Edinburgh – BooksPlease

This scene has become very familiar to me over the last four weeks:

Edinburgh Cancer Centre view of Edinburgh skyline2

It’s the Edinburgh skyline I can see from the Edinburgh Western General Hospital. The tall spire towards the left of the photo is the Scott Monument in Princes Street Gardens. Moving to the right of that is the fortress that is Edinburgh Castle and below that the green dome is the copper-clad dome of West Register House, one of the buildings of the National Archive of Scotland, in Charlotte Square.

And this is why – it’s the view from the Edinburgh Cancer Centre, where I’ve been going for the last four weeks. (Last week I wrote about being diagnosed with a breast cancer – see this post.)

It’s not as grim inside as it looks outside – it’s quite nice actually. I’ve got two more sessions of radiotherapy next week and then that is the end of my treatment, apart from follow-up appointments and a bone density scan. I’ll be glad to get back to ‘normal’. Maybe then I’ll get back to writing about books – I’ve got quite a pile lined up to review.

See more Saturday Snapshots on Alyce’s blog At Home With Books.

I’ve chosen a few photos taken last July of Edinburgh for today’s Favourite Places post. For more Favourite Places see Margot’s blog Joyfully Retired.

I took some of these photos from a tour bus. Our grandchildren insisted we went on the Horrible Histories tour, which was very entertaining – of course the ordinary commentary was available as well. From Waverley Bridge we went past the Scott Monument, along Princes Street, and circled round the streets until we were looking up at Edinburgh Castle towering above.

: Edinburgh Castle

I just managed to take a photo from the bus looking down at Greyfriars Bobby as we went past.

: Greyfriars Bobby

We got off the bus at Lawnmarket.

: Lawnmarket

Just off Lawnmarket is Lady Stairs Close, where the Writers’ Museum is to be found. This Museum is in Lady Stair’s 17th century house. It’s a fascinating place full of things that belonged to Sir Walter Scott, Robbie Burns and Robert Lewis Stevenson. There are pictures, room displays containing Burns’s writing desk, Scott’s dining table and lots of memorabilia – including bibles, pipes and walking sticks. You can’t take photos inside but here is the outside.

: Writers’ Museum

And the plaque in close up shows that the house was first built in 1622 and was restored in 1897.

: Lady Stairs House

From there we walked down the Royal Mile.

: Edinburgh’s Royal Mile

We stopped at a number of places including the Museum of Childhood, which took me right back to my own childhood. It’s full of toys and games of all sorts. I thought the display of dolls was scary – all standing to attention in glass display cases staring out at me. It reminded me of the terrifying dolls in the film, Barbarella. Much more comforting were the teddy bears and children’s books.