Edinburgh City Part 1: Scottish National Portrait Gallery

A few weeks ago, not long after my laptop broke, I went on a weekend trip to Edinburgh. Raven was away in Glasgow for four days, and I had nothing planned for the weekend, so took the opportunity to visit my friend K. in Edinburgh. I had hoped to meet up with my friend Laura from Sheridan's Art while she was on holiday, but she left Edinburgh the same morning I arrived, but a lot earlier than when my coach came in. 

Enough Gothic twiddles to keep me happy!

The ::Scottish National Portrait Gallery:: is on Queen St. and just around the corner from the bus station. I was struck by the beauty of the Gothic Revival building, especially the warm colour of the red sandstone and the statues of various historical figures (K. and I had fun trying to figure out who each of them were). I didn't initially know it was a gallery, and when I spotted the sign, and the big signs advertising an exhibition on Ruskin (who I'm not particularly fond of, especially in light of how he treated the women in his life, but I appreciate his contribution to the Pre-Raphaelite movement) I decided I had to go in.

And this side just faces an alley!

 The interior is even more glorious than the exterior. As a lot of the actual paintings are still in copyright and as special exhibitions areas have photography within them prohibited, I didn't take any photographs of the paintings. I did, however, take photographs of the glorious atrium with its Victorian mural of famous Scottish historic figures. It's a splendid building, glimmering with gilt and brightly coloured. I kept joking with K. that if I ever become a dark queen, my castle of doom will be as well decorated! It's so rich, such a vibrantly painted interpretation of the medieval tradition; I just adore it. My favourite things are the hanging amber lights - I guess they were once candles or gas lights, but even as electric lights they are fabulous!

Gloriously decadent in the Gothic tradition.

I was having fun playing with the saturation.

The exhibitions are informative, well lit (I hate going into galleries and museums where the light is either glaringly bright, or too dim to see anything) and the paintings are, of course, amazing. Best of all, entrance is free, which is important when you've spent most of your money just on coach fare to Edinburgh from Inverness. I did, however, donate a few coins on exiting. I thoroughly recommend it to all visitors to Edinburgh (and any residents who haven't been there already) and I will certainly be returning (probably taking even more photographs of the exterior!).

I must say, when I spend over 4 hours on a coach getting south to Edinburgh, I am strongly reminded of just how far north Inverness actually is, and there is plenty more Scotland even further north! Having traveled so far down on the coach, I really made the most of my trip, so there will be quite a few more photographs of Edinburgh architecture to come! I even went to the castle, partly to gather photographs to show the children at work as the Primary 4 class currently have castles as their topic - I do love it when work and hobbies intersect! 

Travels, Photos and Suchlike

Ok, so my car is still in a different country and the cost of public transport hasn't gone down (I wish!) but I do actually go out and about quite a bit, and am going out more as I get to know the area better. Maybe acting like a tourist in the place that has now been my home for a year is possibly the best way for me to get to know the area, except that I have local friends who can give me tips of what is of interest. 

Inverness is very pretty, it is the Highland capital, with many beautiful buildings and cemeteries, and I have taken a lot of pictures there. Maybe Visit Scotland will send me a cheque for my efforts to corner the Goth tourism market and encourage spooky visitors... or maybe not. Either way, I have shown a lot of Inverness on my blog. It is the nearest city to me, and I go there for the sorts of thing you can only go do in a city, so I visit relatively frequently and often take a camera with me.

The HouseCat out and about.
I have evil black eyes of demonic doom! 

But Inverness is not the be-all and end-all of the beautiful Highlands, it is but a small fraction. As such, I am going to try and take photos of other places and smaller towns. Elgin is the second largest local town, and has a lot of historic architecture, plenty to rival even Inverness, and will probably be my next target, but even small towns like Aviemore, Forres, Dingwall, Fort William and Nairn have plenty of things worth photographing, not to mention all the fabulous places in between. Expect a far more varied blog in the future!