Petworth Park by Turner – at The National Galleries for Scotland

We went to the Turner exhibition in Edinburgh this week, it was the second attempt as he tried to see it last Friday but the queue was long and it was going to be an hour before we even got into the gallery. We had to give up as we didn’t want to get a parking ticket.

In some ways things were even worse when we went back on Tuesday as the end of the queue was outside the Royal Scottish Academy and it was cold. We were out there an hour before we got into the building. Then another hour inside the building before we got in to see the Turner paintings, the ones that are usually in Dublin.

This view of a sunset at Petworth Park is one of my favourites.

Sunset over Petworth Park

I’ve also added Petworth House to our list of places to visit – eventually. I’ll blog about more of the exhibition soon, it comes to an end at the end of January.

Another Trip to Edinburgh

Last week we decided to have another jaunt over to Edinburgh, mainly to visit the J.M.W. Turner watercolour exhibition which is on every January and then disappears for the rest of the year.

So we made our way along Princes Street to The National Gallery where we met up with a couple of family members who had never seen the watercolours. You can have a look at the collection and watch a wee video here. It’s a bit of an annual pilgrimage for us, but this time it was busier than usual, it serves us right for going on a Saturday!

After that it was time for lunch so we crossed Princes Street and went up South Saint David Street (I think – I’m not good with Edinburgh’s geography), turned left into George Street to have lunch at The Dome. It’s a fabulously ornate building in Edinburgh’s New Town (which of course is quite old by now, Georgian in fact.)
Dome

The Dome

The Dome was indeed originally a bank, it definitely has that feel about it, very opulent, all of our poshest buildings seem to have been built by banks – nothing changes does it?

The Dome

The Dome

You can see more images of The Dome here.

After that we went back up to Princes Street, really so that we could sign up to become ‘friends’ of The National Galleries.
Princes Street

Princes Street

Then we walked through the Christmas market, I thought it would have been cleared away by now but it’s still hanging on. It is really incongruous to see these fairground rides sitting cheek by jowl with Sir Walter Scott’s monument. I must say that they do get a great view of it from those swing seats but you won’t catch me up there!

Princes Street Gardens Christmas 7