Edinburgh - General

The new R35 GTR Skyline parked on a street on my way to Kirsty's work. What a beast! This is actually the second one I have seen on the streets. I saw another one driving around Kuala Lumpur.





























This street on the way to Kirsty's work always has nice cars on it..must be an affluent part of town. There are usually 2 Bentley Continental's, 3 BMW M3s, 2 or 3 Aston Martin's and a whole gaggle of Porche's and Mercedes parked along the street.














Lots of spikes here..dont jump the fences!

Some final shots from Peterborough

This is the oldest surviving cast iron railway bridge in the UK. It was built in 1847 and spans the Nene River.

Peterborough Cathedral

The Hedda Stone or Monk's Stone. One of the few remains of the Anglo Saxon Church, this 8th century carving shows Christ, the virgin Mary and the ten disciples.











































Katharine of Aragon was buried here in 1536.

Here is more information from Wikipedia

(There is more to the story than what I have posted here and it is worth a read as it is very interesting!)

Katharine of Aragon was the Queen of England as the first wife of Henry VIII of England. Henry's attempt to have their 24-year marriage annulled set in motion a chain of events that led to England's break with the Roman Catholic Church. Henry was dissatisfied with the marriage because all their sons had died in childhood, leaving only one of their six children, Princess Mary (later Queen Mary I) as heiress presumptive, at a time when there was no established precedent for a woman on the throne. When Pope Clement VII refused to annul the marriage, Henry defied him by creating the Anglican Church so that he could marry Anne Boleyn anyway, in the hope of fathering a male heir to the Tudor dynasty.

Peterborough

Peterborough Cathedral.
















































An interesting story about Mary Queen of Scots. Dont forget you can click on any picture on this blog and it will open up in a new browser window in Enlarged format.

Mary Queen of Scots was buried in this church in 1587 but her body was moved to Westminster Abbey ih 1612.




















I had a look around Peterborough while Kirsty was working. Peterborough is about a 10 minute drive from Stamford. It is a nice town but I preferred Stamford.

Stamford - Burghley Gardens

This is a late 18th century ice house. Ice from the nearby lake was packed into the ice house and then covered in straw to insulate it. This would allow the ice to remain frozen for up to two years!

Stamford - Burghley House

You were forbidden from taking photos from within the house and I could not find many photos of the interior on the internet but did find this picture from the 'Heaven Room'. Next to the Heaven Room is an elaboratly painted 'Hell Staircase' which is painted to show the mouth of hell and features the grim reaper and other distorted souls etc.















I visited Burghley House, a historical Elizabethan home built in 1555. It took 32 years to complete the build.
Most of the main rooms had secret passageways linking them with other rooms so that the house staff could move through the house with not too much distraction to the householders!

Here is some more information on this beautiful home taken from the official website:

Burghley is one of the largest and grandest houses of the first Elizabethan Age. Built and mostly designed by William Cecil, Lord High Treasurer to Queen Elizabeth I, between 1555 and 1587, the main part of the House has 35 major rooms on the ground and first floors. There are more than 80 lesser rooms and numerous halls, corridors, bathrooms and service areas. The lead roof extends to three quarters of an acre, restoration and rebuilding of which began in 1983 and took nearly ten years to complete.

Stamford

Stamford is known for it's church's. This is the All Saints Church, the largest church in Stamford.











































Enjoying a nice cold beer at the Kings Head pub.






We visited Stamford in Linconshire last week. Kirsty went down for work so it was a good opportunity for me to tag along and enjoy some free accomodation! I really enjoyed this little town. It has lots of old architecture and nice quaint village streets.


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Edinburgh Castle Part IV

Spot the Ninja game. Can you spot the Ninja in the photo? You will need to look carefully to see it!

Edinburgh Castle Part III

Scottish National War Memorial




























Mons Meg: manufactured in 1449 and fired 22" cannonballs. Because of it's weight, it was not a very effective weapon as it took about 20 men just to move it into position. It weighed 6 ton!

Edinburgh Castle Part II

The Great Hall

































You can see the modern military cannon in this shot that is fired every day (except Sunday) at 1:00p.m. The guide told us that the reason they dont fire it at 12:00 GMT is because they are too tight and dont want to wasted 12 shells when they can wait an extra hour and just fire one!




















Beautiful stained glass window in St Margaret's Chapel which is the oldest building in Edinburgh (dates back to the start of the 12th century).


















Inside the Great Hall.

Edinburgh Castle

Massive entry gates. Designed so that they could quickly release the iron gate and drop it on the heads of invading forces!
















You can see the old stone architecture of Edinburgh's shopping precinct.





































The day after we visited the Royal Yacht Britannia, we visited the Edinburgh Castle.
We had a pretty good day for it..eg it was pretty clear so we got great views over Edinburgh.
It was fascinating to see the castle and learn about it's history.
If you want to learn more about the castle's history, follow this link.

General pictures...

A neat Scottish pub not far from our place. We havent been there (yet!) but it looks great. There are some fantastic pubs here in Edinburgh and they serve great food.
There is a great butcher two minutes walk from our place that sells gourmet sausages. They are famous for the sausages and the place always seems busy. We had some for dinner last night: Traditional and Beef and Guiness. Expensive but worth it for a treat.
Here is a link to their website if you are interested: Sausages
Here are some samples of what flavours you can get there:
Duck a L'orange or the popular Wild Boar, Apricots & Brandy to Venison, Pork & Calvados or the magnificent Boar, Port & Stilton.















This is a garden area where the council have provided gardens for people that live in tennement buildings. Interesting.