Over the weekend we made a day trip to St. Andrews, and blessed with a bit of genuine sunshine, we had a really nice time walking around town and enjoying all the old ruins.
Other notable activities were a visit to Edinburgh Castle, which is actually a massive complex of buildings, including a jail where prisoners of war from the American Revolution were kept, to an exhibition on the Arts and Crafts period of Scottish design, which included a lot of great works by women artists and was really really good, and a fantastic show at the National Gallery of nude portraits, which looked at issues of bodily representation in art. We also took a somewhat cheesy but very enjoyable tour of a section of old town Edinburgh, known as Mary Kings Close, which was made underground when the City chambers were built right on top of it in the 1700s. Much of the old streets and buildings were fairly well preserved, and along the tour we got to learn about the actual people who lived there at the time the streets were covered over.
Another major highlight was having dinner with our friend (and former high school teacher) Eden and her husband at our local pub this last Sunday. Sophia, who hadn't seen her since graduation, was totally thrilled. From what we know, if looks like she went into labor with her first child on tuesday, so Sophia was just in time to see her beforehand!
Sophia and Ashley have now left for London and Italy, respectively, though in August Ashley will be returning for a few days before shipping back to the United States. Till then, its life back to normal, and to work, work, work! However, if the weather permits, we are hoping to go on a long bike ride somewhere interesting.
Ashley and I peering over the ramparts at the Edinburgh castle
Ruins at St. Andrews.
A bagpiper on the Royal Mile
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