2007-Scotland

First order of business in Scotland was a visit with Rosie Allan Brannan, of Edinburgh University days, and last seen in 1964. After a few days stay with her, I went into the new 5-star hostel in Edinburgh and met up with friend Mary Snowman (traveled with me in Morocco in spring also) for a few days of visiting old haunts and discovering changes from those two years I was a student at Edinburgh University ... OH! so long ago.

At that 1964 visit, Rosie's daughter Sonia (at left) was a 5 or 6 months old babe (as was my daughter Alison).

Rosie beside her centuries old stone cottage in Rosewell, Scotland ... though not for long as she's moving in March to a far more modern place.

We wandered the countryside, rain or shine, and found great pubs to eat at.

This picture and next one are of Roslyn Chapel and the adjacent building. A highly ornate 15th-century chapel, it has long been the subject of much theorising and conjecture about its origins and the meanings of its famous stone carvings; the chapel figures in Dan Brown's much-touted but controversial mystery Da Vinci Code. It also has a strong connection to the history of Freemasonry and has attracted a host of famous visitors over the centuries.

Sometimes we took the dogs Ebba (above) and Kilda (at right) for walks. Sometimes they took us.

Abercorn Gardens ... and the boarding house I lived in my first year in Edinburgh, 1959. The building is now part of the pub next door. The entire area is so gentrified with restored and new homes and with fairly upscale retail that I hardly recognized it.

Edinburgh has changed a lot too ... with a mall at the top of Leith Walk, a new Festival Theater, and lots of modern street sculptures.

The Scott Monument still looms on Princes Street; a holiday street fair was on throughout the gardens from Waverly Station through to the National Gallery.

Looking across the Princes Street Gardens and the fair to the start of the Royal Mile.

An exhibit by current Edinburgh artists included an imaginative mannequin. Marlys and I once lugged several mannequins we had found in a flea market in eastern Oregon to an artist friend who also fancies up those torsos.

Edinburgh University ... "the quad" ... home to much of the Faculty of Arts back in the years I attended.

Inside the quad. Famous battles took place here between the various university faculties. Weapons of choice tended toward rotten eggs and tomatoes, lots of water in whatever container was handy, slimy fish heads garnered by the bucket from fishmongers weeks before and stored until the day(s) of reckoning ... which revolved around appointments of new rectors. Armour tended to be ponchos and hipboots or Wellingtons for the wary, t-shirts and shorts for the semi-brave, and outright nudity for a scandalous few.

A bench in the quad in memory of bookseller James Thin (died 1997) who ran one of the most popular bookstores for university student needs.

George Square, much changed on three sides from what it was, with additional new buildings going up in all the adjacent streets as well.

But the one side of George Square, where I took fine art history with David Talbot Rice, has been rescued and slated to remain in perpetuity I am told ... in large part because Sir Walter Scott once resided one of the row of buildings.

The Muir Institute on Buccleugh Place also remains... Jon was in the Diploma of Islamic Studies program here. Classes and tutorials in Aramaic, Arabic, Farsi, Turkish, etc. occurred here.

Edinburgh Castle.

I'd have thought the city had enough pigeons, but guess some sculptor thought not.

At the foot of Calton Hill and Arthur's Seat, a new museum: The Dynamic Earth. Nearby is the new Scottish Parliament complex an award-winning but very controversial architectural design; getting a photo that showed its entirety was quite impossible, but if you are interested, the above link has more facts, photos, and descriptions.

2 Bellevue Crescent, where I lived the second year of Edinburgh University days, now sports a brass plaque proclaiming it "Bellevue House."

The overall crescent and gardens haven't changed much if at all, but some seem to be offices now, rather than residences.

One of units, for example, is home to "ethical futures" ... whatever that is.

The small church across the street, formerly occupied by some order of monks and with incredible murals, has been restored and now houses an umbrella service organization for voluntary associations (non-profits) of Scotland.

And what would Edinburgh be without a Bagpiping Busker?