A thing of beauty is a joy forever

A visit to Edinburgh today. Slight indecision - was it to be the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art or the newly refurbished Scottish National Portrait Gallery? There are so many outstanding places to visit, but we hadn't been to the Portrait Gallery since it reopened on the 1st December 2011. So, the Portrait Gallery it was!
Located on Queen Street in the heart of Edinburgh, the Gallery first opened to the public in 1889 as the first purpose-built portrait gallery in the world!

Today, the Gallery was busy. Edinburgh schools stop at lunch time on Fridays so there were families, friends meeting for lunch, some artists with sketch pads and others such as ourselves taking time to enjoy the new, light, airy galleries with their own special time in history, the people, the places and the issues which combine to create a dynamic portrait of Scotland.

My blip shows the inner entrance hall from the first floor looking down upon the marble statue of Robert Burns. This entrance hall is stunning and you could remain in it for some time looking up and marvelling at its beauty.