Can You Guess?

Can you guess where we are?  

This new kit I treated myself to today is a clue. 

Another clue or two: It's 8:45pm and the sun is still brightly shining.  

Sunrise was at 4:37am here and the sun will not set until 9:57pm.

Photographic Clues

Given up? Or do you think you know...

We left London this morning on the 9:00am train to Edinburgh, Scotland.

The train journey took us past lovely York, then Durham, Newcastle, and Berwick upon Tweed before arriving at Waverley station.  

Mom and I were last here in 2004 and it is wonderful to be back.

First off we walked over to the National Museum Scotland.

Not to see the Egyptian mummies - they were a pleasant surprise.

As were these 10 pieces of the Lewis Chessmen.  There are others at the British Museum which we've also seen.

We truly went there to see the newly opened Mary Queen of Scots exhibition.

She was fascinating woman.  The daughter of James V and Mary of Guise, Mary Queen of Scots was promised to the dauphin of France and moved to live in the French court when she was just five years old.  She did marry him and was Queen of France for a year before his untimely death.  She then returned to Scotland to rule there.  

The upper right photo is a beeskep and bees that form part of a much large piece she stitch with Bess of Hardwick while a prisoner of her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I. I found a blog post with several more photos of this amazing tapestry.  Take a look!

From the museum it was a short walk down the Royal Mile to Holyroodhouse Palace where Mary Queen of Scots resided from 1561-1567.

The new Scottish Parliament building is just the next building up the hill from the palace.

The Royal Mile is awash in historic buildings and small narrow passageways which are called wynds or closes. You can see one such opening in the photo above just to the right of the yellow and red building.

If you chose to go and explore the passageway...

...you might stumble upon this charming scene.

This is Whitehorse Close.

Edinburgh has lots of compelling vistas.

The Castle, the Palace, Sir Walter Scot's Monument, John Knox's house, Arthur's Seat...

I even saw a couple of interesting pillar postboxes.

This one has no royal insignia whatsoever.

Mary has asked about the food we've eaten lately.  As she is set up in Google as a "no-reply" I cannot contact her directly so will answer on the blog. We tried flash fried whitebait as our starter at a pub this evening.  I'd compare them to sardines both in size and taste.  

I also want to thank everyone who has taken the time to comment the last several weeks during our Epic Adventure!  I so enjoy reading the comments and your enthusiastic responses keep me going!