Flying 1st class is something I wish I could do more often. It made the trip so easy, starting out in the lounge stocked with nice meals and then bypassing the check-in line. Aren’t frequent flier miles wonderful?
Upon arrival, back to the private lounge for a quick shower and more food, I almost didn’t want to leave! The next flight to Edinbrugh was 5 hours later but made easier by Virgin’s excellent service. Arriving at the Edinburgh airport seemed like landing in the middle of a construction project with cranes and equipment strewn around the exterior of the terminal, like dead bugs carcasses swept aside by the rush of marching ants.
Then after a short bus ride to the hotel (the bus had free wi-fi!) we arrived at the CastleView Hotel on Castle Street. The bad news was we had 6 stories and 91 steps to climb with all of our luggage. No “lift” available and the harried B&B owner seemed insulted by our request for assistance. The unusually sunny weather made the rooms very hot and by the time we were finally situated I needed a shower!
We changed into fresh clothes and walked over to The Mussel Inn for a wonderful lunch and then a long stroll through the castle area of Edinburgh.
The Edinburgh residents were ecstatic having real prolonged sunshine and warm weather and celebrated by disrobing down to under garments in the grassy areas in celebration. Exploring the closes around the town brought us to a street performer who was juggling torches. I wasn’t impressed, living in Boston we see this every weekend at Fanuel Hall but the crowds like it.
As a rule, I don’t ever wind up with anything “worthwhile” the 1st day shooting and, for the most part, that theory held. Yet, photograph I did and became familiar with my old friend the Canon 5dMkII again. Not being a professional photographer, I don’t use my tools everyday so I do get rusty and this evening of familiarity was very worthwhile!
Finally, we did happen upon a spot that seemed quite photogenic and after some flubbed setups and the discovery that a new spirit level was defective, I finally made a few exposures worthy of a few minutes of experimentation.
At about 1:00 am, once again the natural body clock’s alarm was ringing and alerting me of rapid shut down, so I headed back to the hotel and prepared myself for the journey up all 91 steps… to bed.
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