of apes and other illusions

Today is the last day of our half term break, strangely this is just three days, not quite long enough to go away but too long to just hang about. Last year we went to the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. You can read about it here. On our (roundabout way) to the train station we walked past Camera Obscura and decided that this would be our next day out in Edinburgh. Like last year, we went with my friend Christine and her two children.

I managed to get a photo of all my clan, including myself (but excluding Richard, who was at work). The latter is not always easy as I don't own a selfie stick and my kids are not too keen on taking their old mum's photo.

Tradition has it that we wonder around a bit, visit the joke shop, then have lunch at a tiny Italian restaurant and then cross the road to the sweets shop. In the joke shop we bought inflatable tongues and fishy tasting sweets. As you do.

It took rather a long time but we did eventually arrive at the Camera Obscura. What a fantastic place it is, worth every penny. This didn't stop me from wincing with pain when paying for the tickets!

We went to the roof top first and admired the view. It was a dull and hazy day but the roof tops and the hills in the distance were still stunning.

The actual camera obscura was cool, we saw Edinburgh through a tiny camera through the roof, projected onto a concave plate of sorts. It was fun to see people and cars moving around. Here is a Wikipedia link to explain what a camera obscura is. After the show, we made our way downstairs, there were four floors of exiting exhibits and 'magic' tricks to be experienced. It is a truly hands-on place and suitable for all ages. There were many mindboggling optical tricks and illusions and I have tried to capture some for you. We swapped noses, indeed we swapped entire faces, we moved left hands but saw right hands moving, and we admired ourselves in mirrors. Look at James and me, we are all legs!

We played with electricity and light and looked down infinite 'wormholes'.

 

We played with light and shadows, saw our skeletons dance and viewed ourselves through the lens of a heat imaging camera. Did you notice the scissors in my tummy? I must get that seen to! There were some creepy critters about, too.

There was a ladder to Australia and room where proportion were not quite right.

 

Unfortunately, two of my children lost their heads.

But not until after we had morphed into different versions of ourselves. I particularly liked the chimpanzee version of myself. What a laugh. I wasn't so keen on my caricature, or my manga version.

Sam at different ages and more or less feminine was even better. He also suits the ape look.

There was an amazing (if somewhat frightening) mirror maze and a stomach churning moving caleidoscopic vortex (sick bags not provided). The vortex spat us out at the exit, exhausted but happy.

Best of all? The museum shop was small and unassuming. Sam bought me a bar of white chocolate with Toblerone mountains. Happily (if slightly nauseous) we ambled to the train station. We made it with one minute to spare and collapsed in our seats, ready for bed. Days like that make up for days that are not so great and we'll treasure that memory for a long time to come. I will anyway.

Enjoy your evening wherever you are! Hugs to all of you, far and near. Cx