Muse/Yums

 Hello again, Blogonauts!

After Monday gave me clear skies for touring the high castle, Tuesday's twizzly drizzle gave me reason to seek a combination of culture and shelter. This was museum weather.

First, I meandered through the labyrinthine National Museum of Scotland. It's a family-friendly place, where children have lots of educational activities, young adults can try their strength & video game skills, and older folks can learn a bit about Scottish archaeology and ancient artifacts. You know...stuff we remember from childhood.

Atrium in the National Museum of Scotland
(That's James Watt's statue sitting in the foreground)

A display of retired Formula 1 race cars 

The Natural History Section

Along the way to the National Museum is a monument to Greyfriars Bobby, a Skye terrier reputed to have gone each day for more than a decade to lie atop his decease master's grave. It may be more legend than history, but it serves to remind us how lucky we are to have dogs that love us.

Monument to Greyfriars Bobby

Next, I headed to the National Galleries of Scotland, which hold some wondrous art from all over Europe. 

Several of the galleries were filled only with works by Scottish artists. But there are many rooms devoted to internationally renowned painters such as Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt, and Vermeer. My favorite works focused on literary characters (particularly from Shakespeare), a welcome respite from the church iconography.

A mysterious painting by El Greco.
Its meaning has been long debated.

A detail from a 19th c. painting about Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream"
by Joseph Noel Paton

Tuscan Renaissance painting, "Young Man Tying His Garter"
(Artist unknown, which is a pity; its exquisite.)

And then my last stop of the day (before dinner) was at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. The historic exhibit area leaned a bit too heavily on depicting the noblemen & women. A casual observer might assume that there were more lords/ladies, earls/baronesses, dukes/duchesses, princes/princesses, and kings/queens than commoners in Scotland.

There were large exhibits about Mary Queen of Scots and the beheading of Charles I, as well as Bonnie Prince Charlie, whose conversion to Catholicism prevented him to ascending to the throne of Scotland and England.

(There I go talking about history again!)

 

A younger, svelter Queen Victoria

The requisite Mary Queen of Scots portrait

The main entrance hall for
the Scottish National Portrait Gallery

 

The modern history room showed a lot more authors, actors, artists, scientists, and athletes, which felt more democratic.

Portrait of actor Tilda Swinton

 OK! THAT'S ENOUGH MUSEUMS! Let's head off on a different path.

Viewers/readers of this blog have traditionally wanted to see what gastronomy goes into my gob. So here's a selection of some of my Epicurean delights over the past 3 days:

A cranachan, made of raspberries, oatmeal, cream, & whisky

Haggis, Swede (rutabaga), & Tatties (mashed potatoes)

Salmon cakes, potatoes & salad

And one final bit of trivial trivia trivia. Last night, I joined in on a pub quiz, where I had to play solo because all the teams were full. But out of 16 teams, I placed 8th...not bad with no help and in a country where I'm a stranger. (I was one of only a few who got the question about Eurovision correct.)

At least one more pub quiz is coming up later in the trip; let's hope my performance there is at least as respectable.

So this wraps up most of Edinburgh, because tomorrow, I'm off on a coach tour to the Highlands and the Isle of Skye. Don't fret if you don't see a blog post for a day or two. I'm probably just trying to play trivia with my van companions.

Oh, and once again, if you leave a comment here on Jaunticles, please identify yourself in some way. Otherwise I will imagine sprites and gnomes are following me around Scotland.

Blog to you later!