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| Rosslyn Chapel |
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| Rosslyn Chapel |
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| Intricate detail outside |
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| Intricate detail inside (you weren't allowed to take photos inside so I bought a postcard of the interior and took a photo of that) |
Sunday, 15 June 2014
Rosslyn Chapel and Roslin Glen
I went to Rosslyn Chapel, of Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code fame, located in the town of Roslin. It was smaller than I was expecting but is really intricately decorated, which is quite impressive for the time that it was constructed.
After spending some time at the chapel, I took a walk along through part of the Roslin Country Park. I came across the ruins of an old mill and it was unexpectedly so beautiful it looked fake.
Cramond Island
A co-worker told me about Cramond Island, which is a small island just off Edinburgh that is accessible by foot for two hours either side of low tide. So, after carefully checking tide times, I decided to go check it out.
There's a paved walkway out to the island that runs beside big concrete pillars left over from the war (to prevent submarines passing between the island and the shore), but really, you could just walk on the sand if you wanted (unless you were cutting it close with the tide).
The island was alright - there are some old buildings from World War II and some pretty wild flowers. I was pretty disappointed with the volume of smashed beer bottles. I get it - it's a great secluded place for parties, camping and all sorts of mischief, but it would be really nice if people cleaned up after themselves.
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| Cramond Island |
There's a paved walkway out to the island that runs beside big concrete pillars left over from the war (to prevent submarines passing between the island and the shore), but really, you could just walk on the sand if you wanted (unless you were cutting it close with the tide).
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| Cramond Island |
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| Submarine Defences |
The island was alright - there are some old buildings from World War II and some pretty wild flowers. I was pretty disappointed with the volume of smashed beer bottles. I get it - it's a great secluded place for parties, camping and all sorts of mischief, but it would be really nice if people cleaned up after themselves.
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| Cramond Island |
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| Cramond Island |
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| Bird! |
Wednesday, 11 June 2014
Easy as Changing a Light Bulb
Daylight hours here are now a bit ridiculous. It doesn't get dark until after 10:30 pm and then it's light again around 4:30 am. It's a huge difference to December when the sun would rise after I got to work and set before I left.
The extra daylight came in handy this week when the light bulb in my room burnt out. It burnt out Monday night (shorting the fuse as it went) and we had no spare bulbs in the flat so Tuesday after work I stopped to get a new bulb. When I got to the light bulb section, I realized that I should have done a bit of research first. Besides having all the different shapes, wattages and eco ratings, they also had different fittings - not just the screwy-inny ones, like Canada, but also a bayonet fitting (with sort of sideways prong thingys). I had no idea which one I needed so I went back to my flat to take out the old light bulb to see what fitting it had. I tried to unscrew the bulb and it didn't work (although I did manage to unscrew the whole sitting on my light fixture, which made for an interesting time), so I deduced that it must be a bayonet fitting. This led to another problem in that I had no idea how to take out a bayonet fitting light bulb. I was reduced to turning on my computer and sheepishly Googling how to change a light bulb. I finally got the old light bulb out, noted that it was 60W and indeed a bayonet fitting, and then headed out to a nearby store. They didn't have a great light bulb selection and had no 60W bayonet light bulbs so I decided to wait until Wednesday and go back to the first store. This is where having a lot of daylight hours really came in handy. I do have a bedside lamp so I wasn't completely in the dark but it was nice to have daylight as well.
Wednesday I went back to the first store and they didn't have any 60W bulbs either (is 60W just not done in the UK? And if not, how did one end up in the room in the first place?!) but they did have 70W bulbs so I got one of those and proudly installed it in my light fixture. I turned on the light to admire my handy work, which is when I noticed the tag on the light fixture that said 60W maximum in dire "punishable by death" red font. After encouraging the light fixture to go forth and procreate, I headed back out to the store.
So two days and four trips to the store later, I am typing this under the light of my brand new 55W light bulb... which is supplemented by the bright daylight streaming in my window....
The extra daylight came in handy this week when the light bulb in my room burnt out. It burnt out Monday night (shorting the fuse as it went) and we had no spare bulbs in the flat so Tuesday after work I stopped to get a new bulb. When I got to the light bulb section, I realized that I should have done a bit of research first. Besides having all the different shapes, wattages and eco ratings, they also had different fittings - not just the screwy-inny ones, like Canada, but also a bayonet fitting (with sort of sideways prong thingys). I had no idea which one I needed so I went back to my flat to take out the old light bulb to see what fitting it had. I tried to unscrew the bulb and it didn't work (although I did manage to unscrew the whole sitting on my light fixture, which made for an interesting time), so I deduced that it must be a bayonet fitting. This led to another problem in that I had no idea how to take out a bayonet fitting light bulb. I was reduced to turning on my computer and sheepishly Googling how to change a light bulb. I finally got the old light bulb out, noted that it was 60W and indeed a bayonet fitting, and then headed out to a nearby store. They didn't have a great light bulb selection and had no 60W bayonet light bulbs so I decided to wait until Wednesday and go back to the first store. This is where having a lot of daylight hours really came in handy. I do have a bedside lamp so I wasn't completely in the dark but it was nice to have daylight as well.
Wednesday I went back to the first store and they didn't have any 60W bulbs either (is 60W just not done in the UK? And if not, how did one end up in the room in the first place?!) but they did have 70W bulbs so I got one of those and proudly installed it in my light fixture. I turned on the light to admire my handy work, which is when I noticed the tag on the light fixture that said 60W maximum in dire "punishable by death" red font. After encouraging the light fixture to go forth and procreate, I headed back out to the store.
So two days and four trips to the store later, I am typing this under the light of my brand new 55W light bulb... which is supplemented by the bright daylight streaming in my window....
Saturday, 7 June 2014
Manchester
After 3 straight weekends in Edinburgh, I was starting to get antsy so thought of going to Oslo for the weekend but then it started to feel like an awful lot of effort so I went with the logical next destination: Manchester. I'd been to Manchester Airport area before, on my way to Wales, but hadn't actually visited the city. I forgot my camera so excuse the cell phone camera quality photos.
The first thing I noticed about Manchester were the red brick buildings - I haven't seen many of those recently (mainly grey/yellow stone buildings) so the change of colour was nice. I also discovered that the main downtown area of Manchester is compact enough to be easily walkable, which is always nice, but they also have free shuttle buses that go to main tourist sites (3 routes running every 10-20 minutes). I thought that was a really nice touch.
I went to the Manchester Art Gallery, which was a refreshing change from most art galleries as the works of art were a bit mixed up all together. Instead of having all old paintings in one room and more contemporary works in another, they just stuck everything together like this:
The first thing I noticed about Manchester were the red brick buildings - I haven't seen many of those recently (mainly grey/yellow stone buildings) so the change of colour was nice. I also discovered that the main downtown area of Manchester is compact enough to be easily walkable, which is always nice, but they also have free shuttle buses that go to main tourist sites (3 routes running every 10-20 minutes). I thought that was a really nice touch.
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| Albert Square |
I went to the Manchester Art Gallery, which was a refreshing change from most art galleries as the works of art were a bit mixed up all together. Instead of having all old paintings in one room and more contemporary works in another, they just stuck everything together like this:
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| Manchester Art Gallery |
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| "Big Booby #2"... not sure if there's a #1 somewhere |
I also went to the People's History Museum, the John Rylands Library, the Manchester Cathedral and the National Football Museum (where I learned that my dad's favourite team, the Wolverhampton Wanderers, were actually a great team once... I'm sure they'll get back there one day... just like I'm sure the Maple Leafs will eventually win another Stanley Cup. You know, one of those "maybe not in my lifetime but it's bound to happen at some point" things).
On Sunday, everything I had planned to see was closed (so maybe not great planning on my part) but I stumbled across the Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art. It's a small gallery showcasing Chinese contemporary art (I know, you'd never guess it from the gallery name). They had a neat exhibit about a Dutch design firm that created a mobile design service for Beijing Design Week to create "on the spot" logos for local small businesses. They gave the owners a survey to answer some brief questions about their businesses and then created a new logo for them right then and there. You can see some of the logos and read more about it here: http://www.lava.nl/newsitems/view/130/English
Tuesday, 27 May 2014
Fife Coastal Trail
I went for a walk on the Fife Coastal Trail last weekend. It runs along (or near-ish) the entire east coast of Fife (a region in Scotland), through little towns and villages, which makes it super easy to get to by train (just get off at any of the stations and walk as much as you want and then get the train home from whatever town you end up in). I had planned to do Kinghorn to Inverkeithing but ended up only making it to Dalgety Bay before deciding I'd had enough.
The name "Coastal Path" is a bit misleading because it's not all on the coast, especially on the part that I did. It's near the coast but I'd say for about half of it, I couldn't even see the water. However, just as I was bitching about this (to myself, in my head), I actually looked around and it was really quite pretty anyway. Some of it wasn't but a lot of it was. Plus, I saw a seal.
I also think it's great that Fife is still called The Kingdom of Fife. It makes it sound so fancy.
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| Rainy Edinburgh across the water (but sunny in Fife) |
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| Harbour... at low tide. |
The name "Coastal Path" is a bit misleading because it's not all on the coast, especially on the part that I did. It's near the coast but I'd say for about half of it, I couldn't even see the water. However, just as I was bitching about this (to myself, in my head), I actually looked around and it was really quite pretty anyway. Some of it wasn't but a lot of it was. Plus, I saw a seal.
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| Pretty wall |
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| Seal! |
I also think it's great that Fife is still called The Kingdom of Fife. It makes it sound so fancy.
Thursday, 8 May 2014
Copenhagen
Copenhagen was not really what I was expecting. I was thinking it would be more like Amsterdam with distinct architecture and "old European city" feel. Instead it was more "modern city with some older buildings" and wide roads for a lot of traffic. That's not to say it sucked; it was just different to what I was expecting. I explored the centre of town, visited some museums, wandered through Christiana, and ate street vendor hot dogs (oh how I've missed thee!) The highlights for me were the Dansk Arkitectur centre, the Design Museum and a Lego store.
The Dansk Arkitectur Centre (Danish Architecture Centre, in case you're having a slow day) had an exhibit on sustainable design, which was really informative, thought provoking and slightly cynical (my favourite combination). It showed different ways that different projects, materials and innovations were sustainable and then subtlety questioned if they were sustainable.
The Design Museum had an exhibit on Hans Wegner who designed furniture (mainly chairs). It was an interesting exhibit and they had samples of his work that you could sit on. He made comfy chairs ... or I was just really tired from walking around all day (both equally possible). They also had a bit of a history of furniture design and I was so proud of myself for recognizing a Marcel Wanders chair (I learned about him in Amsterdam).
The Lego store was fun because they had a station where you could custom make your own Lego men from a wide selection of heads, torsos, legs and accessories. I amused myself for at least 30 minutes making Lego men replicas of some of my coworkers (which I then purchased to take back for them... they're big Lego fans).
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| Copenhagen |
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| Copenahgen |
The Dansk Arkitectur Centre (Danish Architecture Centre, in case you're having a slow day) had an exhibit on sustainable design, which was really informative, thought provoking and slightly cynical (my favourite combination). It showed different ways that different projects, materials and innovations were sustainable and then subtlety questioned if they were sustainable.
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| There was a whole wall of building materials that claimed to be sustainable in different ways. One said it was sustainable because it was inexpensive so the money saved could be used for additional insulation. |
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| Screen shots of Australia's Carbon Credit Initiatives |
The Design Museum had an exhibit on Hans Wegner who designed furniture (mainly chairs). It was an interesting exhibit and they had samples of his work that you could sit on. He made comfy chairs ... or I was just really tired from walking around all day (both equally possible). They also had a bit of a history of furniture design and I was so proud of myself for recognizing a Marcel Wanders chair (I learned about him in Amsterdam).
The Lego store was fun because they had a station where you could custom make your own Lego men from a wide selection of heads, torsos, legs and accessories. I amused myself for at least 30 minutes making Lego men replicas of some of my coworkers (which I then purchased to take back for them... they're big Lego fans).
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| My Lego men Coworkers |
And that was Copenhagen.
Malmo
I bought my plane tickets to Copenhagen about a month and a half ago. It wasn't until the week before I went that I got around to finding somewhere to stay and discovered that accommodation in Copenhagen is really expensive (as in $80 per night for a bed in a hostel dorm room expensive). So I decided to stay in Malmo, Sweden instead where the hotels are much cheaper. Malmo is a 40 minute train ride from Copenhagen central station so it's super easy to "commute". And I got two cities and two countries in one trip.
I arrived around lunchtime on a Friday and explored Malmo for the rest of the day. Things were going well (nice parks, great weather) until I got to the museum of modern art, which boasted one of the finest collections of modern art in Europe (according to the Malmo tourist website anyway). When I got there, I paid my admission and walked around a photography exhibit and then was ready to see the other stuff when I realized there was no other stuff. After triple checking the museum map, I looked it up on my phone (I used to scoff at smart phones and now I use mine way too much!) and discovered that the Malmo museum was just an annex to the museum in Stockholm, where apparently they keep the rest of the art. I was not impressed. I was also really tired and being accosted by allergies (Sweden is a lot like Canada in many ways, including spring allergens), so I checked into my hotel, had a rest and then made up with Malmo when I went to dinner. It is a nice little city.
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| Bridge between Sweden and Denmark |
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| Malmo |
I arrived around lunchtime on a Friday and explored Malmo for the rest of the day. Things were going well (nice parks, great weather) until I got to the museum of modern art, which boasted one of the finest collections of modern art in Europe (according to the Malmo tourist website anyway). When I got there, I paid my admission and walked around a photography exhibit and then was ready to see the other stuff when I realized there was no other stuff. After triple checking the museum map, I looked it up on my phone (I used to scoff at smart phones and now I use mine way too much!) and discovered that the Malmo museum was just an annex to the museum in Stockholm, where apparently they keep the rest of the art. I was not impressed. I was also really tired and being accosted by allergies (Sweden is a lot like Canada in many ways, including spring allergens), so I checked into my hotel, had a rest and then made up with Malmo when I went to dinner. It is a nice little city.
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| It was the tulip festival when I was there |
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| Malmo |
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