Day 40 - Spankings, Football, Calton Hill and a Marks & Spencer Dinner

Today I spent most of the morning and afternoon going through all the Spank or Treat and Saturday Spankings entries and leaving a comment.  So, no touristy stuff to report from me.  Hubby went looking for a model store that has closed and a search for the third BBC Dr. Who magazine, so not much to report from him either.

NFL in London

This afternoon marked the second NFL game being played in London this year.  During it, the San Francisco 49ers won their fifth straight game, crushing the winless Jacksonville Jaguars 42-10 at Wembley Stadium.

Christmas Decorations are beginning to be put up with various lighting cermonies around the city reportedly happening next week.  There's a tree up in Covent Garden, but it's not decorated, yet, and though the decorations on our street are all up, they still aren't lit either.  We spoke briefly with the gents last week who were working to install them, and they said their company was responsible for the decorations on both Oxford and Regent Street as well as Covent Garden.

Next week, I hope to be able to share pictures of decorated streets, but in the meantime I'll share a few more photos from Edinburgh that I wasn't able to share earlier.

Calton Hill in Edinburgh

Calton Hill is the headquarters of the Scottish Government, which is based at St Andrew's House, on the steep southern slope of the hill; with the Scottish Parliament Building, and other notable buildings, for example Holyrood Palace, lying near the foot of the hill.includes several iconic monuments and buildings: the National Monument, the Nelson Monument, the Dugald Stewart Monument, the old Royal High School, the Robert Burns Monument, the Political Martyrs' Monument and the City Observatory.

Martyrs Monument on Calton Hill

The Old Calton Burial Ground was the first substantial development on Calton Hill and lies on the south-western side of the hill. The philosopher David Hume is buried there. His tomb is engraved only with the year of his birth (1711) and death (1776), on the "simple Roman tomb" (a relatively large monument) which he prescribed. The Political Martyrs' Monument is also in the burial ground. This is in memory of five campaigners for political reform and universal suffrage who were convicted of sedition and sent in 1793 to Botany Bay, Australia.

Edinburgh from the Calton Hill with Calton Jail in foreground, by George Washington Wilson, albumen print, ca. 1865-1895

Calton Hill was the location of the notorious Calton Jail, a complex comprising a Debtors' Prison, the Bridewell (1791-96) by Robert Adam (later replaced) and a Felons' Prison of 1815-17 by Archibald Elliot. The jails were replaced by Saughton Prison and demolished in 1930 providing a site for St. Andrew's House, home to Scotland's senior civil servants. The sole surviving building is the castellated and turreted Governors House.

The Governor's House on Calton Hill

The Governor's House, designed by Archibald Elliot (1761-1823) who was also responsible for the nearby Waterloo Place and Regent Arch, is a building situated on the southernmost spur of the Calton Hill beside the south-east corner of Old Calton Burial Ground. It looks out over Waverley Station, the Canongate and Holyrood Park to the south.

As was mentioned before, this building is all that remains of the Calton Gaol, once the largest prison in Scotland, completed in 1817. The House contained the Committee Room used by the Commissioners who governed the prison. Its castellated and turreted form is similar to James Craig's Old Observatory House on the Calton Hill, but its design was more likely influenced by Robert Adam's older 'Bridewell' of 1791, which stood alongside the newer prison. The Gaol closed in 1927 and, except for the Governor's House, was demolished in the 1937 to make way for St Andrew's House.

The National Monument as seen from the Nelson Monument

Playfair was responsible for many of the monumental structures on the summit of the hill most notably the Scottish National Monument. This monument was intended to be another Parthenon and to commemorate Scottish Soldiers killed in the Napoleonic wars. Construction started in 1826 but work was stopped in 1829 when the building was only partially built due to lack of money. It has never been completed.For many years this failure to complete led to its being nicknamed "Scotland's Disgrace" but this name has waned given the time elapsed since the Napoleonic Wars and it is now accepted for what it is.

Horatio Nelson Monument

The Nelson Monument is a commemorative tower in honour of Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson, situated on top of Calton Hill, in Edinburgh, Scotland and provides a dramatic termination of the vista along Princes Street from the west. It was built between 1807 and 1815 to commemorate Nelson's victory over the French and Spanish fleets at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, and his own death at the same battle. In 1853 a time ball was added, as a time signal to shipping in Leith harbour, and to ships at the anchorage in the Firth of Forth known as Leith Roads, allowing the ships to set their chronometers.

The Time Ball on Nelson's Monument

The time ball was the idea of Charles Piazzi Smyth, the Astronomer Royal for Scotland, and was originally triggered by a clock in the adjacent City Observatory, to which it was connected by an underground wire. The mechanism was the work of Maudslay, Sons & Field of Lambeth, who had previously constructed the time ball mechanism for Greenwich Observatory. The installation was carried out by James Ritchie & Son (Clockmakers) Ltd, who are still retained by City of Edinburgh Council to maintain and operate the time ball.

The ball, constructed of wood and covered in zinc, and weighing 762 kilograms (1,680 lb), is raised just before 1pm, and at precisely 1pm, is dropped from atop the mast. Later, in 1861, the One O'Clock Gun was established at Edinburgh Castle to provide an audible signal when fog obscured the time ball. The time ball was operated for over 150 years, until it was damaged by a storm in 2007. In 2009, as part of the restoration of the monument, the time ball was removed, and the mechanism repaired. The time ball was brought back into service on 24 September 2009.] The mechanism is now operated manually, based on the firing of the One O'Clock Gun.

The Dugald Stewart Monument

The Dugald Stewart Monument is a memorial to the Scottish philosopher Dugald Stewart (1753–1828). Situated on Calton Hill, the monument  designed by William Henry Playfair, was completed in August 1831. Dugald Stewart was a professor at the University of Edinburgh, holding the chair of moral philosophy from 1786 until his death. The Royal Society of Edinburgh commissioned the monument and selected its site in 1830.

The monument, modeled on the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates in Athens, is a circular temple of 9 fluted Corinthian columns around an elevated urn. This example of the architecture of ancient Greece had been brought to wider attention by James "Athenian" Stuart and Nicholas Revett's illustrated survey, The Antiquities of Athens, published in 1762. The Choragic Monument also provided the model for the nearby Robert Burns Monument, designed by Thomas Hamilton around the same time. 

Robert Burns National Memorial in Edinburgh

Following the erection of a mausoleum on the grave of Robert Burns (Scotland's National poet) in Dumfries in 1815 there was a general move for memorials and statues of the bard in other Scottish towns and cities.

After a large subscription from Scottish expatriates in 1817 from India, a monument in Edinburgh was funded with Thomas Hamilton winning this commission, after several years of debate, in 1831, largely repeating the Alloway design, but designed to contain a full sized statue of Burns by John Flaxman. The statue was later removed to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery where it remains on display.

Although the Alloway monument is accessible all year round, sadly the Edinburgh memorial is only accessible on special occasions such as Doors Open Day (usually one weekend in late October in Edinburgh).

The Old Royal High School on Calton Hill

After the Old Royal High School was vacated in 1968, the building became available to house the proposed devolved Scottish Assembly, and was accordingly refurbished in the 1970s. However, the 1979 devolution referendum failed to provide sufficient backing for a devolved Assembly in Scotland. Instead the building has been used as offices for departments of Edinburgh City Council, including The Duke of Edinburgh's Award unit and the Sports and Outdoor Education unit.

The City Observatory on Calton Hill

The City Observatory, also known as Observatory House, the Old Observatory, or after its designer James Craig House, is an astronomical observatory located on Calton Hill. The central building with the appearance of a Greek temple is the Playfair Building, named after the building's designer William Henry Playfair. This houses the 6-inch (15 cm) refractor in its dome and the 6.4-inch (16 cm) transit telescope in its eastern wing. The largest dome of the site is the City Dome in the northeast corner. During the early 20th century this contained a 22-inch (56 cm) refractor.

Calton Hill, along with Edinburgh Castle, is to Edinburgh what the iconic Big Ben is for London.  Views of, and from, the hill are often used in photographs and paintings of the city.

I have a few more photos of Edinburgh to share with you, but we had our time change last night, so even though the clock says it's only 2 AM, my body is telling me it is 3 AM, so I'm going to share one more thing with you, then say goodnight.

Hubby purchased a dinner from Marks and Spencer, which included a bottle of wine, lasagne, veggies, and profiteroles, which are like tiny eclairs in a small, round pastry shape all for 10 GBP.  He added the salad of cucumbers, greens, red onions and cherry tomatoes.  Very good.

Eating Dinner around the computer

I'll check in again tomorrow.  Good night. 

Day 24 - Return from Edinburgh - Internet Disaster

I'm not sure how it happened, but on our return from Edinburgh I tried to connect to my blogs using the East Coast Train Internet Option and it totally messed up my browser.  I'm trying to restore the tabs I had, though I'm sure there's one or two I missed.  Not a happy camper right now.

Needless to say, I was not able to do any Internet work on the train, so I read and when we returned to our flat I collapsed and slept for a few hours.  I'll go back to bed at about 5 AM, or when I just can't see to type anymore.  In the meantime, I wanted to share a story about our trip.  We purchased tickets back in September for both our Bath and Edinburgh trips, however the gentleman who issued our tickets had an issue with his ticket printer, so he reprocessed the tickets and ran our charge through again, assuring us we wouldn't get double-billed.

Not that I didn't believe him, but when we got back to the flat I immediately checked the purchases on my credit card, and sure enough we'd been charged twice for our tickets.  The credit card company was able to remove one of the charges, so we thought that was that, then, yesterday (Thursday) hubby just happened to look at our return ticket to London and noticed the date of our return was listed as the 10th instead of the 11th.  He suggested we just ignore it and see what happened, but I wasn't comfortable with that, so we trudged back to the railroad station.

The gentleman in the Information booth told us to talk to a ticketing agent in Edinburgh, but warned us we may have to pay for our return tickets again.  Though that was a dismaying thought, I really didn't want to stand for the return journey or simply ignore the issue.  Luckily, hubby still had the receipt that showed our correct itinerary, so the Ticketing Agent went to discuss the issue with her Supervisor.  They gave us a slip of paper that permitted us to ride the train even though our tickets were for the previous day, since it was their mistake, however, they could not guarantee us a seat.

In the UK, unless you are able to purchase a reservation, you are purchasing a ticket for a journey, but not necessarily a seat.  This was a five-hour train ride, and the thought of standing through it did not please me at all.  Especially, given the fact we weren't able to stand longer than a half-hour through Macbeth.

So, to insure our best chances for a seat, we got to the station in plenty of time and boarded as soon as we could.  Everyone managed to find a seat, as far as I could tell, though hubby and I ended up sitting apart since I wanted to work at a table with my computer.  Sigh.  As it turns out, I might as well have sat with him given my Internet experience.

Anyway, we're back at the flat now, and I went to bed without supper.  Not because I was a bad girl, but because I was so tired I was shaking.

Now that I'm a little more refreshed, I'll continue my story about Gladstone's Land, which I visited on Thursday.

Gladstone's Land is a surviving 17th century high-tenement house situated in the Old Town of the city of Edinburgh. A National Trust for Scotland site, It has been restored and furnished in a manner consistent with the time.

Gladstone's Land

The "Land" (pictured as the center building above sited at 477 Lawnmarket) was originally built in 1550, but was bought and redeveloped in 1617 by a prosperous Edinburgh merchant and burgess Thomas Gledstanes. The work on the building was completed in 1620. Its prominent setting (on the Royal Mile between Edinburgh Castle and the Palace of Holyrood) and the extent of its accommodation mark out the affluence of its mercantile owner. However, not only did Gledstanes reside there, he let out parts of the building to an assortment of tenants of different social classes (another merchant, a minister, a knight, and a guild officer). Given the cramped conditions of the Old Town, and the physical size of the lot, the house could only be extended in depth (underground) or in height. As a result, the house is six stories tall.

Considered to be a tenement building (meaning a building comprised of apartments for rent), most of the flats were single rooms (a studio flat today) where a family of five or six would live in an 8 by 14' room preparing food in the fireplace and using a chamber pot, which would get emptied onto the street no more than twice a day with the call, "Gardy Loo," which was a poor English translation of the phrase "Guardez l'eau," which means "Watch for the water."  Except it wasn't really water being tossed into the streets, and the warning caught more than one passer-by unawares.  Let's hope they weren't looking up at the time.  In any case, this practice caused the streets to be little more than running sewers.

By the late-18th century, Edinburgh's Old Town was no longer a fashionable address. Increasing pressures from population growth encouraged the flight of the affluent from cramped conditions to the developing New Town.  As a result, in 1934, the building was condemned.  If the National Trust for Scotland hadn't intervened with a rescue, the building would have been demolished. However, once it aquired the building, the Trust fully restored the first two floors, uncovering original renaissance painted ceilings in the process. Today the restored premises offer a glimpse of 17th century life, with open fires, lack of running water, and period decoration and furniture. Since the shop operated out of a window at ground level, there is a French-style arcade frontage and reconstructed shop booth, complete with replicas of 17th century wares. This would originally have provided shelter for the merchant's customers. On the left of the building, a curved stone forestair with iron railings leads from the street to a door at 1st floor level.

The sign above the entrance to the building displays the date 1617 and a gilt-copper hawk with outstretched wings. Although not an original feature, the significance of this is that the name "Gledstanes" is derived from the Scots word "gled" meaning a hawk. Today, visitors to the city can contrast Gladstone's Land to the Trust's restored example of a New Town residence, The Georgian House, at No. 7 Charlotte Square.  I wanted to visit the Georgian House, but was unable to make it on this trip.

I will have more pictures to share later, since we took several of our own, but once again I'm going to need to call it a night and add more tomorrow.  We had a slight problem with the bed tonight, so hubby is currently sleeping with the mattress on the bedroom floor.  Another adventure in store, which I will try to share as it progresses.

Day 21 - Edinburgh or Bust

Kings Cross Station

We made it to Kings Cross in plenty of time to grab our sandwiches and take some pictures.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, Kings Cross is the site of Platform 9 and three-quarters in the Harry Potter stories.  What we didn't realize is that they've set up a photo opportunity so you can have your picture taken as you attempt to charge through the wall with a house scarf floating out behind you.

Platform 9 and 3/4

They offer an assortment of scarves to match the Hogwart houses, although everyone we saw selected the Griffindor scarf.  And that's Hedwig's cage on the top of the luggage.  Hedwig has already made it through the wall.  The queue was long to get your picture taken, and most of those in line were young women.  They suggest you look as if you are running, but this young lady appears to be taking a leisurely stroll.

Our train to Edinburgh

After watching about ten young ladies charge through the wall, we headed for our train.  It's a five hour ride.  We tried to keep an eye out for Hadrian's Wall, but didn't catch it.  Maybe on the ride back if we can figure out when we should expect to see it.

Once we arrived in Edinburgh (pronounced Ed-in-borough) Waverly station we had to figure the best way to get out of the station to make our way to the flat.

Edinburgh Waverly Station

We stepped out onto Princes Street, and one of the first things we saw was the monument for Sir Walter Scott.  A very unique looking structure that rose above the trees.

Edinburgh is a very different city that appears to have a close affinity with stairs.

Stairs from Victoria Street to Upper Bow

  There are stairs to get from one street level to the next.

Edinburgh Royal Mile

Then more stairs to get from the sidewalk to the street, and back to the sidewalk on the other side of the street.  And over 76 stairs to get from the street to our flat.  Did I mention that we really don't care for stairs?

 Our flat is right off the Royal Mile on a small street called Upper Bow.  So small we almost missed it.

Our flat is the red door next to the white store front

So, once we caught our breath after our stair climb, we decided to go back down to the street to find something to eat.  We opted to stop at The Castle Arms.  Though they did serve Haggis, I opted for Fish and Chips, and hubby had Yorkshire pudding with sausages and mash.  Unfortunately, we didn't take our camera, or we would have provided a picture.

We're back in the flat now, and both of us are exhausted, so we're ready to settle down for the night.  Tomorrow, Edinburgh Castle and the tour bus....