The Sun Shines down on Edinburgh

It's difficult deciding which of today's events is one worth highlighting. The most exciting part of the day was actually seeing the sunshine, and I am pleased to be able to feature a photo of Marty and myself actually squinting from the brightness of the sun. What a welcome relief not having to come back to our B&B and blow dry our shoes! We still have wet pants waiting to dry!

But back to the dilemma. Could it be the floral clock in the Princes Street Garden? Perhaps at another time, but today it featured a ladder strewn across it, definitely diminishing the impact that it could have made.

Was it the statue of William Pitt standing high in the middle of the intersection of Frederick and George Street, offering an awesome view of the Firth of Forth? Or could it be the yellow and black striped lights that stand in his vicinity which Marty is convinced was the precursor of the Steeler Nation?

Could it be the Georgian Era house that we toured that took us back to that time period? Fascinating, indeed, with excellent tour guides to show us life back in the late 1700's when Edinburgh's New Town was built?

I'd say that I'm leaning towards St. Cuthbert's church, sitting somewhat in the shadow of St. John's, but offering fine views of the castle from the grounds. Besides being the oldest church in all of Great Britain, it holds a memorial to John Neperi, the founder of logarithms. How great is that?

But the real 'pièce de résistance', according to the locals, is the fact that Agatha Christie was married to her second husband in the chapel of this church. We were exuberantly showed the copy of her marriage certificate by the curator of the church and the woman who was the chapel tour guide delighted in describing the details of the "exciting" event, as she put it. After all, not too many people have the opportunity to have the bragging rights to such a happy occasion occurring in the same place where they worship daily, you know!

To be quite honest with you, it wasn't these bits of history surrounding this church that made my day. It was this same effervescent woman, who obviously loved her role as tour guide. She described in detail the construction of this chapel which was a memorial to the 115 young men who were parishioners who lost their lives fighting in the Great War. The best line of the day was when she said, "Now I can't say for certain, because I was only born in 1920, but I have been told that the cost of just one letter inscribed on the wall would be one day's wages at the time." This spunky wealth of information who was bouncing around with such excitement describing the history of this church, and bragging about the notoriety of Agatha Christie, was born in 1920? You do the math. And this same woman admitted to us that she could thank John Neperi for many a nightmare in her days when she was studying Math. Truly amazing, and well worth the highlight of my day! Although Marty is probably still sticking to that Steeler Nation theory.