Runrig - Celebration in the City

I can't believe I forgot to mention that I'd been at the Runrig concert at Edinburgh Castle in July!!  It was part of their 40th anniversary tour - Celebration in the City!!  And what a setting it was!  Absolutely fabulous!!  I still think of Donnie Munro as the 'voice' of Runrig, but it was a great concert and the weather also held out.  It was warm and sunny to start with but after the sun went down, it became quite cold and windy, but that didn't detract from the concert at all.  We had a fantastic night.

As you can imagine, I took loads of photos so I think the best thing to do here is to post the link to my Flickr page where I have posted them to so that you can look at your leisure!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/marlscat/sets/72157634732264425/

Greyfriars Church and Greyfriars Bobby

As my mum was in the Eye Pavilion on Wednesday past, my husband and I took ourselves down to Greyfriars Church for a walk around the churchyard and the church.  It had been raining but the weather had cheered up a little and the sun shone through the clouds for a while.  I had walked through the churchyard in the past during the evening, but had never wandered around in daylight nor had I visited the church itself.  As usual, I had the camera with me, so I took a few photos while I had the chance of a little sunshine.

Greyfriars Church and the Flodden Wall

Greyfriars Church

Greyfriars Church

Greyfriars Bobby's gravestone at Greyfriars Church

Interior of Greyfriars Church

Interior of Greyfriars Church

Edinburgh Castle from Greyfriars Church

Greyfriars Bobby

Greyfriars Bobby

Edinburgh Castle

Hello and Happy New Year to anyone reading this!!

Yesterday my mum was having a cataract operation so we spent time doing some sightseeing.  We were originally going to go to the museum but seeing as it was a lovely morning, we decided to visit Edinburgh Castle instead.  It was fairly expensive to buy tickets for the entrance fee, but all the exhibits inside the castle are then free and they are all pretty impressive.  Photographs are allowed in most of the place, but not inside the War Memorial or where the Scottish Crown Jewels are kept.

Here's a selection of some photos that I took:

View of the Castle

On the esplanade

View from castle towards East Lothian

Princes Street - work continues on dismantling the big wheel

We just happened to be at the castle for one-o-clock when the gun is fired to mark the time.  The ball is also raised on the tower at Calton Hill and it falls, also at one-o-clock which lets shipping in the Forth know the exact time of 1 p.m.  I managed to capture those moments although, even though I knew that gun was going to go off with a bang, I still jumped!!

The ball is raised

The gun goes off

As we could see that the cloud was beginning to build up from the west, I took more photos of the stunning views that can be seem from the ramparts of the castle

I have the big wheel in my sights!!

Taking aim ......

...... fire!!

 These photos are in other areas of the castle that we visited after the cloud cover came over and dulled everything down!!

St. Margaret's Chapel

St. Margaret's Chapel

The Great Hall

Mary Queen of Scots' chamber

Prisoner of War accommodation

So, all in all this was a very worthwhile visit as we haven't been up at the castle for around 20 years!!

Festive Edinburgh 2012

It's been a while since I posted anything, so it's high time I started getting something done!!  I finished my Christmas shopping fairly early in December, but unfortunately it was a very grey day, so the photos weren't very bright and it was too windy and cold to have a turn on the Big Wheel.

Snowman and Big Wheel

Festive Mice

Pottery Bikers

Jenners

Santa and Big Wheel

About a week afterwards, I had another trip into town and this time the weather was a little better with a small dusting of snow!  This time I did have a turn on the Big Wheel and took more photos.

Edinburgh Castle

Looking towards Princes Street

Big Wheel and Scott Monument

Edinburgh Castle from Big Wheel

Scott Monument and Big Wheel

The next time we visited Edinburgh was a night to go to a dinner and party night and to get there we took a walk through the gardens and the various markets - with camera in hand, I took more photos!!

Scott Monument and Big Wheel

Jenners and Big Wheel

Helter Skelter

I quite liked the photo of the Scott Monument and the Big Wheel, so I had a play around with it and came up with these:

I quite liked how that second one came out so  have ordered some Christmas cards in that design for next year!!

Edinburgh Military Tattoo

Within the past two weeks a friend had ticket to the Edinburgh Military Tattoo that weren't going to be used, so my friend and I jumped at the chance to buy them from her as both of us had not been to the Tattoo for many years.  Finally, yesterday evening was the night we were to go.  I had been praying for dry weather all week, but went prepared with layers of clothes to keep warm, and two waterproof capes just in case.  I had even made a makeshift waterproof for my camera!!

It's amazing what you can do with a plastic bag and sticky tape (I used to watch Blue Peter when I was young!!)

We caught our train into town and walked up into the Royal Mile and Edinburgh Castle.  The place was very busy but we were very efficiently pointed in the right direction and we found our seats (section 11 AA seats 16 and 17).  We were away right up at the very top with no-one behind us and we found that we were sheltered from the wind and the rain - there was a fine drizzle falling by now and people were having to wear their raincoats.

It's a great show - even in the rain!!

The show began promptly at 9 p.m. and it was just fantastic - I have never known the time go past so quickly, and we enjoyed every minute of it.  I think I spent my time watching the whole show through the lens of my camera!!

I love pipe band music - I was brought up on it from an early age!!

Brave!!

Ships in the night

Australian outback

Aboriginal artwork

Superhero!

Dennis the Menace and Gnasher

Edinburgh Castle turned into Gotham City!

Superheros

Superman

Edinburgh Castle transformed into Westminster Abbey

Celebrating the Queen's Jubilee and Coronation

Union Jack

Celebrating the Queen's Jubilee and Coronation

Fireworks

Fireworks

Remembering our fallen heroes

Scottish Saltire

My favourite photo of the night

Of course when the show finished we had to make our way to the train station, but we were stuck in the crowds in the stands waiting to move - we were going nowhere fast!!  When we did make it down the stairs and into Castle Hill we quickly realised there was no way we were going to catch our last train home.  We eventually got to the station and confirmed the train had already left, so we made our way up to Princes Street where we flagged down a taxi to take us part of the way home where we were picked up by my poor hubby who'd had to travel quite a bit further than planned to pick us up!!

However, we had an excellent night out watching a truly superb and spectacular show.  And the bonus was that, although it was raining during the show, we didn't get wet!!  It was definitely a night to remember.