Fife, Edinburgh and Birmingham

On Saturday after a quick visit to a friend of Dimity's, I visited the Scottish Yarn Festival. Whilst I did purchase some yarn from a few farmers it was much smaller than I expected. I didn't think to take any photos.

Along the way, I was impressed yet again at the huge loads pulled by tractors. It's really common to see tractors on country roads as most farmers have multiple, small land holdings. 

After the festival we headed to Scone Palace, the crowning place of many Scottish kings. No photos were allowed inside but it was full of family history and their many collections, like 50 dinner sets. The grounds were lovely to walk around. 

A replica of the Stone of Scone, in the spot where it was used to crown kings. The original is now on Edinburgh Castle, after the English returned it in 1996 (they'd captured it in 1296 and taken it to London).

We then headed to a small village on the Fife coast, Cellardyke. It was covered in mist most of the time we were there.

Sunday afternoon's plan, after walking to a local village church was a quiet stroll around the town of  St Andrew's. We arrived to bedlam, it turned out it was the day before orientation week started. There were students and parents everywhere, leading to long lines of traffic and no parking. I did get some lovely bacon topped Mac and Cheese, made with local cheese and bacon at a nearby farm shop. 

Monday we followed the Fife Coastal Trail into Edinburgh. There was a cruise ship with 3600 people on it, so the Royal Mile and Edinburgh Castle were both very crowded. Luckily I'd been able to get a ticket online on Sunday morning (at that point Monday afternoon tickets were still available, they'd all sold out by Monday morning).

Hollyrood Palace, at the bottom of the Royal Mile.

Along the Royal Mile.

Edinburgh Castle, the Scottish Royal Jewels were most interesting to see but no photos were allowed and they were in a vault room, with a security guard. Like most rooms at the Castle there was a queuing system to get in and also a red/green light to let you enter.

St Margaret's Chapel. 

A lovely fireplace in the royal apartments.

It was interesting to look all over Edinburgh.

They were taking down the seating from the Edinburgh Military Tattoo.

Late Monday afternoon I hoped on a train and 4 hours and 18 minutes later I was in Birmingham. It was weird to be in such a huge city after so long in small places. Tuesday morning I did a short walking tour of the city to see the main buildings. There are only a few really old buildings due to WW2 bombings.

This bull was created for the Commonwealth Games in 2022 and is now in the train station. The young city guide I had, tried to explain the Commonwealth Games to me, he seemed surprised when I explained Australia was part of them so I knew exactly what they are. I did also point out we normally do pretty well at them. 

Birmingham Cathedral, really just a church that they added to a little when they wanted a cathedral.

This water fountain is a running joke in the city as at once stage it was turned into flower beds but was fixed up for the Commonwealth Games and was immediately filled with detergent, which created a lot of bubbles and stopped it working again. 

War memorial. After WW1 everyone village, town and city in the UK was required by the government to build (and fund) a war memorial. This is the largest one I've seen.

They're very proud of Ozzy Osbourne in particular.

The Shakespeare Memorial Room at the city library, it's been rebuilt several times but now sits atop the library on the 9th floor and most of its books are stored in a secure, humidity controlled space only available to researchers. It was originally built in 1882.

The library was actually quite lacking in resources, with many areas having out of order signs on them. The fiction and non fiction areas were smaller than the Launceston library. But it was a real community hub, with tourist information, a contemplation space/prayer room and adult education classes, that included English class for the many migrants in the city. I love how they have arranged the old books in coloured sections and put up fairy lights, it looked magical as you road the escalators up and down.

In both Edinburgh and Birmingham it was sad to see the different kinds of barriers being put to to stop people driving where they shouldn't.

Tuesday night I caught up with Marleen who was my roommate on my Vietnam tour over a decade ago. We had a wonderful Persian meal but we so busy talking I didn't think to take any photos.