Fringe Festival

August is Fringe Festival Month in Edinburgh.  This means almost 24 hour entertainment all over town.  The Ibis Hotel, where we stayed several times during our visit, is located right in the middle of the Royal Mile and the perfect spot for buskers of all abilities to perform.  We saw knife and flame jugglers, high-ride monocyclists, and stunts we have no words for.  Most were okay, a few quite good, all with hats out for “donations.”

 

 In addition, at venues throughout town, performers danced, acted, sang, and, yes, spat water.  We saw performances that we never would have ventured to see at home and most were more than worth the ticket price.  Dancers and acrobats moved their bodies as if they were made of rubber.

 

The one we enjoyed the most was the one we were least inclined to see.  As you walk along the Royal Mile, performers thrust flyers at you to get you to their performances.  Anna Lee has a habit of asking people with American accents where they are from.  We watch a trio of men spewing water from their mouths like fountains.  One of them came up to hand us a card for their show Human Fountains and he had an American accent.  Turns out he is from Denver, Anna Lee’s home town.  (Some of you know this story and may want to proceed to the pictures.)   We were less than interested in going but somehow changed our minds.  The show is a laugh-out loud water spitting event.

 

The man we had seen on the streets invited Bennett on stage.  You would have thought, he was part of the show.  He fit right in ducking and dodging their spewing.  They even took a bow with him.

 

 As we were leaving, Anna Lee asked the man if his mother knew what he did.  She does and was in the audience.  Turns out, from lots of back and forth, that we are related in a distant way.  Image, traveling 5000 miles and meeting kin.

This sums up what was a fabulous family trip to experience new sites and adventures.  With all we saw and did, to us the best part of the trip was the people we met.  They were warm, friendly, amusing and welcoming.  Our view of the Scots puts them at the top of the list of most friendly in all our travels (except maybe for the penguins in Antarctica).