Edinburgh and the NLS

Last two days have been a blur at the National Library of Scotland.
Huge and busy place -- very cool!

Security is serious and understandably tight - the usual lockers for coats, jackets, bags, etc. (You can only take in your laptop, notebook, pencils - no pens allowed) but also checkpoints from room to room and inspection of your papers when you leave the reading area.

The system of cataloguing and ordering for review of historical materials is less efficient than any of the other libraries we've been to, and thus has been a more arduous process. But, we're getting there. Two long days of searching, and looking at materials. Filled in a couple of holes in my list of "must get" so some progress.

So, we've mostly enjoyed a more leisurely dinner and done some strolling and exploring on foot. Yesterday, we had dinner at a vegeterian restaurant  - yes, Kevin survived, and even enjoyed his stew. :)
Tonight, after dinner, we had an obligatory drink at a pub, before heading back to the flat.

Another at least half-day tomorrow at the NLS, then in the afternoon, a trip to the Reid Concert Hall Museum of Instruments at St. Cecilia's Hall. Now part of the U. of Edinburgh, St. Cecilia's Hall was the concert hall for the Edinburgh Musical Society in their later years. Checking out historic flutes in their collection, and hoping to glean more information about specific instrument makers and instruments played by eighteenth-century Scottish flutists.  Yes, Geeky Flute Fun!!

Still hoping for a little touring time near the end of the week. We'll definitely get in a visit inside the Edinburgh Castle and around Holyrood Palace. We have plans for some other small tours as well, so we'll see what we can fit in. Kevin's been enjoying his nightly Scotch "tastings" of various selections of single malt.
Not many pictures to share, as we've mostly been in the inside of a library, where no cameras are allowed. We did do a quick tour of the Canongate Kirk (church of Scotland) and the cemetary behind it. This cemetery is where Adam Smith (a key figure of the Scottish Enlightenment) and Robert Fergusson (a Scottish 18th century poet) are buried.
It is still visited by the monarchy, and there is a devoted pew for the Royal Family.

The alter area is open and few steps -- perfect for a small orchestra!

A couple more of the Canongate sanctuary:

A little organ, in the side chapel area set aside for veterans memorial:

Here are a few pics of Dunbar's Close Garden, out back of our flat:

Edinburgh Castle, from one of our strolls past:

 View from the Waverley Bridge:

 Blurry, but you can see the busking bagpiper, if you squint. Yup, the buskers are pipers.
This is for Terry:

Bought some scones to have with tea.... :) More later.

Edinburgh at Last

 Sunday – arrived at our Edinburgh stop last night.

Happy Birthday Mom! (and its Ella's birthday too!)

Our most gracious flat-renters picked us up at the Waverley train station and brought us to the flat. (The place is actually short walking distance away, but it was nice not to have to navigate where we were going.) The unit is just right for us, and its nice not to have to repack for a few days.

The view out the windows is as good as it gets anywhere. Out the bedroom window is Nelson’s Monument. Nelson’s Monument is a tower designed to look like an upturned telescope and was used by sailors to set their clocks at 1pm every day, when the time ball drops. The National Monument, an unfinished replica of the Parthenon, is visible as well. We’ll explore the cemetery out back of the flat, to see who is buried there, today. There is also a Garden, open during the day, out back of the building, called Dunbar’s Close Garden.

There is also a wee Starbucks right across the street – whee!

A short trip out to get some groceries (less than 3 minutes walk) for the week and settle in. Some much deserved wine and crackers. Sunday is a day to regroup, do laundry, and organize for the week of libraries in Edinburgh. We hope to fit in some exploring close by the apartment as well, but not to be too worn out for a busy week ahead in more dusty stacks.

Luckily, my cold (so graciously given to me by someone on the plane) is short-lived and much better today. Crossing our fingers that Kevin does not get it. 

Just now (its about noon) a parade of 4 pipe bands went down our street! 

It was the equivalent of "Veterans Day" here yesterday, and this must be tied in to the events surrounding that.  Kevin took a video:

That's all for now!

Dundee and the Wighton Collection

It seems we managed to time our visit to Dundee in the middle of graduation ceremonies for the local university. Made for a bustling weekend on the streets, and lots of parents/gowns/kilt-tuxes, etc. Much of the city centre is pedestrian-friendly; streets wholly turned over to pedestrian traffic. While not crazy by Toronto standards, it added some life to the core.

Dundee likes their statues. In the city core, they have a dragon,

and this one is "Desperate Dan", a comic character that is supposedly well-known here.

They're also fascinated with penguins. There are penguin statues down at the RSS Discovery Centre waterfront, as well. In the McManus gallery's Dundee history exhibit, there is a taxidermied penguin that someone brought back from an antarctic expedition.
These penguins are in the city centre:

The Wighton collection is home to a great deal of 18^th century Scottish flute music. Andrew John Wighton was born in Cargill, Perthshire, in 1804 and died in Dundee in 1866. He owned and operated a grocer’s business in Hilltown, Dundee and, later, became a member of the Town Council. His chief hobby was collecting music books, mainly of Scotland but also of England, Ireland and Wales.

After his death the Town Council accepted custody of the Collection, which had been offered them on certain conditions. There are 620 bound volumes in the Collection, but as some of the volumes contain more than one printed book or manuscript, the number of titles must be in excess of 700. It is was a real treasure trove to explore.  

Eileen (the Head Librarian) took most of the day to warm up, but once she got to know us, she was very helpful and a lovely person. I think she is just a more reserved personality.

She is really great with those that come in to research family heritage – patient and kind.

The assistant librarian who also helped us on Friday (I forget her name) was fun, friendly and smiley.

A dedicated room that displays some of the collection is a bright space that is used not just for research, but also for classes (there were violin, whistle and harp tune classes happening Saturday), and concerts. Part of the collection is a 19^th century keyed flute (a Rudall!), a piccolo and a clarinet, and a harpsichord is available for concerts as well.   The space seats about 50 people.

We went for lunch during the beginner whistle class. :) 

Lunch both days were “jacket potatoes”. Seems to be a staple around Scotland. Baked potatoes are filled with whatever-you-like; the strangest of toppings…  Kevin tried the Chicken Tikka filling and a Chili filling. Other strange fillings I’ve seen eaten are tuna salad, macaroni and cheese, brown beans (okay, that’s not too much of stretch). The “lite” versions are sour cream, or cottage cheese. No vegetable filling options in sight, or even salsa. Who doesn’t like salsa on a potato? Of all the things the Scots would find weird…..

We finished with enough time to explore the McManus Art Gallery/Museum. We found another Alexander Nasmyth painting, dated 1800. Kevin said “nice work, grandpa!” (I hid)

Given that Wighton was our longest list, we did very well to get it all done. It helped that a lot of the work could be done on microfilm readers. Go Team Swinden!

 This is the outside of the McManus gallery. Looks like a church. But its not. Built in a 19th c. Gothic Revival style.

Here's the second Naysmith painting, entitled Castle Huntley. Castle Huntly was a 15th century Tower house. The painting shows a view of the River Tay and the Town of Fife. 

 This one's for Dorothy and Graham. From one of the displays in the McManus Museum.

This one's for the Bates'. A Rob Roy Iron....

View of the outside staircase of the building and the Robert Burns statue. 

This is the RSS Discovery, docked at the waterfront in Dundee. They offer weddings and other events on the ship. A piper was piping in a wedding party on Saturday afternoon.

Here's a very bright pink beetle I took a pic of for Lisa:

Off to the train station again, for Edinburgh this time. Last train trip for a few days!

Thursday: Aberdeen to Dundee

Day 2 of the Aberdeen Special Collections. Another rainy day, but it always seems easier when you’re on the 2^nd day and know your way around.

I like the red doors - most people have a colourful door, to contrast with the grey or beige brick:

 Here's where we ate dinner the first night in Aberdeen, the Three Kirks bar. Clear that it was formerly a church.

We started with the Aberdeen Public library (they were open earlier than the university), where we spent time with the Minutes of the Aberdeen Musical Society and a flute tunebook of unknown provenance. This was the only library of the tour so far that allowed digital photography (flash-free of course). The curator came for a visit and invited me to send a copy of my dissertation when its finished, for the library.

Here's Kevin with his white gloves, inspecting the Aberdeen Musical Society Minutes:

Back to Aberdeen University for the afternoon, to finish up there. We had pre-decided to have lunch at the campus café, as we discovered the day before it had good soups and was relatively quick and convenient.

Today, however, we got stuck in the middle of a long lunch queue of the Aberdeenshire Youth Orchestra. Youth Orchestra kids look the same the world over, apparently.

Aberdeen University is getting a new library, which will house the special collections. Check it out - pretty impressive. We're grateful they made the collections available to us while they are preparing for a big move. The Special Collections seems like a pretty active place, with more users than I anticipated this time of year. Oh, if I could do it all again, now that I know better, I'd make sure to do an exchange to a university like this. Can you imagine if this was where you arrived on campus every day? 

More pictures from Aberdeen, around the campus:

Cobblestone streets...

 Two sculptures outside King's College Chapel - I think they represent King's College and Marischal College crests, the two colleges that merged to become Aberdeen University.
Note: Correction - Scott has clarified that these are flags for England and Scotland. See comments below.

William Elphinstone, Bishop of Aberdeen and Chancellor Scotland, founder of Aberdeen University

We think this might be the University President's residence:

Old Aberdeen Town Hall, now part of the U Aberdeen campus.

Filling in time before dinner and catching the train to Dundee, we visited the Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums, and took some time just to walk... lots of sitting at libraries means we need to stretch our legs.
This is the outside of the gallery.

More from Dundee soon....

Day 1 & 2: Glasgow

Arrival in Glasgow on Sunday, June 19th. Not much sleep for us on the plane ride over -- we groggily navigated our way through the GLA airport to the Starbucks, and waited for our bus to the hotel.
After a nap, visited the Kelvingrove Art Museum and Gallery, so we would stay up and adjust to the new time zone.
Gallery website: http://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/museums/our-museums/kelvingrove/Pages/home.aspx

Kevin located a painting by Alexander Naysmith, dated 1810 - this is a great- great- something grandfather on his father's paternal side.

Heard a bit of an organ concert on the Kelvingrove organ, built by Lewis and Co. London in 1901. According to the museum, the organ has undergone restoration twice (once because it suffered bomb damage in 1941). It has been used to give free organ recitals since Kelvingrove opened. Thought I had a picture, but think I deleted by accident.... 

A great meal at a nearby Indian restaurant, with wonderful, friendly service. The waiter comped us some delicious appetizers and told us about his Dad, a traditional flute player.

Monday's day at the Glasgow University Library Special Collections was productive. Some McGibbon flute duets that I'd not seen a copy of before, two "mystery" flute treatises and many other treasures. Fun and exciting time getting my hands dirty from dusty old books!

Here are some pics of the walk in and toward the library on the Glasgow campus:

We took a tour around the area near campus, stopping in at one of the many trendy restaurants along Byers Road.
In our stroll along Byers Rd, I found a shop named "Boxwood"! In the window was a painting entitled "Seaside Town" that reminded me of Lunenburg. Coincidence? Hmm....

Here's one of the statues from the bridge we crossed travelling back and forth from the hotel each day:

Tomorow-program includes another full day at the GU Special Collections. Then train to Aberdeen.

Highland Cows

On the train from Glasgow to Aberdeen, Kevin told me a story about Hamish the Highland "Coo" (Cow) that was part of an excursion the last time he visited Scotland.
I thought he was pulling my leg, as usual.
Apparently, there are long-haired Highland Cows....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_cattle

Kevin will be happy that I've publicly acknowledged he was right on this blog.

Aberdeen - Rain, Rain, Go Away

Arrival last night (June 21) from wet, cold Glasgow to wet, cold Aberdeen.
The city centre is fun to navigate with its cobbled, windy streets and nooks and crannies. After arriving late, in rain and twilight, it looked a bit creepy downtown, but the morning put the city in a much better light...but no less rain. A short bus ride and we were up to the most beautiful University campus we've ever seen--King's College, Aberdeen is just plain beautiful--even the stones seem to reek of centuries of wisdom.

Aberdeen University was founded in 1495, and is the third oldest university in Scotland and the fifth oldest in the UK.

Here are some pics:

The Courtyard we pass through to go to Special Collections:

Little cottage building on the main drag of the campus:

 The "gatehouse" to the Cafeteria:

Today's finds include a copy of Six Solos by "I. R. Esq. A Member of the Temple of Apollo", thought to be James Oswald. Looking at the score, I found some verification that this is indeed true.
The staff at Special Collections have been wonderful and friendly.
Tonight's dinner "in a castle" was pub fare with veg-friendly options. Today's excursions also included the purchase of a winter-weight sweater -- its FREEZING! We packed for May and got October/November, I think. Stores are full of beautiful, colourful summer dresses and clothes, that no one is buying. :)

Tomorrow, finishing up at U Aberdeen and the Aberdeen Public Library, then off to Dundee. More rain in the forecast.