Royal Botanic Garden

Spectacular

A short walk from our flat is one of the world's leading botanic gardens. This is yet another reason we picked Edinburgh and the Stockbridge neighborhood. We took a two-hour naturalist guided tour and were struck by just how international this place is; they have plants from and cooperative agreements with countries all over the world; Chili, China, and Nepal were featured on our tour.

This place is spectacular, not just what you can see, but the work that goes on behind the scenes. The garden of 60 acres includes a quarter million plants and features special collections of rhododendrons and heaths. The herbarium holds almost two million dried specimens.

Five years ago, when we returned home from seeing countless elaborate ceilings in Italy (including the Sistine Chapel), we thought about starting a project to upgrade a couple ceilings in our house. After today's visit to the Botanic garden, we are talking about upgrading our yard at home. Not. Never gonna' happen. Nice fantasy, though.