National Museum of Scotland

The National Museum on Chambers Street contains just about everything you could ever want to see. Its ever-changing cutting edge exhibits are backed up by an expansive permanent collection covering everything from Space-travel to pottery to Kodiak Bears.

The Museum is open from 1000 to 1700 every day, and admission to the permanent collection is free.

Temporary exhibitions at the Museum are highly distinguished, and have recently included the Disney Pixar exhibition, exploring the rise of modern animation through the . From July the ‘Picasso: Fired with Passion’ examining hundreds off important works and objects from the artist’s life. The main focus of the exhibition is the most comprehensive collection of his ceramic pottery work seen in Britain for many years.

www.nms.ac.uk

The Jazz Bar

Tucked away underground at the opposite end of Chambers Street from the National Museum, The Jazz Bar offers the best live Jazz in town. Jazz-drumming owner Bill Kyle held out against adversity when his original premises were destroyed in the Cowgate fire of 2002 to ensure a platform for the best Scottish talent, both new and established, as well as an exciting range of acts from the rest of Britain and the World, all playing in a rarely intimate, cool venue. It’s open every night, and you can check out who’s playing on the website at or call on 0131 2204298