Cancun for Amy

 Amy, we've been to 3 Mayan sites near Cancun - each of them quite different.  I think this is the best place for me to share images and pictures with you.  Unfortunately, it's an old blog template and the space for photos is narrow and cuts them off or forces me to minimize them.  Maybe you can click on the pictures to enlarge(?).

CHICHEN ITZA

The first time we were in Cancun (2007) we went to Chichen Itza ("chee-chin eetz-uh").  It is a site that has been restored and is being significantly maintained.  I remember it being the largest of the sites we saw, but then again it's been 14 years ago, so maybe my memory is fuzzy!  We had a guide, and we learned a lot.  A year before we got there people were still allowed to go up the steps of the Great Pyramid, but that is no longer allowed, unfortunately.  It is a Unesco World Heritage Site, and, as well as the Great Pyramid it also has a temple complex, a "sports arena," a large cenote, and other features.  I don't have as many pictures of Chichen Itza as of the other two sites, as I don't think we had a digital camera in 2007, so these are scans of photos.

TULUM

We've been to Tulum twice -- once in 2012 and once in 2017.  When I picture Mayan ruins I picture them surrounded with jungle.  Tulum, however, is on the coast, overlooking azure-blue waters.  It is gorgeous, but I have to admit being disappointed at how many people were swimming below the ruins, which made it hard to get the beautiful photos I wanted.  We didn't have a guide either time for this one.

COBA

Coba is not just surrounded by jungle, it is IN the jungle.  This was the only site at which we could climb to the top of a pyramid, which was AMAZING - really hard, but really amazing!  The top of the pyramid is high above the jungle canopy, so it was absolutely a bird's-eye view of the jungle.  This was 2012, and I'm not sure if rules or regulations have changes since then.  This site was the most rugged and least restored, which was also kind of cool to see -- seems more "natural" somehow.

Anyway, whether you choose to check out Mayan ruins or not, I hope you will have an absolutely SPECTACULAR time in Cancun!  Here's one of my favorite photos of David from our journeys there.  He loves to sail!!

Edinburgh Castle

Well, this blog is "MOSTLY Poetry," but it is not "ALL Poetry," and this post will not be poetry!  Three years ago when I was on a sabbatical relating to math history, I planned a stop in Edinburgh.  I had no idea how much I would come to love that city.  I live in California in the good old USA, but Edinburgh has become my home away from home and perhaps even my heart's home!

I have rarely had opportunity to travel abroad in my life, but I have a chance to do so next month, and while I could have chosen any destination in the world I am going back to Edinburgh!  

This post is partly in excited anticipation of that, but also is intended to share with a travel-loving friend of mine some of my pictures of Edinburgh Castle, a place I cannot wait to revisit.

PART 1:  some views OF the castle from outside of it:

The front of the castle as you come up the Royal Mile (i.e. the High Street)

Castle and Esplanade (which is where the Military Tattoo takes place)

View from the southeast

View from the southeast

View from the north (across Princes Street Gardens)

View from the west

View from the northwest (from the entry to St. Cuthbert's Church - where Napier was elder)

PART 2:  some views FROM the castle:

Looking back down at St. Curthbert's Church where Napier was elder (St. John's  JUST beyond)

View toward the east from the castle - view of Holyrood Park / Arthur's Seat

View east - Firth of Forth, Scott Monument, Royal Scottish Academy, Balmoral Hotel, Firth of Forth, Waverley Station, Calton Hill

PART 3:  some views INSIDE the castle:

Looking east near the entrance

Built on living rock

Built on living rock

The one o'clock gun

The crowd waiting to see the one o'clock gun

PART 4:  EXTRAS

Jacqueline, I can't help but think of you with this.  The castle has been (at times) and continues to be a place to station military personnel.  Many military personnel have dogs, and there is a cemetery in the castle grounds for the dogs of soldiers!

I took all of the pictures above, but the pictures below are some that I found by looking at Google Images.  When the military tattoo (which I'm sure is amazing!) takes place, stands such as those seen below are built, so you cannot even see the castle as you approach it from the Royal Mile.  I'm not sure it you can enter the castle or not during these times.  I have always avoided Edinburgh during these times.

As I can see from pictures others have posted, the military tattoo must be AMAZING to witness.  I don't know how hard it is to get tickets to this event, but it remains my choice to visit Edinburgh at the lesser crowded times.

Edinburgh for Inklings

Dear Inklings,

I thought this would be a good venue through which to share about my and David's recent celebratory trip to Scotland.  I'll just choose two highlights - reason for celebration - and bell ringing (since that ties in with our recent reading of Sayers' Nine Tailors).

REASON FOR CELEBRATION:

On November 2, 2017 we celebrated 10 years of stroke recovery for David.  Among other reasons for our trips, climbing Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh seemed a particularly good way to celebrate that recovery:

St. Margaret's Loch, ruins of St. Anthony's Chapel, and Arthur's Seat

Arthur's Seat

Ten years ago David suffered a massive stroke and spent a month in rehab relearning how to walk (as well as relearning a lot of other things).  Last month he climbed to the top of Arthur's Seat, which towers over the city of Edinburgh.  I consider this a picture of triumph!

BELL RINGING AT ST. CUTHBERT'S:

I had worshiped in St. Cuthbert's last spring during my sabbatical.  It is Presbyterian, which is closely related to my faith tradition - and it is also where John Napier, a mathematician I'd been there to study the previous year, had served as elder in the 1500s.  

While looking into worship times for this fall, I noticed that bell-ringing practice would be taking place on Tuesday night while we were there.  I looked into attending practice and was told by one of the clergy that I might be allowed to sit in - certainly if I were a bell-ringer from elsewhere I would be - but that it wouldn't be a sure thing since I was not myself a bell-ringer.  Because David and I had only three days and so much we wanted to see, I decided not to plan around that possibility but rather to hope to at least show up in the surrounding kirkyard to hear the practice from outside.

After a long day of walking, while David saved me a seat at Shandwick's for dinner a couple of blocks away, I (foolishly?) headed back down into the kirkyard.  I ADORE creepy cemeteries and make a point of seeking them out.  And in the daytime this is one of the creepiest I've ever seen.  At night  .  .  .  in the dark  .  .  .  quite far below the level of the street  .  .  .  alone  .  .  .  umm  .  .  .  let's just say I REALLY wanted to hear those bells!

First a video of practice and then some pictures of the kirk:

My camera picked up a lot of light and made it look brighter down there than it actually was  .  .  .  just sayin'  .  .  .

Tombstone in St. Cuthbert's kirkyard taken earlier in the day

St. Cuthbert's as seen from Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle as seen from the south side of St. Cuthbert's

St. Cuthbert's viewed from the south

Though our "related" mystery reading was by Sayers, I thought it worth noting that mystery writer Agatha Christie was married in the small WWI Memorial Chapel of this kirk, which is where the evening service David and I attended was held.  I don't have pictures of the inside, but I snapped one of the entrance to this chapel.

For bell-ringing comparison, here is a video I took during my sabbatical on my way to worship Sunday morning.  Sadly, you can barely hear this wonderful artistry above the street noise!