Edinburgh with a fringe on top.

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Until now we had never managed to time a trip to Scotland with the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. We managed to put that right this year. It was so easy and just an hour's journey by train from Glasgow. We also managed to meet up with Claudia who we had met when we were working in Libya last year. We had travelled a lot over there with her, so it was great to catch up on each others lives since then.

Edinburgh is such a nice city at any time of year, but during the festival the streets are buzzing. Don't be surprised to bump into a bagpiper, a Zulu warrior and a Star Wars stormtrooper within yards of each other. Have your camera at the ready because as you wander through the streets you are going to see all sorts of free entertainment. We particularly enjoyed the drummers and the dancers rotating their heads to swirl ribbons in the air. Think they were from Korea but not sure. The invisible man, street magicians and a guitar-playing pig were amongst the other surprises. Don't be shocked but we even saw a 6 foot haggis walking down the street!

During the festival you can pay to see all manner of high quality music, comedy, dance and stage acts. There is also a large programme of free events and we decided to check out one of the free shows, saving our money for a few beers instead. Mae Martin is a Canadian comedienne and, for free, it wasn't a bad show. We all had to write a question on a piece of paper and throughout the show she tried to answer some of them in a funny way. The jury was out as to whether or not she succeeded, and we suspect a different format of show might have worked better for us. If you follow the link to her Youtube channel, be warned: there is some bad language being used!

We also took a nice stroll down the Royal Mile. Unfortunately the Scottish Parliament was closed on a Sunday so we couldn't visit, but Holyrood Palace was open to the public at an extortionate price. We gazed through the railings and visited the gift shop instead. The corgis were cute but with an astronomical price tag! Free to enter (but contributions welcome) is St Giles Cathedral. It's worth a visit and there are lots of nooks and crannies to explore.

There is far too much about the Edinburgh Fringe to write about, but hopefully the pictures will have you wanting to go yourself next year.

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Festivals
We never tire of going to festivals. So much fun and flavor.