25 August 2019
A Panda. The Edinburgh zoo has a panda bear. Two, in fact. Where else would I ever get the chance to see a real panda.
We decided to split up this morning. I’ll go to the zoo. Niel will explore the city. And there was a Dynamic Earth expo that he was keen on seeing. And besides. We know exactly where to meet and at what time.
I should admit that the receptionist at the zoo did warn that the zoo was on a rather steep hill. And they did warn that the pandas are in that rather frisky time of year. And to ensure that we don’t interfere with their potential mating rituals, the indoor viewing area is closed. Sadly, the panda enclosure just happens to be at the very top of the hill. And the pandas just happened to probably be busy doing what they do when they are in the “sensitive mating season”. Which means that all of us humans would stand and stare hopefully at the door to their indoor “den”, and eventually mope a little and try to see some of the other animals. I’m sure the universe is telling me that pandas are best not seen in captivity. I did, at least, manage to see two tapirs Odd animals, really. The anteaters were sleeping, so no luck there. The lemurs were missing in action. The red panda was visible high up in a tree at least. And the one koala was yawning away, at least, while the second one was also sleeping. Oh, and I did see some beautiful sealife built from lego.
That was that then – a bit of a miss on the zoo. But I could at least make the meeting place in time. Also a miss. But eventually we managed to find each other, and decided to then take a walk to Dean village, before we head off for our Stephen Fry show we had booked.
For more than 800 years, Dean village, or Water of Leith Village, as it was called then, was the centre of a successful grain milling area. With the strong current of the Leith river flowing through it, it once had 11 mills working here. Today it is an exquisite, peaceful space in the middle of the ‘jumping’ Edinburgh, with a beautiful walkway along the river. I could have stayed here forever.
Stephen Fry has published two books about Greek Mythology. His version of how things went down back in the days of Greek gods and other mortals. as part of the Edinburgh festival, he did a Trilogy of shows around Mythology. You could go and see all three shows, or, like us, pick just one (because you had too many other things to get to). What can I say. I’m going to buy the books as well. And, apparently, a new one will be out soon.
And that, then, is basically it for Edinburgh. we loved the constant surprises of beautiful buildings when you least expected it. We loved the events we attended. We probably didn’t love the crowds as much. We figured that our timing was perfect, but that you should probably spend another day or two, after the close of the festival, to experience a more “normal” Edinburgh, without the many, many people and posters.
