Expats in Edinburgh

 

Well, not a lot of quilting happened over the past few weeks.  

We had an EXCELLENT week at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world's larges performance arts festival.  Established in 1947, it takes place for ~25 days every August (save for 2020 & 2021, and we all know what happened there 😷). To give you an idea of scale, in 2019, there were 59,500 performances of 3,841 different shows in 322 venues.

The Fringe occurs at the same time as:

• Edinburgh International Festival (music, theatre, opera and dance),
• Royal Edinburgh Military Tatoo (a military precision show with fireworks performed nightly at the Edinburgh Castle),
• Edinburgh International Book Festival (authors, illustrators, musicians, poets, politicians, thinkers, etc.).

I think I've captured the big ones here. It is a very hectic time for Edinburgh with packed hotels, restaurants and venues.

We arrived on a Monday afternoon and departed on Friday morning. During that time, we saw 14 events (short plays, stand-up comedy, & musical artists), had a two 1/2-hour city walking tour and visited the National Museum of Scotland. We walked a ton (Edinburgh is not a flat city), had fabulous weather (in 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 of all places), and had lots of great food and drink.

 

Some of the venues were quintessentially British. The building stock in the UK is old. You'll often find several hundred-year-old buildings that have served various purposes over their lifetime. Sadly, many lovely older buildings were torn down in many cities following WWII—some due to damage, but others due to city leaders believing their towns needed modernisation. There are more protections in place now to protect what is left.
 

Sometimes, you come across these gems. Being American, I'm unfamiliar with older buildings (despite spending my university years in Boston). I get very excited when I see beautiful old buildings still in use. 

While we were attending the Fringe, my best friend from 4th grade (who lives in Colorado) sees on FB that we are at the Fringe, reaches out to say that her niece is performing there.  So we looked it up and were like "hmmm ... Opera" 😐.  But the we thought #framily, and decided to give it a go on Friday morning before heading out of town.  It was in the top 3 shows that we saw at the fringe, and we saw some good ones!  She was brilliant, combining stand up comedy with Opera and pulling it off beautifully! We had a ton of laughs, learned a bit about opera, and, while I remain unlikely to ever attend the opera, her show was a hoot!  So if you're ever in Berlin ... give Steph a google and see where she's hosting her show.  

We departed Edinburgh on Friday, and spent a lovely evening in Berwick-upon-Tweed before heading further south to spend the day visiting the Lindisfarne Castle and Priory on Holy Island and about 10 miles south of there, the Bamburgh Castle (if you've watched the Last Kingdom, this is the Bebbanburg Castle). 

Simply stunning.

Lindisfarne Castle

Lindisfarne Priory

Bamburgh Castle

Holy Island is unique, with an access causeway that floods twice daily. So you have to plan your trip around the tides or get stuck out there for longer than planned. The tides were in our favor from 8:45 to 15:30 the day we went. So we needed to be off the island by 15:30 or stuck until the next tide change. And it's not like the road closes; it's up to you to research the tides and act accordingly. People do occasionally get stuck on the causeway in the water 🙄.

We continued to Durham that afternoon, a city filled with charm and old-world beauty, with the Cathedral and Castle set up high on a hill over the river, guarding the town. However, we were saddened to see too many empty shops on the High Street—a challenge that much of the UK faces today.
 
Sadly, Durham is where the trip started to fall apart. My husband wasn't feeling great, and by Sunday morning, we pulled out the trusty COVID tests ... and sure enough, he was positive. He said it was like a nasty cold, so he suggested we hike in the North Pennines the next day as we couldn't see any of the sites in Durham. We were fortunate to find a gorgeous hike through the rolling hills.

 

But by Monday, I also felt the effects and tested positive. My symptoms were very different, as it went for my stomach, and I had a high fever, terrible headache and dry heaves. Instead of heading to York as planned, we headed home, aided by a lovely neighbor who ensured we had a little food in the house until we could get some delivered. 

The good news is it is all now behind us—though we both tested positive for 12 days, which was significantly longer than we had anticipated.  

I am getting started on a new quilt for a Seattle friend that now lives here in the Cotswolds with his wife and two young boys as they welcome a little sister next week!!! I am a little delayed, but pretty confident that I can get it completed quickly with my existing stash.  

I hope that everyone is in good health out there and enjoying your end of summer.

Cheers,

Lisa