on NBC, where you would have seen the story of Greyfriars Bobby, the most loyal dog in the world. Now, who would have thought it was a true story? Or that 50 years later we would be in Edinburgh to see the grave and statue? We did learn something beside the Davey Crockett song from watching those shows.

The Lewis Chessmen, together again for a tour of The United Kingdom. 

The National Museum is in a very modern building. When they were working on the design, Prince Phillip was one of the main sponsors, but he didn't like the design, so he withdrew his sponsorship. They built it anyway. It's a wonderful building for a museum. Lots of curves and natural light filtering through, without damaging direct sun. The collection is all Scotland, starting with prehistory and continuing through the industrial age. Loved it!

I told our friend Bob I would keep an eye out for his relatives, but instead I found one of mine in the National Museum.  John Witherspoon, signer of the Declaration of Independence, President of Princeton, and my many Great Grandfather on my paternal Grandmother's family.

Sir Jackie Stewart's winning Grand Prix car; not everything in this museum is ancient.

Leaving the museum, we walked back to the Royal Mile where Bill wanted to take a few more pictures.  I looked in a shop, but eveything is still made out of wool!  A building caught out attention.  Upon inspection, it was The Bank of Scotland.  Big! Impressive! The seal looks like Miss Piggy!

Miss Piggy on the seal of the Bank of Scotland.

Street musicians on the Royal Mile.  They were playing what can only be discribed as Scottish Bluegrass.

We wandered on down, literally, past the Portrait Gallery, to the park with a tower in honor of Sir Walter Scott.  Popped into the train station to check schedules for the train out of town.  Found ourselves in the theatre district, so stopped for a beer at the Theatre Pub, in their outdoor seating.  Bill came back with two local lagers, but they weren't very tasty, and being luke warm didn't help.

Edinburgh is a very hilly city.

Back to Pollock Halls, then off to dinner at Trattoria Positano.  Our waiter, the owner, took our picture.  When we ordered bubbly, and told him what the occasion was, he offered us a fresh seabass, caught just that day, served with a beautiful sauce.  For starters we shared Tagliatela Positano, added a bottle of Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio, then finish with lovely desserts.

Edinburgh's theatre district with giraffes.

Leaving the trattoria, we decided to find a good vantage point to take pictures of Salisbury Crags, where King Arthur was crowned at Arthur's Seat.  We ended up wandering through a housing development, finding a set of stairs up to a park.  Great location!  Beautiful views!

This has been a wonderful anniversary weekend visiting Edinburgh!  Even if there was a crazy woman in the park.