Edinburgh

Edinburgh is a wonderful city to explore. This is one of the streets in the Old Town, which leads up to the Royal Mile. There are lots of shops--many selling kilts and other Scottish items to the tourists. The real stores (e.g., Gap, Swatch etc) are on Princes Street, which is across the Gardens in New Town. Although on Princes Street there were homeless (presumably) people sitting on blankets, accompanied by their dogs, most people looked pretty comfortable. Edinburgh seemed quite cosmopolitan; our Canadian ex-pat friends told us there are 30, 000 Polish people in Scotland! We certainly saw people of various skin tones and heard several languages spoken. It felt quite safe on the streets walking between the Royal Mile and our apartment in New Town (25 minutes away). In fact, it felt considerably safer than downtown Toronto. I quite enjoyed exploring the city and wished we had more time there. But it is expensive. The "inexpensive" restaurants featured simple main courses (pasta or a burger) at 8-10 Pounds (13-16 dollars).

While food is definitely expensive, admission is free to the National Gallery of Scotland. They have a wonderful collection of paintings (Reubens, Van Dyke, early Italian, Impressionist etc.) I thoroughly enjoyed the hour spent admiring paintings, sculptures, furniture and even a few first century artifacts! (I bought several postcards of the paintings I most admired.) What an amazing treasure: a free art gallery. This gallery alone makes Edinburgh an attractive city to visit. Some of other museums are also free admission e.g., the Museum of Childhood (toys from the past).