Chapels, Tombs, Portraits, Shopping and the Hike That Wasn’t

Oh what fun I have had with my friends!! We have been so busy checking out all of the amazing things Edinburgh has to offer! On Tuesday,  June 25, we had some classroom time working on creating different characters, and how they can be inspired by all kinds of things including animals, myths, and even images. 

We were joined by a local award winning author, Janice Makay, who shared lots of tips on how to really develop our characters through asking questions about about the character, like where do they live? What do they eat? Do they have any powers? It was really cool to see my friends create new creatures! 

We also had the opportunity to visit another one of Scotland’s incredible museums, the National Portrait Gallery. My friends and I wandered around the 3 floors of remarkable imagery! We were given a goal to select one of the images and come up with a new backstory for the person in the image. My friends are so creative they had so many wonderful stories to share when our time was up, everything from embellishing the original story to include other characters, to giving a whole life and family to others.

This is the night that we also got to check out the St James Mall and the Toppings Book Company. My friends and I had so much fun checking out the big statues in front of the mall, as well as the many different shops! The book store was incredible, there were even lots of books about me!!

Wednesday, June 26, saw me and my friends getting on a bus to check out a really old church… at least that is what I thought. But I was wrong, we got to check out a 15th century building that was once used in a Hollywood film!!! Rosslyn Chapel is a beautifully built stone chapel with hundreds of unique images and symbols carved into the stone. There are so many stories from within this building, and my friends got really excited to start working on their ideas. Unfortunately they don't let you take pictures inside the chapel, but we did take some outside with our group!

We had lunch at the chapel café before heading out to what was supposed to be a roughly 3 mile hike around Roslyn Glen…. But while we did set out for it, and even managed to find ourselves on the edge of the glen, we were unable to complete the hike. Part of the trail had experienced a landslide and so the majority of the hike was unavailable. 

Thursday, June 27 we dedicated our time to creating new worlds for our writing, including mapmaking! We took a quick field trip to check out The Apothecary's Tomb, the only known gravesite for someone that died of the plague in 1645. the site was used as an example for how much an area can change over time, and that we can use that in our writing to create our own worlds!

Our day was a little shorter than usual, because we had to pack and get ready for our trip to the Highlands, and check out my home Loch Ness!!!! I really hope we get to see some coos!