Was a reasonably nice day and after going for a walk I went to the Money Museum. It had a bit of history of money and how it evolved in Scotland and the world. It showed some examples of early paper money and how enterprising It shows a bit about how coins are struck, some ways that people attempted, and succeeded in making forgeries. The beginning of mechanisation made forgery more difficult since all coins would be identical. However in 1920s Edinburgh, James Steele built his own punching and rolling machines. He struck half-crowns that even decieved the banks. His forged florins were so good that not one of his nearly 15,000 coins were ever suspected. In the early 1800's when they started to charge people for Life Insurance they realized that things such as heavy ... read more

This weekend was Edinburgh Doors Open Day 2011. On Saturday I took a detour past the Fire Museum and ended up at the Sheriff Department. I took a tour and watched a mock trial. I then wandered in the wrong direction and by the time I got to the John Knox House the tickets were sold out so I went to the Simpsons House. Of course it was closed by the time I got there so all in all it was a bit of a dissapointing day. It was the Harvest Dinner at the church. They had Cottage Pie for dinner and Apple Pie for dessert. I have now learned that it is called Shepard's Pie when it is made with lamb and Cottage Pie when it is made with beef. I didn't know that before, ... read more

Wednesday I had a lovely lunch with Ewan at the Modern Art Museum. I have to say while there were some lovely pieces of artwork, there are somethings that just should not qualify as art! Went for a bit of a walk but with the torential rain, it was short lived. I have also been to the Botanical Gardens. There are some really lovely flowers. It did make me just a tad homesick because there is an area which makes you feel as if you are in the woods and it seemes so much like a walking trail in Banff that I thought I was at home. I have also visited the Royal Yacht Britannia. It is a beautiful yacht with a rich history, tastfully decorated and there was a well done audio guide that gave ... read more

I took a different way to the Royal Mile. It involved cutting through the Meadows, a large park near where I am living. I found out afterwards that I didn't cut through enough and I ended up on some residential streets. I do have a map (actually two) but neither of them were detailed enough for me to figure out where exactly I was! I ended up walking around for a few hours but I did eventually find my way to the Royal Mile. I didn't get there in time to take the tour but that was actually ok because if you get the Edinburgh Pass you can get a discount of certain tours. I had a nap this afternoon because I got a headache, luckily after an advil and an hour nap got rid of ... read more

I went into Princess Park this morning. At the front end there is a cemetary. It is facinating to go through and read some of the tombstones. They really put a lot of information of the grave sites. Also many people died young, although that is not surprising given what they knew about child care and cleanliness. The streets here are not nicely laid out rows and columns, rather they branch off and then you come to an intersection with about 6 different directions you can take. Eventually I found the road that I wanted and made it to the last working weaving mill (in Edinburgh). That was interesting, and there were a lot of things to buy there. Next I wandered up the Royal Mile and made my way to the Edinburgh Castle. It, unlike ... read more