I Think Edinburgh Just Used Up the Epic Good Weather Day for September...

So, today has been gloriously beautiful.  It's just under 60 degrees with a brisk, but bearable wind and a clear blue sky with those fluffy little white clouds that look like frolicking sheep.  It's just that amazing.  All I needed was a light coat!

Seriously, this is what it looked like outside my window:

I kind of wonder if today is going to use up Edinburgh's good day quota for the month.  I mean, that's about how many we get, right?  Tomorrow's supposed to be slightly warmer and just as sunny, though, so we'll see.  One can hope.  The rest of the week's forecast is... guess.... yep, rain, rain, rain, and RAIN!  Ah well.  I have hats.

With such a beautiful afternoon on my hands, I had absolutely no choice but to take camera out for another stroll.  I got all of my errands for the day finished by 3 o'clock and had nothing left on the agenda.  So off I went!

Today's adventures took me down the Royal Mile to St Giles' Cathedral, which I had seen at a distance, but not gone up to yet.

 It's so big!  I love how many of the buildings have all of this texture to them.  So many towers, carvings, statues, arches, and layers.


I didn't go inside.  I want to save that for a different trip.  Today is an outside sort of day.


See all the pretty detail?  I don't know who all of those guys are, but they look impressive, right?



After my trip to St Giles', I spent some time on the streets taking shots up and down the road and of anything interesting that I saw.



There were lots of tourists out since it was such a nice day and the atmosphere was very upbeat.  There was a random guy with bright orange hair doing standup comedy/magic right outside of the cathedral.  Across the street, a small band played music.

I took a short video of the scene, just to try to capture the feel of it all.  Sadly, blogger has decided to hate videos today so I will post this one and another that I took later on as soon as I am able.

I took some pictures while I was on the street too, of course.  Most of them are pretty standard tourist shots, but I love them anyway!

 I found a unicorn!  No dragon, though.  I suppose if I want to find a statue, I'd have to go to Wales.  But I'm not giving up my search here!

This guy was just weird.  I don't understand.  And the stained stone underneath makes it look even more unpleasant.

 Long shot down the street here.  Notice the stereotypical red telephone booths along the side.  I didn't want to get anywhere near them.  They look absolutely disgusting on the inside!  No one ever cleans telephone booths...


It's such a clear day though, isn't it?  It's almost like... not even Scottish. 



I also included a shot looking back up the street, just because it was so cool and busy and fun out today.  I can't get over this weather!  Someone's playing tricks on us...

I didn't feel like going back, so I swung around down the hill and out to the Sir Walter Scott monument, which looks like a giant grabbed onto a tower on an old cathedral and just yanked it off and stuck it in the ground. Unfortunately, a new cathedral did not grow out of the tower, but the monument is pretty epic.  They really do like their Scott, don't they?

 It makes a pretty amazing silhouette, I have to say.  If you just look at the top part of the picture, it almost looks like the silhouette of a castle with a bunch of tiny towers and turrets.

The monument is opposite a really busy road, Waverly Station, and the mall, so it's not as secluded as it seems like it should be, but it is also opposite a very pretty park.


Looking up inside the monument, you will see an impressive statue of the man himself.  I  feel like the people they make these statues of would be really annoyed with being portrayed this way.

They always look like old Greek guys who do nothing but sit in a chair and make impressive comments all day.



If anyone ever makes a statue to me, it had better involve a more interesting pose, like riding a big marble dragon with a grin on my face or something.


Down some steps behind the monument is a long sidewalk that borders the park, which is yet another set of steps downward.  It's a really great place to get some shots of the back of the city of Edinburgh.


Hey, I think I can see my house from here!  If you see the three really tall square towers in the middle of the picture below, you are looking at New College, which is connected to Milne's Court, which is where I live.  Yep, that's my address!

 There were lots of seagulls.  They look at you in a sort of grumpy way, clearly disgruntled at the number of tourists who will not feed them.  Scottish seagulls are not any friendlier than other seagulls, apparently.


Here's the monument from the sidewalk down below.  Pretty flowers too!


I proceeded down the sidewalk and kept taking pictures of this view of the cityscape.  It's so amazing.

And then I started noticing the bagpipes again. You can hear them playing quite loudly outside our kitchen window off and on throughout the day.  It would be annoying... if it wasn't Scotland!  I had always assumed they were coming from the Royal Mile, but you don't see them there all that often.  Plus, I realized they were coming from behind my building and somewhere down below.  Now, I was behind my building somewhere down below and hearing the bagpipes close by!

My other video is of the "racket" that goes on behind our kitchen almost every day.  I will post it soon!


And then I headed back up the stairs right behind Milne's Court and collapsed in my room.  I definitely don't need to join a gym. Hopefully by the time I start hillwalking, I will actually have some stamina in me!