Horses and Fireworks

Last Sunday, we were crazy enough to bring Ethan and Jethro out at 9pm to watch fireworks (courtesy of Bank of Scotland Fireworks Concert). We were not near the Ross Theatre in Princes Street Gardens where the concert was performed, so we could only watch the fireworks in the absence of the music. There were a few places which gave good views of the fireworks and also broadcast the concert, such as Inverleith Park, Calton Hill and Waverly Bridge (which was close enough to hear the concert without broadcasting), but as it was the boys' bed times, we didn't want to make the uphill walk to Calton Hill or back from Waverly Bridge (Inverleith Park is just too far). So we watched it near The Mound.

Ethan had been very excited about the night outing when we were getting there. Half an hour later, he was wearing a sleepy look. Another 15 mins later, having two sleeping kids, I felt I have fulfilled enough of my desire to see the fireworks. So we made the journey back. I had the easier job of pushing Jethro in his buggy while Jianming carried Ethan, definitely not a light task now!

Earlier in the day, we did the saner thing of watching horse riding around St Giles Church and seeing them pile off back to their stables. This was the Edinburgh Riding of the Marches, a festival dating back hundreds of years but only revived this year after a hiatus of 60 years. We only saw the end of it because the earlier part of the day was spent in church and then lunch and then well, just plain deliberation as to whether to get out to see it or not.

I'll put up the photos in chronological sequence.



The octopus was made by a 'Puffin' man when we stopped by Grassmarket. He did it for free, but I wonder if the Grassmarket Group might have paid him to do this, since they were rather elaborate balloon sculptures. We saw him make several crowns, with swords, two swans in a ring, flowers, and as we were about to go, something that seemed like it would turn out to be a dolphin.