A Quick Apple Trip

No question about it, New York, New York is a wonderful town, and I love the place.

I came here once as a child with my family -- I think I was nine years old. After that, I never came again until just eight years ago. Since that summer visit in 2016, I've been back five more times.

 

One of the biggest reasons for my return visits is the Metropolitan Opera House, one of the great opera theatres of the world. I've been to no less than eight shows at the Met in the last six years, and this week marked the ninth. All in good time with that story.

 

I hadn't really expected to go crazy with photography on this trip, but I encountered a rare combination of clear weather at both ends of my flight down to the  Big Apple, and with that the game was afoot.

 

To start, then, the view as my plane soared past the Toronto waterfront on the way across Lake Ontario. A look at the southern end of the Toronto suburb of Etobicoke...

 

 

 ...and a view of the skyscrapers of downtown and the iconic CN Tower.   

 

But then we approached New York and flew in a loop all around the city, south, east, northeast, and finally west on our final approach into LaGuardia Airport. What a spectacle!  Here, looking south down the East River with Queens and Brooklyn to the left and Midtown Manhattan to the right.

 

Two views of Midtown from the northwest and west. The first covers Times Square while the second features the circular Madison Square Garden and the legendary Empire State Building.

Then, we swung down the Hudson River, passing the Battery at the southern tip of the island. These are the towers of the Financial District and Wall Street, while across the East River you can see the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal and Cunard's transatlantic ocean liner, Queen Mary 2.

 

We then turned east across the Lower Bay; the view here shows both rivers, New Jersey on the left, the Hudson River, Manhattan in the middle, then the East River, and Brooklyn on the right, with the Statue of Liberty small but clear in the Lower Bay on the left.

Once I was on the ground, and after a 40-minute taxi ride, I arrived at my favourite New York hotel, the Hilton at Times Square. It's between 41st and 42nd Streets, half a block off of Times Square. Here's the entrance.

Welcome to the lively, glitzy heart of the Theatre District, where blazing signs many storeys high advertise theatres, restaurants, multiplex cinemas, arcades, cafes, a Tussaud's Wax Museum (just off the left edge of the photo), and numerous fashion stores. In the midst of it all, the hotel is just a doorway. Inside, you walk to the middle of the block through the corridor that goes all the way to 41st Street. There, a pair of express elevators whisk you nonstop to the hotel's working lobby -- on the 21st floor. On that level you will also find the restaurant and lounge, the front desk, and a takeout food outlet. From the lobby, you switch to the main hotel elevators to ride up to your room, somewhere on floors 22-44. 

 

Mine was on the 32nd floor, on the north side. Here's the view from my window off to the northwest to the Hudson River, with the New Jersey side of the river beyond.

To the northeast lies Times Square, hidden by the mass of buildings. The brown brick building with the clocks and the globe on its top, known as the Paramount Building, stands on the west (near) side of Times Square.

Here are a couple of close-ups of the Times Square area from that flyby as I was arriving. This view comes from the moment when we peered right down into the canyon of the Square itself. The modest building indicated by the red arrow is the 44-storey Hilton hotel where I was staying.

Here's another, and clearer view.

The Times Square of today is a world apart from the Times Square of my childhood. My family would never have gone near Times Square in those days. It was sleazy to the max, with porn theatres, strip shows, peep shows, prostitutes, hustlers, organized crime, you name it. It took a great deal of effort and a very great deal of money to clean up the area, through the 1990s and into the 2000s. It was in this time period that the high rise office buildings and hotels which you see in these pictures were built. Brilliantly lit advertising signs which stay lit 24/7 were and are required by city by-law, to help deter the sleazier elements from returning -- indeed, Times Square is unique in New York City in having a minimum limit for the brilliance of the signs rather than a maximum limit.

So let's go have a look at the Square down on the ground, on my morning walk during my one full day in the city. First of all, here's the Marriott Marquis Hotel which stands right on the western edge of Times Square. With a total of 1,966 rooms, this monster hotel looks awesome but is in truth pretty pedestrian. The sheer size leaves precious little room for any kind of connection between guests and staff (yes, I have stayed there and the place made me feel like a number, an item to be processed through the system). The huge advertising signs mandated by law mask the first seven floors of the building. The glass bay window and Marriott Marquis sign are on the eighth floor, the hotel's actual lobby level. I've read that it's one of the most profitable hotels in the entire Marriott portfolio, and given the sky-high rates I can well believe it.

 

 

Compared to the Marriott, the much smaller Hilton features staff who take the time to listen to you and make sure your needs are met. The server at the bar, as an example, remembered my entire order from the first night and got it to me super-express on the second night, when I placed the same order because I had to hurry to make an early curtain at the Metropolitan Opera. I can't imagine any of the staff I encountered at the Marriott managing or even trying to do that.

 

Here's a ground floor view looking north from 42nd Street along 7th Avenue into Times Square.

 

Farther north, turn around and face south. This is where you see the iconic view of the tower where the ball has dropped ever since 1907 on New Year's Eve. It's known as the New York Times building, more officially as 1 Times Square. It dates back to 1901, and was originally built as the headquarters of the New York Times newspaper. 

 

 

I know, it doesn't look that old. We're actually looking at two different buildings. If you check just above the Kia sign you will see the famous ball. That's the top of the New York Times building. The glass-walled building behind it, called simply Times Tower, is on the next block south. The old brickwork of the original Times building is totally hidden by the full-length advertising sign.

Times Square is a challenging place to photograph, because of it's weird hourglass shape and because of the crowds. It's said to be the most-visited single visitor attraction on the entire planet and I can well believe that. But I did manage to do one panoramic sweep with my phone to show some of the illuminated advertising signs.

From Times Square, I walked north to 50th Street, and then turned east. At 6th Avenue I came to the world-famous 5960-seat Radio City Music Hall, renowned for its spectacular shows featuring the Rockettes dance troupe. It's the first piece of Rockefeller Center which you come to as you approach from the west, hence the name "Rockettes." When opened in 1931, this was the largest stage theatre in the world. I've only ever gone there once, on that family visit back in the 1960s, when the combination stage and film show featured the new musical film, Bye Bye Birdie.

 

 

Across 50th Street from the Music Hall is the entrance to 30 Rockefeller Plaza, the iconic skyscraper which features the deluxe Rainbow Room restaurant on the 65th floor and the observation deck, now called Top of the Rock, on the 66th floor. Notice how the original Art Deco signage, here as on Radio City Music Hall, has been carefully preserved. The entire central portion of Rockefeller Center, with its tall buildings and landmark underground shopping mall, is a textbook of Art Deco design and art carefully preserved as a heritage site.

Here at 6th Avenue is is where I began to encounter multiple traffic barriers along and across the streets. I was taking this walk on the morning of December 4, and that night was the date set for the spectacular illumination of the giant Christmas tree in Rockefeller Plaza. This event draws enormous crowds from all over the northeast region of the country, and perhaps even farther afield. This helps to explain why all the hotel rooms anywhere remotely near 50th Street and 5th Avenue were either sold out or horribly expensive. Here are two pictures of the unlit tree.

The security measures in place meant that I could neither get a clear view of the famous golden Prometheus sculpture (you can glimpse it in the background of the second photo) or of the outdoor skating rink which lies in the courtyard below Prometheus.

Out onto 5th Avenue at 49th Street, you can look north and see the shapely spires of St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Cathedral in between office buildings. It's located on the northeast corner of 5th Avenue and 50th Street. The glowing appearance of the Cathedral, even on a cloudy day, is due to the exterior being entirely clad with white marble -- also extensively used in the interior.

Due to all the modern buildings around it, getting a good view of St. Patrick's is difficult. However, here is an archival photo from the Cathedral's website showing the church as it appeared when newly finished. 

 

 

This trip marked the first time I visited the interior of St. Patrick's Cathedral.

I was much struck by the great collection of sculptural figures throughout the church -- plainly modelled as much as the building itself on the High Gothic of medieval Europe. The sculptures, though, have a realistic air which avoids the statuesque rigidity of the Gothic era and speaks of a more recent artistic sensibility. I've had no luck in trying to trace the name(s) of the artist(s) responsible.

Leaving the Cathedral, I noticed that I still had an hour to spare before my lunch date with a good friend who lives in New York. I decided to walk. From 50th Street south to 14th Street wasn't impossibly far, but I ended up being a few minutes late because I managed to miss pretty much every traffic light -- and that meant a pause at pretty much every intersection from 50 all the way on down. Do the math! I'm just not fast enough. You can tell the real New Yorkers; they know exactly how fast they have to walk to get all the way downtown or uptown without ever having to stop!

 

One thing is for sure, walking like that over a fair distance is a great way to get a feel for the varying tone of the city's different neighbourhoods as you go, provided you pay attention to the shifting composition of the crowd of people around you.

After that lunch, I resorted to New York's extensive subway network. Unlike some of my previous visits, it's no longer necessary to buy a special fare card. You can just tap your own credit or debit card on the reader to be admitted. Many cities worldwide have adopted this sensible approach.

The climax of my day came in the evening, when I finally got a chance to attend a live performance of Richard Strauss' epic opera, Die Frau ohne Schatten ("The Woman Without a Shadow). It's a real rarity of the operatic world, and I felt privileged to see and hear this piece with such a top-flight cast in the long and challenging principal roles. I didn't try to take any night time pictures but here, from a previous visit, is an exterior shot of the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. It was a spectacular way to wrap up this short visit to the Big Apple.

At Last! New Trains at VIA Rail!

My regular readers know that I travel a great deal on VIA Rail Canada's "Corridor" services which run from Windsor and Sarnia through London ON to Toronto, then on to Ottawa, Montreal, and Quebec.

For years, the Corridor service has had to make do with endlessly repairing and patching a mixed bag of stainless steel American-built cars from the Budd car company, built in the 1950s and Montreal-built LRC cars from the 1970s. Now, at last, VIA Rail is getting an entire fleet of brand-new trains to serve these busy routes, with all the most modern features, not least of which is full accessibility throughout all cars.

The new trains have been coming into service steadily -- but, as always, between Montreal and Ottawa or Quebec first, then Ottawa or Montreal and Toronto. As always, the London and Windsor route, which is the one I travel most often, got last dibs. Recently, though, I have finally had my first experiences at riding on these new trains.

As the new train sets enter into service, the older equipment is slowly being put out to pasture. While I salute the builders of those historic vehicles for the durability and longevity of their work, I would never willingly go back to one of those older cars once they are gone. This post will help to explain why.

First of all, the new trains are being delivered to run on diesel power. However, it's hoped that in the not-too-distant future the lines for the Corridor may be converted to electric power, and the new train sets have been built to be readily converted too.

To start with, then, here's an exterior view of the train when I had just gotten off at my destination in Woodstock, Ontario. And right away, here's the first big difference. This is the back end of the train set.

The train was just leaving town for London and Windsor by rolling out the left edge of the frame when I snapped the picture. For the first time since the old self-propelled diesel Dayliner cars, VIA Rail has purchased fully reversible train sets. The coach at the opposite end from the locomotive also has a driving cab, so the train can be driven from either end. This eliminates the need to turn the entire train around at the end of each trip, thereby allowing more efficient scheduling. In this case, it meant that the locomotive pushed the train all the way from Toronto to Windsor, and would pull it for the return trip to Toronto.

Now, what about the interior?

As usual, I was travelling in Business Class. This is not showing off on my part. It's more a matter of necessity, since the trains always run across meal hours and the food selection for purchase in Economy Class still ranges somewhere between unspeakable and execrable, at least to a diabetic such as yours truly.

Business Class seating is again in a 2x1 configuration. But the similarity ends there. Here's a view of the single Business Class seat from the old car:

Now, the newer version, obviously in two different cars:

 

The red hashed lines along some of the window frames indicate emergency exit windows. Now, some views of the paired seats on the opposite side of the car.

Notable differences: the vastly improved headrest (adjustable!), the solid back on the chair-side table (your things can't slide off the back of the table), the dual power outlets on both front and back of that chair-side table, and the improved design which now allows for an airline-size luggage space under the seat in front of you. Seat comfort, width, and legroom remain much the same. I've read that the seats in Economy are a bit narrower than they used to be, to accommodate an aisle wide enough for wheelchair access. I have not checked that detail myself.

 

Note especially the outlets: each outlet bank has two standard power outlets and two USB power connectors. That's a huge leap forward from the under-the-table power outlets on the older cars which offered two standard outlets, with perhaps one of them actually working. Perhaps.

The old tray table, a decent size but rather flimsy and sometimes tilting towards you from overuse:

The new table, much bigger and far, far sturdier. This one won't quiver ominously if you unfold your laptop on it -- a frequent use for VIA Rail tray tables. Also, and for the first time on VIA Rail, you can adjust the position of this table to suit you.

This larger table in turn makes possible the new meal tray, much bigger than the old trays -- but still leaving ample room to park a glass or cup alongside the tray, which was impossible with the old version.

Not only that, but the new trains come with a special stock of bigger logo glassware, bringing an end to the disposable plastic cups so often used through the years. The service crews have gotten brand-new and more versatile service trolleys as well as all the other changes.

Looking at the car as a whole, the most noticeable change sees the old enclosed luggage bins replaced by open glass shelves with a slight lip on the outer edge to hold bags in place. The more modern and brighter overhead lighting eliminates the dull, dingy feeling which you got at times in the older cars. Next we have to thank VIA for the overhead electronic display signs which display train number, car number, station details, and other information, alternately in French and English, continually updated as the trip progresses. There are several signs spaced throughout each car.

 

This view gives you a better impression of the improved space under the seats, and of the width of the aisle. You can also see here the grab handles on the aisle side of every seat to help people moving up and down the train.

Another great improvement: there are no more barriers to passage between cars. The entire train is linked into a single unit, with touch-free automatic doors which slide open as you approach, guaranteeing easy access between all cars at all times. Best of all, there's no longer a roar of outside noise when someone does pass from one car to another, due to the accordion joining of the cars in the train set. Here's what the connection looks like, between Car 1 and Car 2.

Speaking of no barriers, another major new feature is the all-automatic and extra large handicapped washroom. These are found in multiple locations throughout the train, with pairs of standard washrooms in cars that are not equipped with the larger single washroom. The passenger in the photo above is about to walk around the accessible washroom to reach the seating in Car 1.

One other brand-new feature sees a group of four seats facing each other over a table at one end of the Business Class car, now surrounded by a partition to create, in effect, a small conference room -- a frequent feature on the more deluxe trains in Europe.

The most important change of all is the one you can't see in a picture. These new trains not only run more smoothly over the sometimes-bumpy track work, but they also move far more quietly. Noise from passing trains is also greatly diminished. Canadians have never had access to such a quiet rail experience on VIA Rail. The attendant on my first trip in the new cars showed me how the service trolley was sitting rock-solid on the floor as we swerved through a switch to change tracks. It's this difference more than any other which makes me so sure that I would never want to go back to the older trains once they've all finally left VIA service.

Sadly, we are still stuck with one problem: the need to climb up and down steps to board or leave the train -- although the steps are not as steep, due to a two-step extension which reaches outside the body of the car when the door is opened. The stairs force VIA to continue using special lifts to help mobility challenged passengers, such as wheelchair users, to get aboard or to leave. But this problem is not a fault of the train set. It's an infrastructure issue. It's mainly due to the need for freight trains to have more elbow room when running along the same tracks. The raised platforms which are needed for level boarding would be incompatible with freight operations. Only at Gare Centrale in Montreal and on one track in Ottawa can you simply walk across from the platform into the train without climbing steps. Unless and until VIA Rail can have tracks of its own, all to itself, we'll most likely have to keep climbing.

Aside from that one issue, these new train sets are (for my money) a spectacular success. Improved designs of seats, washrooms, baggage storage, and lighting go hand in hand with digital display signs, improved power outlets and USB connectors, full handicapped access, and improved underseat stowage space -- with the quieter, smoother ride providing the icing on the cake. I'm already looking forward to my next trip.

I'm also looking forward to the results of VIA Rail's next huge procurement project, the acquisition of new rolling stock with sleeping and dining facilities for its long distance trains across Canada. The first steps of preparation for this project are now under way.

Spring Nostalgia Trip # 12: The Auld Town of Auld Reekie

If visiting the New Town, West End, and Dean Village seems much like a tourist experience in any major city, then Edinburgh's Old Town takes your experience to the same level of overcrowding, over-noisy overload which ranks with the craziest touristic madhouses on the planet. I don't remember feeling this way after my visit to Edinburgh half a century ago, but I was grateful to escape at the bottom end of the Royal Mile with my sanity and my possessions intact.

 

Even so, I would recommend anyone to spend some time in the Old Town. Just try to get there early in the day, and not (as I did) on a weekend. 

 

Post # 11 concluded my visit to the New Town with a climb up the street called The Mound. Here's the view ahead as you begin to ascend the Mound towards the summit of the Castle Hill.

 

 

The building with the two square towers is now the home of New College in the University of Edinburgh, but its historic role was to house the Assembly Rooms for the Annual Assembly of the Church of Scotland, which is known in other countries as the Presbyterian Church. It's a fitting introduction to the Old Town, since the wars of religion in Scotland generated a good deal of the history you're going to experience up on this hill. The Rooms are still used for the regular Assembly sessions, and the main hall is also used to hold concerts when the Assembly is not in session. Here's a closeup of the facade.

The building still looks dark, especially at a distance, but when I came here as a young traveller it was all but pitch black, due to the many generations of exposure to the smog of Auld Reekie.

To reach the Castle, you have to turn off The Mound and walk along the narrower roadway past the College entrance, Mound Place. At the end of the building, you turn a corner and find yourself on the steepest road I've ever tried to walk on in my life -- Ramsay Lane. It's not a long hill, and the summit is on the crest of the Castle Hill, but steep! I'm sure the lower end of this road was steeper than 9/10 of all the staircases I've ever climbed in my life. I didn't even try to take a picture looking up, because I feared that if I raised my camera, I would lose my balance on the steep, slippery cobbles and go back down the hill "arse over teakettle," to quote an old expression. Instead, I turned around once I reached the top, and took the picture looking back downhill. The road keeps getting steeper and steeper as you go down the hill.

At the top, I was now standing on the roadway called Castlehill, directly in front of the outer gates of Edinburgh Castle. Since I had cringed at the £20 admission fee, I took just one picture, looking past the huge bleachers which provide seating for the annual Military Tattoo towards the main castle buildings, and then turned around.

For those who wish to visit Edinburgh Castle in more depth, a word to the wise. Here's a screenshot from the official Castle website:

According to the desk clerk at my hotel, this is not just an idle threat. The wording seems to hint delicately that you will end up paying far more to a scalper if you don't reserve ahead of time. I can well believe it!

Standing on Castlehill, you are now standing at the top end of the "Royal Mile." There is no actual street by that name. It's the mile-long roadway connecting the fortress and palace of Edinburgh Castle to the more ceremonial and luxurious Palace of Holyroodhouse at the lower east end of the escarpment. The streets which comprise the Royal Mile, in order, are Castlehill, Lawnmarket, High Street, Canongate, and Abbey Strand. Despite all these names, it is a single continuous roadway running more or less straight along the summit of the escarpment all the way down.

Here's the map of Edinburgh again, this time with the Royal Mile marked in with a bright pink line.

This picture gives you a view of the first stretch of the Royal Mile below the Castle, looking downhill.

Already you can see that almost every building in the picture has its own distinctive style of architecture. The contrast couldn't be greater from the sane, sensible stylistic harmony of the New Town. Here in the Old Town, there is no such thing at all. It's a gloriously anarchic hodge-podge of styles from any and all times for the last seven centuries, sometimes with multiple styles jammed side-by-each into a single structure. 

With that as a hint, here is a photo gallery of the Royal Mile.

 

An eye-catching sight is the old Tolbooth Kirk, at the foot of Castlehill. The towering spire is impossible to miss. Unused as a church for many years, it was renovated and converted into a performance hall and office spaces for the Edinburgh International Festival, one of the world's premier summer festivals of the arts. The new space, christened The Hub, opened in 1991.

 

At the end of Lawnmarket, the street widens into a sizable plaza, which is occupied by St. Giles Cathedral.

 

Like many of Britain's great Gothic churches, St. Giles has undergone numerous renovations, improvements, and expansions during its centuries of existence here. The most recent major addition is the exquisite Thistle Chapel of 1911.

 

The most striking architectural feature of St. Giles is its central Crown Tower. Such towers can be found on a number of churches in different parts of Scotland and northern England, but St. Giles is unique among all the examples I have seen in having four central buttresses on each side as well as the usual four corner buttresses to support the central spire. It's also the largest such crown I know.

 

Outside the east end of the church is the Mercat (Market) Cross, a common feature of many older towns and cities throughout the British Isles.

 

The commonly-used name "Cathedral" is actually misleading, since St. Giles is a Church of Scotland congregation, and the Presbyterian churches do not have bishops (the name "cathedral" means "the official seat of a bishop). Sometimes referred to as the High Kirk, although that name conveys no particular distinction either, St. Giles embodies a large part of Scottish history within its complex and unusual structure.

The church has passed back and forth between Catholics and Protestants as the tides of the country's wars of religion ebbed and flowed repeatedly through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Like many of Britain's great Gothic churches, St. Giles has undergone numerous renovations, improvements, and expansions during its centuries of existence here. 

For years, it has served as a burial place for distinguished persons of various kinds, much like the role of Westminster Abbey in London. Also like Westminster, St. Giles is the location for various ceremonial and royal functions. St. Giles appeared in many a television newscast as the scene of the lying in state of Queen Elizabeth II before her casket was taken to London. Subsequently, the square in front of the church witnessed the official welcome of King Charles III, and an official service of thanksgiving was held in St. Giles to mark that occasion.

 

So even if the names "Cathedral" and "High Kirk" carry no specific meaning, they prove in the end to be appropriate anyway for this magnificent church's role in the national life.

 

By the way, I did not go inside because I was passing St. Giles just at the time of the principal Sunday service of worship.

Leaving St. Giles behind, I continued down High Street which is pedestrian only for the first couple of blocks after leaving the Cathedral.

This large complex in the last photo appears no different from any of the others, until you take a good look at the round turret on the far end.

One thing's for sure -- no guests of this hotel in the upmarket Radisson Blu chain have to climb any hills at all to get from their hotel rooms out onto the Royal Mile!

 

Getting closer to the bottom of the Royal Mile now, I came to the most bizarre architectural hodge-podge of all -- the house of John Knox. Known as a firebrand preacher and remembered and honoured as the founder of the Protestant Church of Scotland, Knox served for some years as the minister of St. Giles.

 

 

Not far beyond Knox's house is the Canongate Tolbooth of 1591, which served at one time as a prison. It now houses a museum and a tavern -- and some apartments! The term "Tolbooth" was used from the 1300s until the 1800s to describe a building as a seat of municipal government in a burgh, a city chartered by the Scottish crown.

So what else is there to do on the Royal Mile besides looking at the architecture or going into the several museums? The answer: SHOP! If you want to buy anything at all with a Scottish theme or connection, you've come to the right place.

 

Kilts, plaids, accessories, souvenirs, whisky, woollens, tweed, candy, jewellery, antiques, cashmere -- if it's made in Scotland, you'll find a shop selling it here -- or two or three or more. They range from the dignified and upmarket to the quirky and entertaining -- such as this example.

 

Another cute name which I missed seeing but caught later from Google Maps was a gift shop cleverly named "Thistle Do Nicely."

 

Finally, at the foot of the hill at last, here are the historic buildings on either side of the short little street called Abbey Strand.

The King's Gallery, quite understandably, has only recently been renamed.

Now, turn around -- very slowly and carefully lest you suffer a severe shock.

 

 

This building, right across the street from the palace, is the home of the Scottish Parliament -- that is the new Parliament since the devolution of many powers of government from Westminster back to Scotland in 1998. The new building was officially opened in 2004. It's quite the contrast to its historic surroundings.

 

"Abbey Strand" got its name because it formerly led to the abbey of the Holy Rood, which most likely took its name from a fragment of the True Cross. The extended name "Holyroodhouse" may derive from the custom in medieval times of describing convents, monasteries, nunneries, and abbeys as "religious houses." The first palace was built adjacent to the abbey in the 1500s, and the more recent palace -- mainly dating from the later 1600s -- still adjoins the abbey ruins.

The Palace of Holyroodhouse, as it stands today, is the official royal residence in Scotland, and is open to the public whenever no members of the Royal Family are in residence. Again there's a £20 admission fee, and again I said to myself, "Thanks but no thanks." These pictures were taken through the space between the bars of the elaborate iron gates. I wonder if I used the same exact gap in the bars with my old Instamatic camera back in 1975?

Beyond the palace, to the south and east, is the large public area of greenery, forest, lochs, and mountains known as Holyrood Park. Although I didn't go into the park this time, I have done in the past, and there are great hiking opportunities. Two of the best are shown in these pictures, taken from up on Regent Road as I made my way back to Princes Street. First are the abrupt cliffs of Salisbury Craigs.

Behind Salisbury Craigs rises the even more prominent mountain known as Arthur's Seat, a name which pays tribute to old legends which claim a Scottish connection with the career of King Arthur.

Just along the road from the viewpoints where I took those mountain views, there stands the official monument of Scotland's true poet laureate, Robert Burns.

Not far away, on the other side of the road, is the neo-Classical majesty of a palace of education -- the Royal High School.

Next up on the north side of Regent Road is Calton Hill, which stands above the east end of Princes Street and holds numerous monuments to significant figures in history. Two which can be seen from below are the memorial to Admiral Lord Nelson, in the shape of a naval officer's telescope....

...and another neo-Classical temple, a memorial to Scottish philosopher Dugald Stewart.

 

Passing by Calton Hill, I came at last down to Princes Street again, and one significant landmark which I haven't mentioned yet. It's that iconic clock tower, visible from everywhere on the street, standing atop the Balmoral Hotel. Originally called the North British Hotel after the railway which built it, the Balmoral remains the most distinguished and certainly one of the most expensive accommodations in Edinburgh. Maybe if I start up a Go Fund Me, I can get enough money to afford a room there the next time!

And with that, this fabulous trip has come to its close. Thanks to all of you who've stuck with me right through all the different chapters of this story. Time to stay home for a bit and lick my financial wounds, but this whole experience has been worth every penny I spent on it!