This is my second trip outside India. I am off to the United Kingdom. Unlike last time this time I was quite prepared as far as the expectations on the food front is concerned. I was prepared for a few options (or even worse for only one option) in the veggie varieties and adjusted quite well. I was on a month long trip to this place called Edinburgh (call it Edinburough) - the capital of Scotland. This is a quite calm and idyllic place compared to Bangalore or Chennai or even Coimbatore. It has more historical importance than being an industrial city itself. Its interspersed with beautiful palaces and castles built with stone architecture just as we see in the Agricultural college in Coimbatore and more than that beautiful green gardens all over. The weather is rather cold and rains almost 20 out of the 24 hours of a day, and you know, people there say its summer there. The sunrise is at 4 AM and the sunset is by 10 PM.
I was put up in a hotel on the Royal mile, which happened to be the heart of tourist attractions in Edinburgh. Behind our hotel, a 5 minute walk long, lied a place call Holyrood park. This area had the Holyrood palace where the British queen stays (even now) when she visits Scotland.. The entrace fee is 10 pounds. It was worth it. Another view of the Holyrood palace. The trip was complete with automatic audio guides inside the palace. I have to mention one thing here, though they have very few places to offer they market it in an amazing way and complete and perfect with audio guides and stories attached with everything. Just opposite to the Holyrood palace is this small hill called Arthur's peak. Its a beautiful little hill right in the centre of the city with green covering all over it. Check out another view of this beautiful hill. We made it a point to go to this hill almost daily for a walk after the office. Just besides this hill is the Scottish parliament and also this place called Dynamic earth which was a part of the year 2000 - millenium project (photo) and showcased the subtle and volatile place called earth.
The next weekend we went to this beautiful place called Scottish highlands. Northern Scotland is called highlands and south is called lowlands. Edinburgh lies in south Scotland. Highlands are sparsely populated but immensely beautiful hilly area. The terrain is hilly, green, lots of rivers, lakes and valleys. I am not exagerrating when I say that almost all of the one day tour that I took looked like what you see in this photo. The only big city in highlands is called InverNess. Population - 44000. We almost laughed at the population figure for a city, as Koramangala(area in Bangalore for all the non-Bangaloreans) will beat this number by almost 3 times, Easily !!. On the way we stopeed in this place called Glen Coe. Glen is Scottish for mountain. Stunning beauty in this picture. Mist filled throughout the year. Next on our tour was this place is this place called Urquhart castle. This castle ruins is a testament of the bitter animosity between Scotland and England. Scottish people almost look England, as we see Pakistan. They claim they speak Scottish and not English. I wonder why they call their country as UK (United Kingdom). We took a cruise from the Urquhart castle through the river Inverness. The place along this river is filled with a lot of distilleries from where different varieties of Scotch whisky are manufactured. After the cruise we started our journey back to Edinburgh. On our way we happened to cross this bridge - Forth rail bridge. Photo taken from Forth road bridge. One small fact here - Forth rail bridge is 100 years old and estimated to hold for another 1000+ years. The road bridge is 40 years old and estimated to hold on for another 10 years. So much cost for modern technology.
The next weekend we wanted to roam around Edinnburgh itself. Very historical place. We took a city bus tour that would take us through all the important tourist attractions in Edinburgh. Our first stop was this place called Edinburgh castle. Again this has been a place that the English wanted to capture over all their wars with Scotland. 10 ounds entry fee. Again worth it. Lot of things inside that might interest you.
Our next stop was this amazing place called Camera Obscura. Simple physics and optic rules used here to display some amazing optic properties. Some samples are like this photo. This giant periscope that takes a 360 degree picture of Edinburgh and shows you live in front of you. It can zoom into your bedrooms also. It also had some amazing visual displays like this one . It uses you as a wire to transmit low voltage current to light up the tube light on the right. On your left is the generator.
Then we were so tired and sat on the city tour bus and started taking photos from there itself. Some of them are these.
1) Calton hill were Alexander Graham Bell studied 2) The worlds end. In earlier days the Scots did not venture beyond this point, since they thought that this was the end of the world. Still retained in the tourish hotspot. 3) The Scotts monument for Walter Scott, the Scottish author 4) Scottish high court.
You know what, In the midst of all these things I still just managed to work. Believe me !!
If you are interested in seeing more photos, let me know I can send an invite to my photo album. It has some 200 plus photos and worth a look at it.
