Yesterday was a busy day.
First I Went to three different museums.
- The Museum of Childhood, which was started by a man who really didn't seem to like kids, except in small doses (like myself). But for whatever reasons, he collected toys and had a lot of toys. Over the past 50 years or so, this museum was enlarged to include more and more toys. So while some was interesting, what was most interesting wasn't models of hundreds (it seems) of dolls, cars, trains, games, even childhood attire of the 1800's or 1900's-it was that until about 100 years ago (or so)-many kids didn't have toys in here. They started working at a young age-some having jobs like scaring birds away from the crops (for those who worked on farms). They we're little adults-without toys. Eventually, kids we're allowed to play on Sabbath (Gen. Sunday).
- The Museum of Edinburgh-this was quite interesting-Edinburgh has an old and new town-which too an average American both look very old. The Old Town has many tenements, and the huge castle on the hill, and was bordered by a body of water. This was mainly so until the unification with England around 1707. After unification, Edinburgh was no longer Capital, and needed to find a new purpose. So the thinkers, artists etc, tried to make it "Athens of the North" with a lot of Greek artchitecture, and also grided streets, vs the seemingly random allies and streets of old town. Oh yes, Old town was called "Ol' Reekie" or something like that, because of the inadequate sanitation, and people dumping their chamber pots of water (and other stuff) in the street-way up from tenements of 7-10 stories high.
- The National Gallery of Scotland-which contains some Scottish portraints, but also Renoir's, Monets and other impressionist/vs paintings. Renoirs and Monets are beautiful, but when i am in Scotland, I like seeing Scottish stuff-not the French countryside.
