It is not often in my travels that I have a native so readily available to ask all of the six million questions that I manage to formulate about everything I see or hear. That is why I was positively thrilled when Bob offered to take me around to some of the lesser-known sights in Edinburgh. I absolutely love “off-the-beaten-path” tours and the excellent one Bob provided on Tuesday took me on the outskirts of Edinburgh as well as the in paths of hidden streets and alleyways along the Royal Mile.
I learned about Deacon Brodie, a pillar of the community by day and burglar at night (who was later hung on the same gallows he helped create) and marveled at stones carved with quotations from Scottish literature and the “Narnia Lamp” in a hidden courtyard. We also visited Craigmillar Castle, strategically located on a hill outside of Edinburgh and surrounded by fields of rush and heather.
My favorite stop (and where we spent a good part of the afternoon) was at the Royal College of Surgeons Museum. At the same time as the Scottish Enlightenment, great medical advances were being made in Edinburgh, including an understanding of sepsis and new innovations in anaesthesia. The museum had a very interesting chronology of medical developments and the Hall of Pathology was filled with incredible specimens of diseased and injured organs and bones. I really wished Matt had been there to better explain some of the things I was seeing and I know he would have really liked the orthopaedic display.
My many thanks to Bob for a fun and educational day!!
2 comments:
Was it John Snow whom we're meant to thank for the invention of chloroform?
James Young Simpson!!
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