I spent a full day exploring Edinburgh, and I estimate I probably walked several miles by the end of the day, mostly up and down hills on cobblestone streets. I started my day in Edinburgh Castle
where to my surprise I found that it was in fact a special occasion. A 21 gun salute was performed in honor of the master of the castle, the Duke of Edinburgh, perhaps better known as Prince Phillip, consort to the Queen of England.
Quite an exciting day to visit the castle, though I would highly recommend the castle on any other day as well. There were several exhibits/museums on the premises, including the Scottish crown jewels. My greatest interest was the Great Hall, built in the 1500s. The stained glass windows,
added in the late 1800s restoration of the hall, were perfectly suited to my quilt-making purposes, though (ha! fooled you) I encountered something later in the day that was more interesting.
After a visit to and rest at the Tartan Woolen Mills shop/cafe/museum/factory (it was a multipurpose building) I started making my way down the huge hill Edinburgh Castle is situated on. In my wanderings, I stumbled across the Scottish Writers Museum (featuring Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson, among others) and took this fun picture of their rather exciting staircase.
All in all, it was a building ill suited to the people that might visit it, as the only means of getting from one floor to another were this staircase and another that had warning signs posted at the top and bottom, explaining that the stairs were intentionally different heights, in order to trip up any would-be intruders.
Upon exiting the museum, I ran into a tour group three hours into a three and a half hour tour of Edinburgh. I had declined the tour earlier, but decided that I could slip onto it for a half hour, just to see what they were about. I followed the group into Princes Street Gardens, a really nice garden area which is so lush and beautiful primarily because the area was a lake that functioned as the sewage system for the city for several hundred years before it was drained and landscaped. Another notable feature of the garden was the floral clock, which was exactly that: a functional clock planted over with flowers and greenery. Better to just show you the picture, as the piece somewhat defies description beyond its name
Now, I'm sure you're wondering what this city's block will be, if I rejected the obvious choice of the stained glass windows at the castle. I was intrigued by the picture of the spiral staircase, and I have a series of pictures to demonstrate my thought processes on the matter, though I do believe that they may have to wait for another day, as this post is long enough as it is. This block will be achieved using template piecing, and I haven't quite decided what I'm going to do about the templates, as I don't really have access to anything that would allow me to scan a scale copy of the templates to post them for you. If anyone would like me to post instructions on how to construct the templates, let me know, but otherwise I'll just photograph the picture of my templates and leave it at that. Happy quilting!
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