Edinburgh

25-March-2007

Just spent a wonderful weekend in Edinburgh with Sarah and Gavin. After battling for three weeks to try and make myself understood in mixture of broken German and English
it was quite a treat to be able to just walk into a pharmacy and state "Hi! I need contact solution. Do you have XYZ brand? You do? Great! I'll take 10 because I'll never be able to find them in Germany." Do you know I still haven't figured out where exactly they actually sell contact solution in Germany? I think it might be the Apotheka, but honestly I'm not sure. And I haven't seen it anywhere in the the stores when I've gone in hunting for medicine for "mein Kalt."

But it was a great weekend away, probably just at the right time for me too since my air shipment has just been released from customs this week (I finally have a mattress to sleep on!). It was a full weekend of walking, talking, enjoying good wine and spectacular company. From the sight of Edinburgh from Arthur's Seat to the great conversation over a cup of tea I couldn't have asked for a better getaway weekend.


Possibly one of the more interesting things I saw this weekend was actually at Rosslyn Chapel (yes Da Vinci Code fans, that Rosslyn Chapel). Check out this photo of the Apprentices Pillar. Apparently the story (and it's supposedly true), is that the master carver created this pillar as an homage to God, but before he carved the second pillar he went off to gain inspiration from the world around him. While he was gone, the Apprentice was struck with a flash of insight from God and began carving this incredible pillar.

Well when the Master stone mason returned from his pilgrimage to find inspiration from God, he was so incensed by the beauty of the Apprentice's carving that he immediately bludgeoned him to death and was tried and convicted of the murder of the Apprentice by the local townspeople.







And here are some other cool pictures from Rosslyn:

By far one of the best signs I have ever seen in my life.
So the other stop we made, besides Rosslyn Chapel and the Castle in Edinburgh

Sarah and I

was to the school that Sarah is working for, take a look:

Yes, that's right, Sarah works at Hogwarts. You heard it here folks, my best friend from college works at the magical world of Hogwarts, well at least for the next few weeks. So all kidding aside, this is a school in Edinburgh called Fettes. It's where Tony Blair when to high school and it actually was the inspiration for JK Rowling when she was writing the Harry Potter books. Pretty cool, huh?

And finally a few more cool pictures from my visit:

Random stream in the middle of Edinburgh

View over the city


Looking down on the City from the Castle Wall

The Castle