leave part six: Edinburgh

So it's been a few days since i posted some photographs from leave ... what with life you know getting in the way of editing & a few other blog posts on such topics as people i love, cupcakes, elle moss, miss match & photo shop actions to keep you interested, not to mention my day job & various photo shoots i've been a little busy. But the break is over & it's time to share more vacation photos & stories with you.

I left you with my first night in Edinburgh & our new hats! Well here i'll start with a photo of the bar of our hotel ... no real reason just that it was all kinds of pretty (& we all know how much i like pretty). We stayed at the Apex Waterloo Place in case you were wondering.

So we spent our day in Edinburgh doing a whole lot of walking ... i really got to know the Royal Mile (all 1.1 miles of it).

& our day started out at the castle. I could spend a whole lot of time talking about the castle being as it has a history going back to the 9th century BC (that's a really really long time in case you were wondering). The short version involves it being in blown up & rebuilt alot!

It was kinda call seeing the piper though!

& here is one of the many many ice creams i ate on vacation. Now for some random facts ... stick a Cadbury's flake in an ice cream & it becomes a '99. What's a '99 i hear you ask ... well one rumor links it to an ice cream shop at 99 High Street, Portobello, Scotland & another to the final wave of Italian conscripts known as the "i Ragazzi del 99" (the boys of 99) who born in 1899 were held with great honor in Italy. I just remember the sound of the ice cream van growing up!

After the castle we headed to the Camera Obscura which was all kinds of fun. Pin hole photos, panoramics, mirrors, lights, illusions & the rest. I would honestly recommend it to everyone as a little "light relief" from Edinburgh's history not to mention a pretty awesome view from the top. It's right by the castle enterence in case you wondered!

Some random Edinburgh ...

& a sea gull sunning himself (we had pretty night weather) ...

Aaaaaaaah yes would trip to Scotland would be complete without a little whiskey drinking!

& here's the statue for Greyfriars Bobby. Now i know you all want to know why this little guy gets a statue (& yeah there's some dude ruining a perfectly good picture) ... Greyfriars Bobby was a Skye Terrier who in the 19th century reportedly spent 14 years guarding his owners grave. Now i think that's one pretty awesome doggie, & as a result there have been books written about him & even a movie. So naturally we had to check his monument out!

Some pretty Edinburgh ...

The view of the city as i wandered along Princess Street (the other side of the river to the old town & if you were to look right you'd see shops). I know these buildings have names but off the top of my head i can't remember (let me know if you know).

& these were taken in Princess Street gardens which was so very pretty. They were full of people, & in a city like Edinburgh i can imagine spending my summers lying in the grass, watching the world go by ... & of course eating ice cream.

oh i had to snap this in Urban Outfitters ... unfortunately the cameras weren't for sale (i did treat myself to this lil' fella though ...).

So here we are with a final couple of shots of Edinburgh ... i loved the city, & i'm a country girl. I think it's because the moment you end the old town you are greeted by a wonderful history, with not a sky scraper in sight. Yes it's full of tourists but the charm makes up for that, the cobbled streets, the wonderful buildings & a fabulous history. Check out the Real Mary King's Close if you have the chance, a totally different kind of history.