and that, is the end of our edinburgh story

first things first:

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY

to my mummy!!!!

so this weekend we go to edinburgh again

first on our agenda, carlton hill.

hill with manymany monuments remembering scotland's greats

massive half-finished colosseum (think they ran out of funds)

atop carlton

jess mounts her canon

then we visit edinburgh university

and it's medical school's famed wall of doctors:
doctors that gave us addison's disease/hodgkin's lymphoma

man, i so want to graduate

Reid Concert Hall; Museum of Musical Instruments

jess gets abit high at the sight of so many violins

We take a (nauseating) half-hour bus ride to Roslin.
home of Rosslyn Chapel.

rosslyn chapel

the amazing chapel featured in the da vinci code.
very easy to see why.

small chapel (abit anti-climatic cos i expected to see a massive exterior work of art after how much it has been hyped-up by the media and the movie. i didn't watch the movie)
but every inch of it's interior is covered with carvings.

ceiling to pillar to floor. all carved.

freaking amazing carvings
these were all over the chapel
(photos not allowed; managed to sneak one in before i kena scolded)

the handiwork of the masons that sculpted this chapel is so fantastically intricate
even the tiniest of details are not missed out, right down to the tinytiny veins on the leaves.

chapel exterior

prior to rosslyn chapel, we had actually gone on a walk around the small town of roslin itself.
chapel was booked from 2.30-4.00 for a wedding, so we could only come back after 4pm.

roslin is just a very sleepy town. it's main buzz comes from the manymany tourists wanting to take a peek at the much hyped-about chapel.

out of sheer nothing-to-do-ness, we stumble onto a trail into roslin glen:

roslin glen

we have our lunch on the grass by the river

picnic by the river :)

coats swinging in the breeze

we venture into what used to be roslin castle (now a holiday home for some rich people)

goof around
before heading back to the chapel.

another (nauseating) ride back into edinburgh

and we walk smack into one of their haps flea market!
rows and rows of stalls selling hot buttered sausages, piles of smelly cheese, all sorts of knick-knacks.

jess goes crazy over 2 for 10quid necklaces, while my roving eye catches this:

can't take my eyes off you... :)

"The holy grail 'neath ancient Roslin waits.
The blade and chalice guarding o'er her gates.
Adorned in masters' loving art, she lies.
She rests at last beneath the starry skys."