Edinburgh

We've just got back from a week at the Edinburgh Festival, exhausted but exhilerated. I saw 25 shows, and Christopher saw a few more as he went out to some late night shows after I'd gone to bed.

We went with friends, travelling first class on the train and had a flat right in the centre of the city. It was extremely noisy, but we were all so tired that we had no trouble sleeping.

Some of the shows we saw were stunning, some very good and some good. Only one or two were just okay, and nothing was downright dreadful. We saw straight plays, musicals, ballet, cuban dancing, comedy shows, Shakespeare, improvisation shows and stand-up comedy. We also saw the Military Tattoo in the castle. The buzz around the city is wonderful during these few weeks, and we saw so much busking and street theatre, as well as the costumed players handing out flyers for their shows and doing excerpts from them to entice audiences into coming to see them.

We were lucky with the weather too, mostly dry and not too cold.

Here are just a few photographs showing the city itself.

I don't think the skies were ever really this colour, but it certainly makes for a pretty picture doesn't it?

Yes, you really do have to climb up and down these hills to get around in the city.

Edinburgh had multi storey buildings and tenements from way, way back. This is at the top of the Royal Mile, part of which is closed off to traffic during the Festival for street theatre and performers to hand out leaflets.

The castle at night, taken from our seat in the stands at the Military Tattoo.

I'll try and post a few more photographs over the next few days, as I try to catch up with the washing and the gardening.