The Museum of Edinburgh

The next place of interest I visited was called the Museum of Edinburgh. I enjoyed it but it was certainly nothing special. The walk to it took me to some new and interesting places however, with some beautiful old buildings.

Tolbooth Tavern

An interesting sign written high above my head

Within the museum there was a small section on Bobby the dog, included this sketch done not long before he died.

They also had his drinking bowl, his bell and his dog collar on display. 

The rest of the museum held a collection of oddities and objects of interest, for example the right-hand picture depicts a sword that has an inscribed handle claiming it was used by Oliver Cromwell in the 1600s. However considering the sword itself dates from around 1700 this is pretty unlikely and was probably put there to increase its value. The picture on the left is the inscription on one of the graves in the churchyard I went and visited, although in the original the words were almost worn away.

This is the National Covenant, of which copies were made and sent to every burgh and parish in Scotland to be signed. This one one was signed in the south Kirk of Edinburgh in March 1638, making it one of the earliest surviving copies. It is made of parchment (cured animal skins by soaking them in lime, scraping them, and then drying them) and signed with about 4150 names. 

This strange looking stone is known as the Burgh Muir stone. The Burgh Muir was an area to south of Edinburgh and was part of the ancient forest of Drumselch (I am loving these Scottish names). It served many purposes including execution, isolation for people with the plague, and plague pits. The stone itself however also had an interesting history. I can't quite remember the details but supposedly it had sat under the chair of every Scot crowned until the British stole it. However the Scottish then stole it back and legend says that this stone is in fact the fake one, and that the real one was hidden somewhere in Scotland.

On the left here you can see a golf ball belonging to Robert Louis Stevenson that was found in his garden many years later. On the right are the original hollowed out tree-trunks that were used as water pipes under medieval Edinburgh 

 

This 17th C wardrobe made me instantly think of 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe', it took all my willpower not to open it and climb inside in hopes of finding Narnia.

More dramatic sites while wandering the city.

National Museum of Scotland

The National Museum of Scotland was disappointingly for me, a letdown. With such a prestigious name and being so large a building I had high hopes, but most of the museum was very interactive and aimed at children, there were in fact only a few pieces of real interest to me.

An ancient armored armadillo and an extinct giant deer were the center pieces of the natural collection. 

This is an Inchkeith Lighthouse lens. It was designed in 1889 by David A. Stevenson for the Inchkeith lighthouse. This lighthouse had first been designed in 1803 by Robert Stevenson - thus five generations of Stevonson's built and designed lighthouses across the coast of Scotland, saving many lives. This lens was used until 1985 when the last lighthouse keeper was withdrawn and the lights became automated. 

Frances Teresa Stuart was regarded as one of the most beautiful women in England during the 17th Century, King Charles II was infatuated with her and chose her as the face of Britannia. Thus her image was used on British currency for a time.

This dude was one of my favourite exhibits from the entire museum. Iufenamun, son of Nesypaqashuty (early 22nd Dynasty) was a senor priest who was given the important task of moving the mummified bodies of Egyptian pharaohs away from the Valley of Kings to protect them from grave-robbers. Over fifty pharaohs were hidden in Deir el-Bahari, and they were only rediscovered in 1881. The interesting part is that the coffin lid dates from the 21st Dynasty and is thought to belong to Iufenamun's grandmother.
Also interesting is the facial reconstruction pictured on the right; using non-intrusive methods they were able to reconstruct what he would have looked like, and that he died at around forty. 

There was also a very small section on Darwin, as he studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh.  the bird - an earthcreeper specimen- pictured on the left was collected by him in Chile during the Beagle expedition. The book pictured on the right is of course, the Origin of Species. 

An extremely creepy albino hedgehog. Red eyes!

Bobby and the Graveyard

The next day I had a little more direction in my wandering, having decided to go to the graveyard and the Christmas market (which of course go hand in hand). I passed a nice war memorial on my way.

This pub and close I passed amused me because of Simon Pegg's film 'At World's End' which indeed features a so named pub.

 

Finally I reached the Christmas market and enjoyed wandering around, though I didn't buy anything. The misty morning gave my surroundings a very pretty atmosphere, and I was able to get some nice pictures of the town.

Different views of the city from the wooded valley below.

Next I went to visit Bobby and the associated pub. John Grey was a constable in the 1800s in Edinburgh who had a watchdog named Bobby. After John died, the story goes that Bobby gaurded his masters grave in Kirkyard for fourteen years until his own death. For his loyalty to his master, he had a memorial statue erected just outside the graveyard, and the pub shown in the photo is where Bobby was fed nightly until his death.

Bobby's memorial statue

Because he was a dog, Bobby could not be buried next to his master as that was on consecrated ground, so he was buried just within the graveyard in the front of the church - as close as he could possibly be to his master, only 75 yards away.

The graveyard itself was rather eerie. Misty and cold, empty and quiet except for some circling crows, it certainly had a creepyness factor to it. Most of the graves were old, from the 1800s, with the writing almost faded away. The crypts were the creepiest though, with the old iron wrought gates often hanging off the walls at odd angles. Apparently there was a free graveyard tour you could take at ten p.m. any night, but I had no inclination to be scared to death.

Many of the gravestones were haphazardly placed, leaning over or some were completely collapsed. I also found this little plaque rather interesting as it explained why many of the graves were barred - at first I wondered about vampire/zombie superstition and that maybe it was to keep the dead in but it's quite the opposite; it's to stop the grave-robbing that was rife for researching human anatomy in Medical schools!

These two are my favourite pictures of the graveyard and communicate the creepiness quite well. The old dead looking trees, the moss growing up the gravestones, and this extremely well carved stone skull.

Boxing Day

The next day almost everything was once again closed, so as there was no chance of going to any museums, I spent the day wandering again, in new and different parts of the city. I passed a cute looking pub with a rather cool name near to my hostel, and although I never went inside, I enjoyed looking at it.

Early in the morning when I left the hostel it was bitterly cold, there was no snow, but a thick layer of ice lay everywhere.

To get to the main part of town required crossing over the bridge which showcased some beautiful architecture of the city. Unfortunately below the bridge was no scenic river as I had hoped, but an ugly tangle of industrial wires and metal - the train station.

It felt like I had barely any time to do anything before the sun was already hanging low in the sky, bringing with it even colder temperatures. I enjoyed wandering past many churches and beautiful buildings however.

 My last visit for the day before the sun as gone was this castle, to which the road Princes Street leads to, rising steeply through the city until it reaches this pinnacle. 

Christmas in Edinburgh

Arriving in the late afternoon to Edinburgh, it was bitterly cold but also breathtaking. This building caught my eye as I struggled past it in the freezing rain bent double under my huge backpack. I then promptly got lost on my way to the Hostel and went in a massive and rather useless circle. Luckily just went I was starting to feel extremely unhappy a spry old Scottish gentleman came and insisted on carrying my bags halfway there and talked to me about all the sites to see in the city the whole way. He reminded me exactly of Billy Connolly. After this fortuitous meeting I finally made my way to the hostel and didn't move until the next day - Christmas day.

Christmas day I didn't have much to do, the hostel was dead quiet and it was bitterly cold outside - although no snow unfortunately. I skyped my family and then headed out to see the public sites and buildings of Edinburgh - I knew everything that required going inside would be closed. Edinburgh is riddled with narrow alleys called 'Closes' such as the one featured below, and I very much enjoyed peering down or even going through these mysterious medieval passages and seeing where they led to.

 The streets were in fact rather busy for Christmas day I was surprised to find, but then many of the pubs and restaurants were in fact open, unfortunately as I found out you had to have booked weeks ahead however, so after wandering around in the cold for a few hours I admitted defeat and retreated to the hostels warmth and cheap toasted sandwiches.

The view of the old castle on my way home as the sun began to lower in the sky (at 4pm no less) was very striking. And so ended my quiet Christmas day.

Oxford Architecture

My last day in Oxford I decided to spend the whole day exploring as I had to leave early the next morning. I began by instead of crossing over the river as I did every other day, I followed it to see where it led. There were many houseboats and it was very serene. It wound its way slowly around the town and eventually I found another bridge and crossed over to so I could head into the heart of Oxford.

                                        

I hadn't had the time to do it properly before so I decided to explore as many as the university buildings as I could, even though it would only be from the outside as most of them were closed for over the Christmas period. These were some of my favourite buildings that I can across.

This is one of my favourite pictures simply because it feels like something out of a fantasy novel. The old stone wall and the twisted tree looked like the perfect premise for a faery tale.

                                     

This church was gorgeous and free to enter. It was very quiet within which gave it a beautifully serene atmosphere. It was one of the highlights of my day. However there was a reason I visited this church in the first place, due to something my trusty Lonely Planet guide had told me.

 

 At the side of the church down a small alley - somewhere you would go only if you lived in the area (as C.S. Lewis did) or happened to know where to look, stood a door quite unlike any other I had even seen. There were no signs announcing what it was, but it was lit even during the day with a warm yellow light that made the door look even more beautiful than it would have otherwise. On either side sat ornately carved fawns and in the middle the stylized head of a lion. This is the door that inspired Narnia. More accurately, this is the door that inspired 'The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe'. 

The beautiful architecture of Oxford

Oxford at night and the pretty Christmas lights that were strung all across the streets. It was at night that Oxford really came alive with energy and people.

The next morning on Christmas Eve I headed off for Christmas in Edinburgh!

The view from my train as we wended our way through the English countryside up to Scotland.