Wednesday, June 16, 2004 (Architectural Trip)

After a cheerful breakfast – we laughed a lot – I went with the bus to school. But suddenly, the bus driver said something like “the bus is broken” and every body went out of the bus. But it seems not to have been a big problem for the people from Edinburgh because nobody was annoyed.
I took a few photos from the North Bridge and made a quick search for a stationer’s shop close to the Royal Mile. But it was too early and the shops were still all closed.

In school again we had a lot to tell each other about our evening program from yesterday. In the lessons we learned a lot about “wishes” and conditionals, as well as describing a human being from “a” like aloof to “z” for zeal. Or which adjectives we could use with chin (droopy, saggy, narrow, broad, …). I like the expression ginger hair what means carrot hair, but also in Scotland there are not as many people as you would think with this colour hair.

After Lunch I came back with my bus pass – yeah I got it back. I was also looking for a good bookshop and “Lochverstärkungsringe”. Ok, Suzanna gave me some hints for the bookshop but what’s the word for the other thing in English? But don’t worry, I found some polypropylene reinforcement washers, a lot of ideas for English reading matter, a delicious Chicken Tikka and for dessert a Chocolate Muffin.

Kirsty didn't like rearrangement of the tables that we had done this morning and so we had to change them back. After the game Pre- and Suffix, with something like Domino stones and a game like "Monday painter" to rewrite some words, we had hard work with James.

After school I did an architectural trip on the east side of the Royal Mile. First I made a glimpse of the outside from the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the Queen’s official residence in Scotland. The palace developed from a guesthouse attached to Holyrood Abbey, which was extended by King James IV in 1501 to create more comfortable living quarters than were possible in the exposed and windy hill-top castle.



New Scottish Parliament - the Bottomless Pit?

The temporary Parliament Building Visitor Centre records the development of the project from initial architectural design competition to the current state of construction. The competition to design the new building was won in July 1998 by the late Catalan architect Enric Miralles, who envisaged a group of elliptical buildings with curved roofs inspired by upturned boats seen on a beach in northern Scotland. www.edinburgharchitecture.co.uk/scottish_parliament.htm and www.scottish.parliament.uk



The Tun - Bar



The University of Edinburgh

Edinburgh has three universities. The oldest, biggest and most prestigious is the University of Edinburgh, with over 15’000 undergraduates. www.ed.ac.uk

During dinner with Wendy and Bill we had a lot to giggle about. I like the TV Show about gardening, which they also prefer. When the owners come back home in the evening, they find a newly designed garden with fountains, new plants, a small summerhouse and it was such a pretty sight for me. I learned also, that the Scots are very proud of their nice yards and I was very surprised, that a lot of filigree flowers are grown in this windy and rainy climate.

On the phone I talked to my husband and I think that only I talked! I had so much to tell and explained that the time went by too fast and I knew that it will give me an expensive phone bill back home. But I hoped also that I could send Roland some photos, so that he could get an idea about my stay here and some ideas for our holidays in August in Scotland.

After dinner, I went back to town to meet the others. We walked to New Town and of course, in a pub we tried a beer. We all ordered different beers, so we could try each kind. Even these pubs were old, but they looked very different to those in Old Town. They looked more cheerful and they had all the same tables and chairs. I mean they were a little bit bigger and there was more difference in age than in the New Town pubs. But it could also just have been my imagination ... Back home I did some homework and labelled more pictures.