Holyrood

Yesterday while still in Edinburgh I went to the Holyrood Palace or the Place of Holyroodhouse. It was very crowded and cost $33 entrance with audio tour. It was interesting and the weather was good for a nice walk.  I was excited to see there were two works by Artemisia Gentilesci, including her self portrait.



After the castle I walked this Holyrood Park. It had a good view and was very busy. 

After walking an hour I went to the nearby Scottish Parliament. The café was okay but there was a huge group of uniformed school students. Some had shockingly short skirts!

I had time to go to the Writers' Museum and had a nice wee chat with a "warden" about Robert Burns and being a worker with the National Trust.

Then I went to the National Museum of Scotland (again) and was able to see the top floor and the rooftop terrace. Then it was 5:00 but the Central Library was open until 8:00 so I did the bus man's holiday thing, talked to some "library advisors" including a nice one from Lithuania but no professional librarians to be found, even in the reference room. I saw a card catalog still in use (for materials dating before 1980).

There was an interesting display about the history of libraries in the U.K. and included Andrew Carnegie and the many Mechanics Institute (membership libraries like the one where I worked in San Francisco) and this odd invention before the card catalog: 

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