No.16 Medieval Memories

The little town, where the little girl lived, was sometimes a bit too little. There were shops to buy the basics, butchers, bakers (no candlestick makers), but the town was just too little to have all the shops you might ever need. For this reason the little girl was occasionally taken on shopping trips to Edinburgh.

The little girl loved to go shopping there because a trip to Edinburgh also gave her the opportunity to see the castle and the other amazing old buildings. The main shopping street was in an area that was called “The New Town”. The buildings in that area were certainly newer than the castle but were still a hundred to two hundred years old. Elegant buildings, spacious grand squares and wide streets, terraces and crescent streets with tucked away lanes to hidden smaller mews buildings. It amazed the little girl to think that these large elegant buildings were once someones home, long since converted into offices, shops, and restaurants.

The castle loomed over the main shopping street area from its rocky pedestal. It felt like the castle could be seen from almost anywhere in the city. The little girl enjoyed walking up towards the castle because it meant going through “The Old Town”. Here there were ancient buildings and streets, centuries old and very different from “The New Town”. Tall quirky buildings, squeezed in together on cobbled narrow streets and even narrower alleyways. The buildings jostled to get as close to castle as possible, crowding around it since medieval times. It felt claustrophobic and crowded, but also sociable and lively. It amazed the little girl to think of all the people who had lived here in these ancient buildings over hundreds of years.