A day in Edinburgh

The day dawned very misty but you could see the sun through that. So in the hope that it would be shining in Edinburgh I drove to the Park and Ride and took the bus into town. And by the time I arrived it was indeed a splendid day, no coat required. I went primarily to see the Anni Albers exhibition at the Dovecot Studios. For the hour I was there I had the place entirely to myself which was great but really, if you are interested at all in textile art you should go (still open till the 26th March). Anni was in the vanguard of getting textiles recognized as art. She studied weaving at the Bauhaus (female students were restricted in their choice and most became weavers) but had the chance to study art while there with Paul Klee among others.

There was both a videa interview as well as a slideshow and both were fascinating. Specially the slide show which showed designs Anni made, mainly in pencil, and you could just take them and make a quilt! My fingers literally began to itch and I busily scribbled little notes to myself to remember it all. There is also an accompanying exhibition with art by modern artists inspired by Anni Albers. And apropos of nothing I also discovered one of Anni's middle names was Frieda!

Afterwards I wandered around Edinburgh and spotted more impressive patterns, this time on pillars outside the Royal Court (see above).

The next stop was the National Library of Scotland's coffeeshop but before I went in I just had to take a picture of some of the figures on their facade. The librarian in me loves having coffee surrounded by books, and most of my fellow coffee drinkers were also lost in their various publications! I perused the Anni Albers catalogue: Anni Albers: design pioneer.

Then I was time for some more aimless wandering. When I'm walking through Edinburgh I spend most of my time looking up (which can lead to some unhappy encounters when I bump into people and during which I pretend I don't understand a word of English!), simply because that's where the main attractions are to be seen. The gables of almost every building are different and then there are also the church steeples to be admired and photographed.

Today though, the picture that became my blip for the day, was to be found a little closer to the pavement when I spotted two adjoining shops, one dedicated to witches tours of Edinburgh and the other one to Christmas! I added the witches tour to my Must Do One Day list and peeked in the window of the Christmas shop (both shops were closed). I also laughed out loud when I first spotted them (which meant some funny looks from passers-by, so again time to pretend I'm a tourist!). Was it mere chance that landed them side by side in an Edinburgh street?

All in all, a day with a star!