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Wednesday 25 June 2014

Sasha girls in Scotland - part 4

Laura and Florence complete their blog about our May half term to Scotland (see also Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3):

On the second Saturday of our visit to Scotland we joined the family on an outing in Edinburgh.  In two days they had already explored the Museum of Childhood, had an open top bus tour, visited The Elephant House cafe where the first three Harry Potter books were written, been inside St Giles Cathedral, seen Blackfriars Bobby statue and grave, visited the University of Edinburgh Art Degree Show and had a private pre-arranged tour of an important no longer open to the public building in Edinburgh as part of a history project.

We walked from our B&B all the way up past the Castle to the Camera Obscura on Castle hill.  After viewing the Camera Obscura show of the city (10 minutes in the dark with a birds eye view of the city projected onto the large white dish table) we went outside onto the viewing decks for a magnificent fresh air sunny view of Edinburgh.  Wow!  It was so impressive.  DollMum looked at the list outside of other camera obscura's around the world (not many) and realised that she had also been to the only one in the Southern Hemisphere in Grahamstown (SA) and the one in Aberystwyth (Wales), apparently there are three others in Scotland.
The Camera Obscura sign on the tower
Florence and Laura view Edinburgh from the Camera Obscura
View of St Giles Cathedral (in the distance down the Royal Mile)
After that, we worked our way down the several floors of the museum exploring all the optical and scientific exhibits which taught us quite a lot about optical illusions in a fun way.

Mirrors played tricks on us in the Camera Obscura museum
Singing Cats and Piano playing dog automata in the Camera Obscura
Singing Cats and Piano playing dog automata in the Camera Obscura
Laura's left eye magnified 50x in the Camera Obscura
Laura's right eye magnified 50x in the Camera Obscura
Laura played with coloured light shadows
There was an amazing optical illusion room which tricked your eyes into believing that relative sizes were different from reality:
DollMum's younger daughter is only double the height of Laura!
DollMum's elder daughter is a giant, Laura is tiny
DollMum's younger daughter is bigger than her elder daughter
Laura is tiny compared to DollMum's younger daughter
Laura is tiny compared to DollMum's younger daughter,
while her elder daughter has short legs for a change
DollMum's daughters are the same size, while Laura is tiny
When we had finished at the Camera Obscura we walked all down the hill to the moat gardens, past the galleries by Princes Street and sat in the gardens eating ice cream in the sunshine.
Eating ice cream on a slope in the Edinburgh park
Eating ice cream and watching the world go by
We really enjoyed our day in the sunshine in Edinburgh (Laura had more fun than Florence who spent most of the day strapped to the side of DollMum's camera case rucksack watching everyone).  On Sunday we had the long drive home and were pleased to get back to all the others in the doll and bear family to tell them all about our adventures in Scotland.


7 comments:

Ginger said...

Wonderful post Anna. So very interesting with the mirrors and illusions. Scotland is very beauiful and I would love to visit one day. :) xx

Rosie said...

Loved your blogs about your visit.
The altered perspective with your girls' heights made me laugh - looks as if everyone had a brilliant time.

Dee said...

Wonderful! Love the illusion of your daughters changing sizes , with youngest becoming bigger than eldest and then them being the same size!!

I love Edinburgh, so much to see, fantastic art gallery and castle.
Looks like you all had a lovely half term break.
Dee

Sharon said...

Thanks so much for sharing your trip to Scotland with us, it was really interesting. The optical illusions room was great, I loved all that. I like the photos of afterwards too, your younger daughter is sitting just like a Sasha doll would!!! It looks like you had a great time!
Hugs Sharon x

Julie said...

Your vacation sounds wonderful. Thanks for sharing the fun pictures with us.

Kendal said...

What a wonderfully interesting and educational half term break.
Looks like a great time was had by all at the Camera Obscura. Just how do they do it?

Sorry though to hear that Laura had more fun than Florence but it is more difficult to keep an eye on two excited young Sasha Dolls 'out and about' with the family and be behind the camera taking the photos.

Who was doing the History Project? Hope that she got the tour, info and photos that were required for it.
(Rather reminded me of the week, that at the ripe old age of 31 years, I went up to York and stayed at a youth hostel with the Alsager Teacher's Training College for my History Degree.)

Such a shame that Edinburgh is such a long drive away as it's a magnificent city to see and explore.
Hoping that you didn't pass by here (which I think that you must have had to!) and NOT called in for a comfort break and to see my Sasha Brood and I?

DollMum said...

Yes, history project research went well (it is mine). Lifelong learning - it is never too late to study for a history degree.

The camera obscura room was very clever - it had an angled wall and sloped floor painted with the squares in a certain way so that the place where you put your camera made it seem that the floor was level.