Adam turned six today and was greatly excited to celebrate his birthday. He had seen advertisements for Camera Obscura, World of Illusions, and was quite interested to visit. So we all headed over at opening time to beat the crowds. Happily, the end of October brought the end of the fall holidays for British schools and we had the place to ourselves. The prior week we had seen lines out the door to get in, so the timing of his birthday worked out well.The Camera Obscura part is a Victorian-era telescoping lens with mirrors that reflects a natural-light image of Edinburgh onto a concave table top. When viewed on a sunny day in a darkened room, you clearly see a live image of life outside and can zoom in and swivel around to see the complete view. Since they are located right next to Edinburgh castle on a hill atop the city, the view is impressive.
You can also see the many tourists walking around the plaza outside the castle and take pieces of paper to “pick” them up and “shake” them and put them down. Or make little paper tents for the cars to drive “over.” This was quite fun for the children and even though it was drizzly, we got an idea of what it was. They also offered us a free reentry for another, sunnier, day, which we took them up on.
We would have included a picture here, but it was too dark to capture!
Then we explored the other four floors which were full of optical illusions, interactive exhibits and displays that trick the eye.
Our favorite was the mirror maze - so tricky several kids walked into the mirror trying to find the way out. Right next to it is the vortex - a darkened tunnel of spinning lights that so tricks your brain you can barely walk across the twenty foot bridge through it in a straight line. We went through each a dozen times before anyone tired of them.
The day was capped with pizza and a movie at home and the chocolate cake Adam had picked out himself. It was quite a successful birthday celebration!
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