Edinburgh exciting in August
My wife, Diane, and I flew to Scotland on Aug. 12, 2007, for what was our fifth visit to the Edinburgh International Festival (The Hub, Castlehill, Edinburgh, Scotland EH1 2NE, UK; phone +44 [0] 131 473 2099, www.eif.co.uk) and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (180 High St., Edinburgh, Scotland EH1 1QS, UK; phone +44 [0] 131 226 0026, www.edfringe.com).
It also was our third stay at what is now our favorite B&B in Edinburgh, Geraldsplace (Abercromby Place 21B, Edinburgh, Scotland EH3 6QE, UK; phone +4413 1558 7017, www.geraldsplace.com).
Gerald Della Porta offers a small accommodation for only two couples, but the B&B is elegant and highly rated. Gerald cooks you a full, and I mean full, English breakfast or you can enjoy an excellent porridge (my personal favorite) or any of several whole-grain cereals plus fresh fruits and juices and, of course, toast and coffee or tea.
Our 18-day/17-night stay cost £1,853 (near $3,728). Additionally, Gerald graciously purchased Lothian bus passes for us (£80, or $161, for which we had to send him passport-sized photos) plus, at an additional £44.50 ($90), tickets to the Edinburgh Military Tattoo (32 Market St., Edinburgh, Scotland EH1 1QB, UK; phone +44 [0] 131 225 1188, www.edintattoo.co.uk).
Before we left home, at a local Travelex facility (a replacement for what had been a Thomas Cook) we purchased a check in Gerald’s name in British pounds drawn on a Barclay bank.
We like Gerald’s Place not only because of its gracious host but for its location. A bus stop providing access to three Lothian lines is only a block away, and walking another block gives you access to two more Lothian bus lines, thereby providing access to, literally, all of Edinburgh.
We immersed ourselves in the International and Fringe festivals right up to our necks. We saw one improv musical, 14 one-act plays, 11 comedy acts, four orchestra concerts, six 2-act plays, five music recitals, six stand-up comedy routines, four (purportedly) children’s shows, which were delightful, one opera and one musical review, plus we attended the Military Tattoo, visited three museums and the Edinburgh International Book Festival (5a Charlotte Sq., Edinburgh, Scotland EH2 4DR, UK; phone 0131 718 5666, www.edbookfest.co.uk) and watched extremely clever and talented street performers.
Yes, there were days when we were literally going from one event to another, with maybe an hour or so in between. The fact is the city is literally one gigantic complex of small, medium and large venues: such places as pubs, churches, theaters, temporary structures, school auditoriums, museum meeting rooms, lodge halls and (once) a very large public rest room.
There were 380 Fringe Festival venues, at least five of which where one could literally spend all day going to one performance after another:
Traverse Theatre, at 10 Cambridge Street, offered basically one- or 2-act plays in two auditoriums with a bar/pub and two restaurants.
The Assembly Rooms, at 54 George Street, is a complex of a large auditorium plus six or so smaller rooms and offered everything from one-act plays to magicians, music, comedy and improv. It had a snack bar upstairs and a sandwich bar at street level.
Pleasance Courtyard, at 60 The Pleasance, with snack bars and a small restaurant, has an enormous hall and many smaller theaters, offering plays, stand-up comedy and musicals.
Gilded Balloon, at 31 Bristo Square, and the Udderbelly, also at Bristo Square, each with snack bars, offered comedy, one-act plays and other entertainment.
The five Fringe Festival venues above have websites. They are easily accessible from Lothian bus lines, but in the case of Pleasance, the Gilded Balloon and Udderbelly there is also a short walk.
An excellent Fringe venue for standup comedy is The Stand, at 5 York Place.
The only International Festival venues we attended were Usher Hall, near the Traverse Theatre, and King’s Theatre at 2 Leven Street.
The visiting orchestras for the International Festival in 2007 included the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, the Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the San Francisco Symphony.
Fringe Festival venue prices ranged from free to about £16. We are Friends of the Fringe and so got a discount; we paid out about £600. We purchased some £400 of tickets online and then bought tickets for a number of recommended performances when we were there.
The International Festival this year had six active venues, with tickets costing from £8 to £40. We spent about £206 for seven events. On the last night there was a Bank of Scotland fireworks concert which cost £25 for a seat or £10 to stand.
Certain International Festival events sell out pretty fast (we did not have complete control of where we wanted to sit). Fringe events tend to be easier to book, since so many offer more than one performance; however, favorite performers will sell out all of their appearances fast.
Tickets for the Edinburgh Military Tattoo cost from £13 to £44 ($26-$89). The Saturday 10:30 p.m. performance cost £3 more because it had a marvelous fireworks display.
There are several restaurants in Edinburgh that we can recommend. Our favorites are Stac Polly (29-33 Dublin St.), where we spent £93 ($187); Bellini (8a Abercromby Place), £101 ($203), which included the greatest Strega I’ve ever had; The Wee Windaes (144 High St., the Royal Mile), £56 ($113); Haldane’s (13b Dundas St.), £70 ($141); Magnum (1 Albany St.), £52, and Cafe Marlayne (7 Old Fishmarket Close off High Street), £51.
Prices of the preceding dinners for two each included a bottle of wine. In general, the bottles were significantly more expensive than comparable ones in the USA. All of these restaurants have websites.
A pub that has really great haggis, for £19 ($38), is Auld Hundred (100 Rose St.).
If you have any interest in the arts, music, theater, comedy, film or books and their authors, then Edinburgh in August is the place you want to be. The museums had a marvelous showing of Andy Warhol, etchings that Picasso had done late in his life and career and lectures on select paintings.
The Book Festival not only had literature for sale but offered lectures/talks and book signings by visiting authors of renown. The Edinburgh International Film Festival had new releases as well as some old favorites.
DONALD B. THOMPSON
Garden Grove, CA