Scotland- Edinburgh, the ancient modern city

Edinburgh- the capital city of Scotland is one of the most picturesque cities in Europe. Skyline here is full of medieval buildings and the city gets a unusual unique look because of the hills formed by the ancient volcano in the middle of the city and the castles, the important buildings and the monuments built on them. Taking a stroll on the streets lined with medieval buildings was like Time Travel :) I visited most of the attractions, but most of them are either museums, war memorials and castles.

Pap of Glen Coe!

When we were driving near Glen Coe our tour guide/driver pointed at this hill and said "see on your right ... Pap of Glen Coe". At first I thought it was one of his numerous cheap jokes. Then checking on internet proved that there is one mountain with this name which is a very popular trekking destination but, not sure this is the one! Or I might have seen from a different angle! Whatever ... here is the Pap of Glen Coe which I saw :)

Took this picture from the van as a record shot and so there is some reflection. Blue sky, clouds look nice and interesting hill huh?
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My trip to Scotland

Typical scene- Highlands, Scotland

I had been to Scotland few years ago and happened to visit again recently which refreshed my memories all over again. But, never got a chance to blog about my experiences in the country abundant in history, castles and ruins. The history and legends make the wild beauty of the highlands and the islands of Scotland more special.

Modern Architecture- Mary Avenue Foot Bridge

I have a fascination to shoot bridges at night! I have taken too much of risk to be all alone in pitch dark near the water getting bit by millions of mosquitoes. But, still I do take pictures of these modern architecture masterpieces. 

This is Mary Avenue footbridge  with a span of 325ft across 10-lanes of interstate 280 connecting Cupertino and Sunnyvale in California. It is the first cable-stayed foot-bicycle bridge across a highway in California. At night the bridge is lit up and is a beautiful sight!

Flying home ...

One pic from archives ... My trip to American SouthWest last October. I was at Salton Sea, California, the last pit stop of the trip. Very interesting place starting from its creation, formations and birds. Beautiful bird huh?

Moaning Cavrens- An amazing vertical cave!

When I lived in California I had been to many hidden gems of this golden state. California is much more than amusement parks around Los Angeles, Golden Gate bridge, Lake Tahoe and Yosemite national park. It extends to badlands, high Sierras, wonderful waterfalls, forests studded with brown bears, sky kissing coastal redwoods, beautiful shorelines, caves, lakes and great cities! One such small hidden gem is Moaning Cavern in Calaveras County. ! It is a vertical cave chamber where one can go rappelling 165 ft down! 

I visited this place and few other very interesting nearby places sometime last year which I am posting now! I have been to many caverns but Moaning cavern is amazing because of the rappelling experience.  Those rock-mushrooms on the walls as you descend! To add to that in this trip, I camped at Calaveras Big Trees State Park and visited Natural Bridges where I swam across the cave, Columbia State Historic Park and drove all those 61 miles on Ebbetts Pass Scenic Byway where the elvation ranges between 4,000 to 8,7000ft! This area is surrounded by the Gold Rush towns, mountains and alpine valleys!

Lake Powell and the sky ...

This picture is from archives ... an year ago ... late October in Page, Arizona. I took a boat ride to Rainbow Bridge National Monument ... the bridge is accessible only by a boat. For around 9hrs I was surrounded by this scenery ...Cool huh?

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This post linked to Skywatch Friday.

If you want pictures please ask me :)
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Scrapbook- A Travel Blog by Kusum Sanu is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.