Christmas is coming!!!

Yep, I know it's not the end of November yet but this weekend saw the start of Edinburgh's Christmas. The Christmas markets opened on Friday night and on Sunday Sir Chris Hoy switched on the streets lights. It's all change this year with a new company running the Christmas festivities in Edinburgh, there is a new Big Wheel (this year it has enclosed cabins and they have moved it slightly), the "German Market" has been extended (it's now a "European" market and the "Highland village" has moved to St. Andrew Square where there's also a bar (although it looks like it's run by Heineken so no decent beer :-( ) There is also a very high spinny thing in St. Andrew Square, you sit in little chairs hanging on chains and it raises you well above the roof tops (45 metres high) and spins around :-) No doubt this will be a popular shot for photographer doing long exposure shots although it might be hard to beat this one.

The lighting ceremony was on George Street this year (instead of at the Mound) so I haven't seen the Christmas Tree on the Mound yet, but there were multiple stages along the street with choirs and dancing going on, it was pretty busy and I picked the wrong spot to see the fireworks properly (they were on the roof of the Assembly Rooms) but I managed to get this shot. The lights on George Street are fairly subdued (as seen in the picture) and I didn't see any lights on Princes Street (just lots of Tram overhead cables)! But no doubt the trees in Princes Street Gardens will be covered in their usual lights and there will be lots of pretty pictures to take, all we need now is some snow!