Scotland - Edinburgh

We spent two days in Edinburgh. The cottage we stayed in was about an hour or so away. Deciding whether or not to drive into the downtown area was easy as there was a number of park & ride's on the outskirts of the town. It was an easy bus ride into the city.

We made 2 main stops the first day.

The first stop was to the Dean Gallery where a Van Gogh exhibit was showing. The exhibit had a number of paintings and drawings from all of Vincent's different periods. Perhaps the most interesting part of the exhibit was the portrait of an early benefactor, Alexander Reid, that people thought was a self-portrait for many years.

After the Dean Gallery... and lunch... we walked up to Edinburgh Castle, which sits atop a large rock hill in the middle of the city. The castle was pretty much impregnable due to its location. It houses the crown jewels of Scotland. the Stone of Destiny where Scottish kings were crowned, and the Scottish National War memorial that commerates each of the Scottish regiments and includes the names of those who died during WWI and WWII.

While leaving the castle and walking down the hill I stopped in the Scottish Whiskey Center to "look" around and, perhaps, make a purchase :-)

On the second day we visited a couple of museums. Our first stop was to the Museum of Childhood to look at the collection of toys, dolls, and games over the years. There was also a poignant display by Amnesty International about child soldiers throughout the world. Our second museum of the day was a combination Royal Museum (Art) and Museum of Scotland (Scottish History). There was an amazing glass exhibit from group called North Lands Creative Glass in the northern most part of the Scottish mainland. In the main floor of the Royal Museum was a hands-on center to teach kids about different aspects of science (energy, robotics, etc). We must've spent 2 hours in that one room alone.