It's starting to look a lot like Christmas

Last Friday I ventured down with a friend to the Christmas Market.  It opened the week before but it was the first chance I had to go.  As usual the market fills you with Christmas spirit (even though it was only the 27th of November... I have sort of always felt Christmas celebrations should only start at the beginning of December but the market is too hard to resist.)

The stalls are very similar to last year with the odd new one.  We each indulged in a Bailey's Hot Chocolate and a chocolate covered marshmallow.  Both turned out to be excellent choices.  I will probably have to venture back at some point as a study break.

On the Sunday, I managed to get free tickets for a friend and I to tour The Palace of Holyroodhouse.  Commonly known as Holyrood Palace, it is the Queen's official residence in Scotland.  Built in the 16th and 17th centuries it has a lot of character.

The Entrance

What remains of the 16th century Abbey at the back of the Palace

Looking toward Salisbury Crags

 Lastly,  this past Thursday it started snowing outside the city.  When I left campus at 5pm there were snowflakes the size of golf balls.  They may have actually been the biggest snowflakes I have ever seen.  And in true Scottish fashion the snow started causing mayhem.  I was fortunate enough to have left campus early in the snowstorm so my bus ride was only about 10 minutes longer than normal.  But into the evening when I was home, we started getting emails about how bad the conditions were on campus and that all buses were cancelled and essentially every bus route was delayed.  It sounded like it was terrible conditions on campus!  But to put it in perspective for my Canadian friends and family, they got two inches of snow...  Not quite a Canadian quality snow storm but all the Scots were impressed.

The beginning of the snow storm

Some snow on the Kelpies the next morning (These are mini models of Kelpies statues that
are about an hour away.  The Kelpies were commissioned to honour the horse powered
heritage of Scotland.  These mini statues have been travelling around Edinburgh.)