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Grand Tour of Scotland: Day 2 – Exploring Edinburgh Part 8

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Here is some information on The Ross Fountain I got from Wikipedea and articles from the Ross Fountain Archives of The Ross Development Trust.

The Ross Fountain was produced at the iron Foundry of Antoine Durenne in Sommevoire, France. It was an exhibit at the Great Exhibition of 1862.

A gunmaker Daniel Ross bought it in 1862 for £2,000 and subsequently gifted to the city of Edinburgh. It was transported to Leith in 1869 in 122 pieces. It was only installed in its current position in 1872. . The Ross Fountain had some major restoration work done and was only completed in 2001.

Its sculptures include mermaids with four female figures depicting science, the arts, poetry and industry. A further large female figure stands at the center of the fountain.

During 2018 another major renovation project was launched and after a lot of research they decided on a turquoise, gold and brown pallet for the fountain.

I must say it looks beautiful and according to them this paint will last at least for 20 years….

I hope you enjoyed this post on the Ross Fountain. Please go visit Ross Fountain Archives for more details on the restoration.

Thank you for stopping by and reading my post.

“If you can dream it, you can do it.” Walt Disney

Grand Tour of Scotland: Day 2 – Exploring Edinburgh Part 7

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As promised I am trying to make up for being so busy over the past few weeks. Let’s continue our walk along Princess Street and crossing the road to Princess Gardens…

I have to say the grass is always greener on the other side…. I took some photo’s of the Princess Gardens over the fence. In our original planning we would only visit the gardens when we came back to Edinburgh after our tour. But plans changed and I am glad I have a few photos of the gardens and the statues. But Edinburgh is definitely on our itinerary for our next visit but this time we are staying a week at least….

I just loved the Sir James Young Simpson Monument sitting in the shade of the trees…

I had to go to visit the ladies room and saw the sign for it, but I took the wrong set of stairs and ended up in the graveyard of the St Cuthbert’s Church. Normally I so not like to take photo’s of graves, but these were so beautiful that I just had to capture them.

St Cuthbert’s are situated at the western foot of Castle Rock and at the west end of Princess Street. You have a beautiful framed view between the trees of the Castle from here…

You also have a very nice view of St Cuthbert’s from Princess Gardens side.

The view of Castle Rock from inside Princess Gardens is spectacular….

Thank you for this short walk through St Cuthbert’s next post will be mostly about Ross Fountain…

“If you can dream it, you can do it.” Walt Disney

Grand Tour of Scotland: Day 2 – Exploring Edinburgh Part 6

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Good day everyone, sorry I have been a bit busy with studies and work over the past few weeks. But I hope to make it up to you today.

Where were we? Oh yes turning into the very busy Princess Street…

As we turned I immediately saw the street entertainer with his accordion. I did some window shopping as well. I just love all the Willie Statues all over Edinburgh and later on our travels we will encounter much more… Princess Street was extremely busy and it was difficult capturing the beautiful buildings through the crowds and all the buses and trams passing by. Hopefully next time I will have much more time to explore and take more detailed photos.

I was looking for a Vodashop when we turned into Princess street. I had to get a data sim card. At this stage of our visit we were just winging it. I had no idea where all the buildings and statues was that I wanted to capture and visit. We lost a lot of time wandering around but we also saw much more than I have bargained for.

Well let’s get back to Princess Street… I heard bagpipes and dad also heard it well I must say dad’s hearing is not that great these days, but he loves bagpipes and of course he heard it also over the hustle and bustle of Princess street. Then we spotted him across the road another street entertainer in his traditional Scottish outfit and playing the bagpipes….

I found a Vodashop and took out a 40 Gig contract for our remaining 17 Days in Scotland. We spend about 1 hour in the shop, but not due to bad service just the opposite. The salesman who helped me was supper friendly and he helped me to set up a hot spot on my extra phone so that I can still use my SA number. He also told me about his favorite places to visit and I made notes on my phone of course. Had to make sure we see everything we can fit into our Grand Tour of Scotland When we walked out of the store I saw Edinburgh Castle in all his glory….. Wow what a sight. I could not believe that I missed it while walking down Princess Street. Okay maybe I can I was so focused on that Vodashop I think I missed a lot more….

Around the corner there were a market with Stalls and dad bought his first gifts to bring back home to South Africa… I got so excited when I saw an exhibit on Wildlife and of course Puffins I asked the man where is the best place to spot Puffins and he gave me some very bad news…. “Sorry mam you have just missed them they start migrating end of July.” I was devastated, I was so looking forward to capturing these beautiful birds…

Dad thought it was a big joke and told me to take a photo of the stuffed Puffin at least I will have one photo of one…. Even the Willie statue looked liked it was laughing extra hard at my misfortune….

Thank you for joining us on our walk, we are not yet finished with Princess Street. Up next we will cross the street to Princess Gardens…

“If you can dream it, you can do it.” Walt Disney

Grand Tour of Scotland: Day 2 – Exploring Edinburgh Part 5

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Let’s continue exploring Edinburgh… We turned right onto North St. David Street walking past St Andrews Square and many beautiful buildings and Statues….

St Andrew Square are situated at the east end of George Street. The gardens are owned by private owners and are opened to the public since 2008. In the center of the square is the fluted column of the Melville Monument, commemorating Henry Dundas, the first Viscount Melville.

Surrounding the square is a lot of office buildings and shops.

When you look down to the bottom of the street you see the majestic Scott Monument….

Walking down to Princess Street I got so caught up in all the details of the buildings and all the people walking. Some walked with luggage either coming to stay in or leaving the city. Some are tourists and well some are local….

Then we reached Princess Street and Scott Monument…

In my next post we will be walking down the very busy Princess Street.

Thank you for joining us on our walk through the busy streets of Edinburgh… Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

“If you can dream it, you can do it.” Walt Disney

Grand Tour of Scotland: Arrival Day: 11 August 2019

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I finally finished up with our first day in Edinburgh and is busy with day 2… I still have not decided how I am going to post it because there are thousands of photos and I would really like to share them all with you…

Now just to let you know, every evening I made notes on my phone about the day we had all the ups and downs all the interesting facts we learned but due to the theft of my phone all that information is gone along with the photo’s of our rooms, decor and selfies of dad and myself. I am just glad I posted a few photos on my blog so you will see some of them again to fill in the gaps of our days.

When we landed in Edinburgh the rain was really coming down hard and I realised that my planning for day 1 won’t be possible… But I was positive that maybe it will stop and we could at least see something on day 1.

Sarah from Nordic Visitor arranged a driver for us from the airport to our Guesthouse. I started stressing when our flight got delayed by nearly an hour. What if the driver had other appointments and had to leave…. But as per usual I stressed for nothing.

After collecting our luggage we head to the arrival hall and there he was. Unfortunately I can’t remember his name lost that information too… Neatly dressed in his black suit, white shirt and black tie. Well this is not something you see in South Africa only if you hire a limousine maybe.

He was really enthusiastic about his city and the history behind it. He asked me what our plans was while staying in Edinburgh I told him all about my research and the places I would like to see. He then said if we are not in a hurry he will show us some of the places and also a few more. I was overwhelmed hoping I remember all the places and streets. He gave us an information overload and I started taking notes like mad. I have a good memory but between the information, traffic rules and beautiful buildings I knew I would forget some of it.

Funny how a person’s memory works, While I am busy editing some information comes back and some I just can’t seem to remember.

Our driver dropped us off at Ben Cruachan Guesthouse and we were received by our hostess…. Oops I forgot her name now…. Well hopefully it will come back to me.

This would be our home away from home for 2 nights. Well our room was so beautiful and had a nice view of the garden. It was really coming down and dad and I first had some coffee and relaxed before we decided to go for a walk in the rain in Edinburgh.

We put on our rain jackets, took the umbrella and of course I took my camera…. We changed our plans a bit we were just going to explore some of the streets around the Guest House….

While walking and taking photos it started raining very hard and we saw a Pub that is open and we headed in for a nice dinner and hopefully it will have stopped raining when we were finished.

Bushwick Pub and Grill was very cozy but not very busy. The waiter gave us a window seat. I think he saw the camera and knew that I would like to take some photos. Dad ordered a draft and I ordered a Banana Milkshake….. When the waiter put down the milkshake in front of my my jaw dropped I did not expect a mega mega Milkshake…. I could not even finished it… So sad though it was delicious and I will definitely go there again if I am ever in Edinburgh again. That is if they are still there of course. We also ordered a burger and chips and when the waiter put it down in front of us dad and I just looked at each other and right there we decided that the people at Bushwick don’t believe in normal they go big…..

Well needless to say I could not finish my dinner. I ate my chips and drank my milkshake as far as I could. I asked if they can put my burger in a takeaway container so that I can enjoy it a bit later.

It stopped raining and dad I headed back to the guesthouse I took some more photos and when we got “home” I took a nice hot shower and had a glass of sherry to keep me warm. After my shower I tackled my burger and I could not finish it….

We were very tired after the flight and went to bed just after 10 pm.

Thank you for exploring Scotland with us. I hope you enjoyed our first day just as much as we did.

“If you can dream it you can do it.” Walt Disney

Grand Tour of Scotland 26 & 27 August 2019: Day 16 and 17 – Isle of Mull to Edinburgh

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Good day,

Sorry I have not been posting the past few days.

When we got to Edinburgh on the 27th my phone got stolen along with my credit card and drivers license. I lost over 800 photo’s and memories taken with my phone.

Everything is replaceble except my memories. All the selfies of dad and myself… Gone due to one or other person with long fingers.

On the positive side I got a new phone, new card and new photo on my driver’s license… And I still have 17000+ photos to edit taken with my camera.

Please be patient over the course of the the next few months I will bombard you with all the beautiful sights of Scotland.

Thank you for taking the time to discover Scotland with us.

“If you can dream it you can do it.” Walt Disney

Grand Tour of Scotland 25 August 2019: Day 15 – Fort William to Isle of Mull

We left Fort William very early around 6:00 because it is approximately one hours drive without any stops. And as you know by now that won’t sit right with me. We had to be in Oban at 9 to board the ferry to Isle of Mull.

Tonight we are spending the night at The Tobermory Hotel.