Sunday 5 October 2008

Royal Mile 23 - Scottish Parliament

At the bottom of the Royal Mile stands the Scottish Parliament. It was built at great expense but for all that money we did get a truly remarkable building. This carving is a relief of Edinburgh's old town, and the stones on the right are taken from various places in Scotland (there are many more to the right). At some point I'll write a bit more about the Parliament.

4 comments:

USelaine said...

I love all the ideas of geographic symbolism integrated into the wall here. I've seen pictures of the interior, but never this.

Kris McCracken said...

Is it a popular building with the locals?

Dido said...

Kris - nope not really, mainly because it cost about ten times over the (grossly underestimated) first quote. It's also a shame that the best vantage point for appreciating the building is directly above it... apparently!!

Kris McCracken said...

Well, one way to look at it is in comparison with the Sydney Opera House. People hated that because of its odd look ("a blight on the landscape", the said), it massively inflated cost, and the fact that it actually is an ordinary building to watch opera in. The same with the Eiffel Tower in Paris. That's all forgotten now, of course. Maybe Edinburgh will shift their perceptions also as the years go by.

[I myself happen to think that the Sydney Opera House is a nauseatingly overrated building, but what would I know!]