Sunday Retrospective
I have a dream, in a galaxy far, far away! Once upon a time, in a mightily different world we could and did travel to places that could blow our mind. This was one of those places.
When we are planning to go somewhere on a holiday we have never been before, we often envisage it in our mind. Look up photos somewhere on the net, read Lonely Planet books (probably a bit old fashioned now) or just get tips from others. But some places are just so far from what one imagines, you are left in awe. And this was one for us, a mouth gaping and unexpected place.
While this photo was taken on our second visit in 2015, this city left us breathless in its majesty whenever we stood on its main street and looked around. We could never have imagined what the eye could see that little else could demonstrate the reality of.
This tram or light rail vehicle if you want to use the modern nomenclature is descending the hill down South St. Andrew Street, Edinburgh, Scotland and is about to turn to its right into the main thoroughfare of town, Princes Street. It's in what is known as the New Town. If I turned 180 degrees I could look across Princes Street Gardens in the valley below and then up to the rear of the buildings lining the Royal Mile on the rise on the other side, the famous street (really six streets in one) that runs uphill to the right and Edinburgh Castle sitting on its rock high above the city. A truly magnificent sight.
COVID-19 has changed our world in ways we see and in ways we cannot begin to imagine. It's been some 18 months now and grappling with an ever mutating virus and populations who are ever more wary on one hand and ever more anxious to break out on the other, we still see no end. It's taught us a lot, much of it worse than a big policeman's boot up the backside but I know one thing when I look back at pictures like this, I am thankful for the life and opportunities we had in life and hope and pray that one day, especially for those yet to experience them, whatever they are that at some stage we will get back to normality or even better than what we would regard as normal. That's my retrospective and introspective for today.
By the way, before I leave this minor tome, I should mention that the good food people of Edinburgh who serve up some mighty fare round town think the electro-magnetic fields caused by the trams have acted rather like the Pied Piper and stirred up the rats. At least they told us so and we saw and we believe! To be fair, we saw one rat in a cafe close to this spot and that's what the staff told us and the others who were standing on chairs while they "dealt" with the problem! One of those funny travel experiences. We had more than one in that cafe but the other is for another time.
Sunday Retrospective
I have a dream, in a galaxy far, far away! Once upon a time, in a mightily different world we could and did travel to places that could blow our mind. This was one of those places.
When we are planning to go somewhere on a holiday we have never been before, we often envisage it in our mind. Look up photos somewhere on the net, read Lonely Planet books (probably a bit old fashioned now) or just get tips from others. But some places are just so far from what one imagines, you are left in awe. And this was one for us, a mouth gaping and unexpected place.
While this photo was taken on our second visit in 2015, this city left us breathless in its majesty whenever we stood on its main street and looked around. We could never have imagined what the eye could see that little else could demonstrate the reality of.
This tram or light rail vehicle if you want to use the modern nomenclature is descending the hill down South St. Andrew Street, Edinburgh, Scotland and is about to turn to its right into the main thoroughfare of town, Princes Street. It's in what is known as the New Town. If I turned 180 degrees I could look across Princes Street Gardens in the valley below and then up to the rear of the buildings lining the Royal Mile on the rise on the other side, the famous street (really six streets in one) that runs uphill to the right and Edinburgh Castle sitting on its rock high above the city. A truly magnificent sight.
COVID-19 has changed our world in ways we see and in ways we cannot begin to imagine. It's been some 18 months now and grappling with an ever mutating virus and populations who are ever more wary on one hand and ever more anxious to break out on the other, we still see no end. It's taught us a lot, much of it worse than a big policeman's boot up the backside but I know one thing when I look back at pictures like this, I am thankful for the life and opportunities we had in life and hope and pray that one day, especially for those yet to experience them, whatever they are that at some stage we will get back to normality or even better than what we would regard as normal. That's my retrospective and introspective for today.
By the way, before I leave this minor tome, I should mention that the good food people of Edinburgh who serve up some mighty fare round town think the electro-magnetic fields caused by the trams have acted rather like the Pied Piper and stirred up the rats. At least they told us so and we saw and we believe! To be fair, we saw one rat in a cafe close to this spot and that's what the staff told us and the others who were standing on chairs while they "dealt" with the problem! One of those funny travel experiences. We had more than one in that cafe but the other is for another time.