St Mary's Cathedral. Water of Leith Walkway. Dean Village. Scottish Gallery of Modern Art. Edinburgh.

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Another trip through to Edinburgh to meet up with Belinda. For those wondering we are just friends  and it's purely platonic but it's always nice to meet new people you get along with and can exchange interests, passions and different influences you would never think of visiting yourself. Doesn't happen very often but when it does it's a delight. One of the reasons I've liked musical artists in the past like early period David Bowie, Cat Power, Kate Bush, Joseph Arthur etc is not only for their own music but also for the stuff that inspired them as very often it's artists or other musical tastes I've never experienced before but I'll find interesting myself. I have noticed over the years when people like a certain style of music or art it does tend to stay in the same ball park even though it might be across a wide spectrum. i.e. art rock groups, alternative indie, folk, blues, slightly cynical and edgy stuff in my case. For some others that might be Adele, power ballads, more mainstream artists in general. I've also noticed in interviews my own favourites tend to like each others work more often than not so generally that holds true. Even with Danny MacAskill bike videos (I put one on here last week) I've unintentionally found several new groups just through the music there on them and I've rarely heard a song used for his numerous videos I haven't liked in some way. The reason for this theme will become clear later in the post. Above is the William Gladstone Memorial in the West End of Edinburgh at Coates Crescent (Shandwick) just east of Haymarket where I jumped off the early morning bus to meet Belinda as arranged.

As well as being British Prime Minister a record four different times in the 1800s William Gladstone was also an MP for Midlothian for well over a decade which may explain this extraordinarily elaborate statue to him here. Most politicians are lucky to get a black marble bust in a corridor or a standing figure on a raised plinth but this is worthy of an emperor buried with his entire court of officials and admirers scattered around him. It is the only noteworthy statue on this length of road and really makes a dramatic statement due to its size and complexity. I have to admit I had no idea at the time why he was here in this seemingly out of the way place, although surrounded by a grand period crescent of the time. Edinburgh is full of unexpected stuff like this though which makes it such a delight to explore.
Above is the real reason why we were here. St Mary's Cathedral in the heart of the West End district.
Neither of us had visited this building before so we were keen to see inside.

I've seen quite a few churches and cathedrals on my travels but this one is definitely the best. Standing outside on the pavement  it's three spires really do seem to reach towards Heaven and as an example of bold statement architecture its hard to beat.

 Few other buildings I've seen in reality shoot upwards with such 'Jack and the Beanstalk' vigor  or effortless elegance yet strength. Just as Edinburgh's tenements are deliberately designed taller than average so too this cathedral looks like spires on high concentrations of steroids. You get dizzy just staring up at them.

Lovely building inside as well.

Unusual stained glass windows.

Beautiful carving inside and out.

A place that's well worth a visit and free for the public to enter unless there's a service or other event going on. I do always leave a small donation in free buildings but sometimes you go into places labelled 'free' then they have a prominent sign and 'suggested' expensive entry donation box just inside the door with an employee standing over you making sure you contribute before you continue inside. If it says free it should be. Thankfully, this was not like that increasingly commercial model. I know there's a huge upkeep but you should be able to put in what you can afford and some of these 'free' 'suggested prices' are for serious amounts of cash. We stuck in a pound coin each as we felt it was well worth that and were happy to pay it with no glaring employee staring at us as soon as we entered. Well worth a visit.

The other reason for coming here was this. Dean Village and the Water of Leith Walkway. I've done this before, both on foot and on a bike several times but for Belle it was all new ground and like every other person who discovers this place she was delighted and stunned in equal measure.

Some parts of the Water of Leith running through Edinburgh are quiet and sylvan with attractive wildlife like kingfishers and this dazzling male goosander, (a medium sized diving duck) while others are steep sided and urban. This reaches gorge- like proportions around Dean Village which was a former flour producing community using the Water of Leith to grind raw grain products in a scattering of different mills over centuries. The buildings that are left here are very picturesque but once housed workers, their children, and other self contained industries that flourished by being close enough to provide and supply but not a connected direct part of Edinburgh town.

Old carving on a building in Dean Village showing it's gradual merging into a district of Edinburgh as the growing city swallowed up its surroundings. Thanks to its unique location though this area still feels like a self contained island in the city due to its deep set nature.

The Dene, which means 'deep valley'.

Looking up from here Victorian and Edwardian Edinburgh seems as remote as Bioshock's 'city in the sky', the rooftops looming hundreds of feet above the floor of the gorge. The walkway itself is fairly flat though and easy going apart from connecting stairs leading to the city above. It's also popular so open to everyone and not as threatening in atmosphere as quieter parts of Glasgow's Kelvin walkway, which is similar in style and character....only without Dean Village.

Dean Village itself is extraordinary as it seems to hang over the small stream below it like a chunk of period European (German/ Dutch?) architecture transplanted into Scotland.

No matter how many times I come here it's still breathtaking and it does remind me, post Bioshock Infinite discovery, of that floating city in the air very strongly. Luckily, I also had a modern day  Elizabeth as my companion. It was Belinda that got me into games and 3d open world's in the first place but not to play them, as she intended, but for other possibilities and ideas contained within them. For example. There are 7.5 billion people on the planet right now and rising rapidly- 10,000,000 extra added since 2017 began. Tens of thousands born every single day. It took all of human history to reach one billion by the 1800s but 1.5 billion soon turned into 6 billion in one modern century alone. Current estimates plot 10 billion by 2056. The numbers are predicted to slow down but how can we possibly sustain that number of people at the current rate of consumer consumption, enticed to buy products we don't really need and will be deliberately obsolete every few years while we rip the planet apart searching for rare metals to build next year's smart phones or other unnecessary gadgets. It's not sustainable in any way when so many want a piece of the good life all around the planet yet our whole western economy is based around spending, buying more and more junk each year.
The Living Clock. Hypnotic in a way to watch those numbers climb so fast in real time... If you haven't seen this counter before.... Enjoy.... or maybe not...
http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/
The discovery of fractals and the astonishingly real looking world's in many modern 3d games where they have created entire planets and even entire galaxies to explore have inspired some of the more creative thinkers to speculate that if we were living inside a very elaborate game world right now or in the future, for purposes not revealed, playing out real time scenarios...  how would we know?
If this sounds ridiculous think of Disney cartoons in the 1930s then 3D computer generated world's now and project that advance in graphics into 2056 when 10 billion people might not have the resources, the space or lands available to satisfy their needs. What will we be eating then? Insects or Soylent Green for dinner anyone? Hop on any bus and people already spend all their free time looking at screens anyway. Our homes are already starting to be run by computers and getting digitally chipped, like your pet, to have a computer inside you is the next logical step in that advance. No doubt you will be persuaded it's for your own convenience. The best open game world's of 2017 are extremely detailed, lifelike and unbelievably vast in scale so think what they will be like 40 to 100 years down the line. Now you know why I'm interested in games and find them fascinating :o)

Anyway, back to Dean Village. Well worth a visit and a wander round here. Loads of period buildings to explore, although people do live in them so the houses are private, obviously.

A very interesting day out.

This sign down in the gorge reminded me I hadn't visited the Gallery of Modern Art and it wasn't far away. Belinda was up for that as well so we headed there.

A striking building on the outside but I have to admit neither of us were very impressed by the art work inside. Maybe it's just me but I've never felt that 'wow' factor of enlightenment, wonder, astonishment, pleasure or anything else for that matter, in years of exploring modern art in galleries.Some of it is alright but I can't think of a single work in a gallery I was completely bowled over with or stunned in any way so here's my modern art exhibits that have done just that. (not by me of course but fan made videos put together spontaneously with all the warmth, creativity, love and sheer devotion that seems to be missing in so many pretentious modern art pieces today. I would proudly hang either of these videos up on a wall in a gallery. For me, this is modern art at its finest.




or if you don't fancy that one how about this much quieter pastel delight. Forget that it's Kate Bush as its the amazing art work and short story that's the star in this one from Dutch film maker Micheal Dudok De Wit. Beautiful art work and a touching message about life and death that will make you think.


In the Scottish Gallery of Modern Art I'm afraid the best thing we found to really inspire us was the toilets. Although we can admire pastels we both love primary colours the best.

Wow!

WOW!!!     imho, easily the best thing in the building.

Tile mania certainly works for me.