I had a wonderful trip to Edinburgh, Scotland in November for MIG 2011. These are a few of the pictures from the trip.
I walked around a bit the afternoon that I arrived. I believe this is Nelson Monument...
Waverley Bridge...
High Street...
The Hub...
Edinburgh Castle...
Bank of Scotland...
St. Giles Cathedral...
University of Edinburgh building...
Views of Edinburgh in the early morning...
Part of the stone work of Edinburgh Castle...
Looking back at the outside gate of the castle...
A beautiful morning...
Sooo many stones...
And many cannons...
Views from the castle...
Upper part of the castle...
Vibrant stained glass...
Looking back toward the esplanade and crags in the distance...
Expressive statues outside of the war memorial...
One of the rooms in the castle...
It was sad to think about when the cannons were in use and what they would have been aiming at...
I happened to be there on Remembrance Day. They fire a cannon everyday (at 1pm), but this day they fired it at 11am and a couple of minutes later to mark the beginning and end of a period of silence...
Look north toward New Town...
A hall at the castle...
The castle includes a prison where among others American prisoners were held during the Revolutionary War...
Many of the prisoners carved their names and some images into the doors...
Looking west toward Grassmarket...
More prisoner artwork that has been there for hundreds of years...
A ceremony was held at the war memorial...
Again looking east toward the esplanade and crag...
A hug cannon, Mons Meg...
View toward New Town with Princes Street Gardens in the foreground. The gardens used to be Nor Lok, a big sewage bit...
Elements of the castle were built and rebuilt over time resulting in buildings with different looks and textures...
Lower part of High Street towards Canongate...
An interesting ad for an antique shop...
Holyrood Palace, where the royal family stays when in Scotland...
I wonder how often the doorbell is used...
The ruins of the abbey attached to the palace...
Most of the roof is gone...
But not all of it...
A little shocking to see the empty caskets...
The front of the palace...
The backpack I was carrying was way too heavy to go hiking in Holyrood Park...
A sad fountain...
George Square on the University of Edinburgh campus...
The Meadows...
The conference arranged a guided tour of part of the city and the castle for us...
These are leeches outside of the medical school of the university...
Back at the castle...
The other statue outside of the war memorial...
Our guide was very entertaining and informative. I feel so lucky to be able to visit these places...
This was the governor's residence. Now it is the officers' mess...
Night starting to fall...
View of New Town...
View toward Waverly Station...
Notice the dent in the side of the castle...
Closed for the night...
A building of the University of Edinburgh, but near the Princes Garden...
Working our way back up to High Street, learning about life in Edinburgh in the 1600s. For most of the population, it was not pleasant...
Apparently part of the first Harry Potter book was written here...
A statue of Bobby the dog who spent 14 years guarding the grave of his owner...
A cemetery that according to our guide contains a headstone with the name "Tom Riddle"...
A place where witches were hanged. Our tour guide told us the story of Half Hangit Maggie that might have inspired Nearly Headless Nick in the Harry Potter series...
View of the castle from Grassmarket...
View of the castle from the restaurant where we had dinner...
When in Scotland...
The conference banquet was held here in the Playfair library...
The Playfair library...
