The Edinburgh Adventure– Part One

Traveling by train to Edinburgh is both fun and easy. It takes only about two hours from Durham and you pass through Newcastle, Berwick, Dunbar and then to Waverley Station Edinburgh. Easy Peasy. My mission was to catch up with two NT friends and colleagues— Helen Bond and Larry Hurtado who are both at New College Edinburgh. I was asked to come and give a lecture to their seminar….. and it went well. Afterwards we went to Howies for lunch, with some traditional Scots cuisine— I had the cullen skink, the sweet potato fritata with onions, and the banoffee pie for dessert. Cullen Skink is in fact a fish soup, involving potatoes and smoked haddock. It was quite good. Banoffee pie is a combo of bananas and toffee in a pie. No calories there at all. A good time was had by all. Here are some photos I took on Tuesday a week ago on a bonny day in the center of Edinburgh.

This is a view from the hill where New College is, looking back across the train tracks toward Princes Street.

In this picture we are looking in the other direction, with New College on the left, and the castle at the top of the hill, at the very top of the Royal Mile.

Here’s me and Helen Bond, who teaches NT at New College. She and I are both D Phil graduates from Durham University, and she is in fact a native of county Durham.

Here are the spires of New College, where the Divinity School resides.

Here’s my friend Larry Hurtado and John Knox hovering above!

Here’s the library with the students all diligently studying for exams.

Here’s the dining hall, or Great Hall, and just below is it’s ceiling (N.B. they call this hall Hogwarts…. not least because J.K. Rowling lives just up the road from Larry Hurtado’s house).

And lastly for this post… a nice shot down the Royal Mile to the Palace and the firth….