It was nice not to have to pack up and move this morning. So after a leisurely breakfast we headed off with our local guide Alan for a morning sojourn around Edinburgh. Having toured some of the streets and looked at the monuments such as the Gothic Rocket to Sir Walter Scott and the home of Robert Louis Stevenson, our first stop was Holyrood palace, the queen’s official residence when she is in Edinburgh. This palace has a chequered history; it was the home of Mary, Queen of Scots and site of the murder of her lover Rizzio. The section of the castle built by Mary has 6 foot thick walls and secret passageways. The remainder of the castle, built by Charles II only has 3 feet thick walls. The furnishings are not elaborate in the French palatial sense but are very beautiful and we heard some bloodthirsty tales about the too-ing and fro-ing of English Scottish relations from our guide, who I suspect had a particularly Scottish bent. On the site adjacent to the castle are the ruins of the Augustinian Abbey built in the early 12 century by King David and virtually destroyed completely by Cromwell. We have seen some real disasters in the name of religion in the last 3 weeks and this is a great example of the destruction in the name of god or godlessness in this case.Then we headed up the Royal Mile, the road that links Holyrood with Edinburgh Castle up on the hill. It was awash with people and cars everywhere and because of the Edinburgh festival it is a mall for some distance. So we skirted around, hearing the story of the dog that the children of Edinburgh had buried in front of one of the churches that Disney made into a movie. Then it was destination castle.
The bus drove right onto the esplanade in front of the castle… this is the pavement where the tattoo would take place tonight. How exciting. We were told approx where our seats would be for this evening’s performance and then Alan took us off on the long hike up the cobblestones laid by French Prisoners after the Napoleonic wars to see the various parts of the castle. It is still an active military base and so there are soldiers on duty all day and there is a mess hall and the like up there. The castle dates way back to 12 century although Robert the Bruce actually dismantled much of it to prevent the English from laying claim to it. One part of the castle today is a war memorial to Scottish soldiers which is very moving. In another section there is a tiny chapel with only room for 16 people that was built for Queen (later Saint) Margaret of Scotland. But by far the most exciting exhibit was the “Honours of Scotland” the Crown Jewels which date back to the time of James IV and which have a coloured history. There is a sceptre and sword and crown and they are quite exquisite. The other thing that accompanies the honors is the “Stone of Destiny” or 
Scotland’s coronation stone of Scone on which Scottish kings and queens were crowned from the middle ages. It appears as though the English appropriated the stone to Westminster Abbey where it had also been used as a coronation stone and it was only returned to Edinburgh in the later 20th century. We also checked out the extraordinary view over Edinburgh to be had from the castle, saw the venue for the lone piper… wow it THAT up high,before making the way back down all the cobblestones to meet Alan. It was a terrific morning.
Back at the hotel we grabbed lunch from Marks and Spencer’s and then headed out to do a little shopping. While out the brilliant sunshine gave way to a very heavy shower… Booooooo and hisssssss! This was not in the forecast and did not bode well for this evening and anyway Chris and Liz were SOAKED!!! Had to get changed before meeting for our optional tour of the Royal Yacht Britannia which is moored at Leith, the port of Edinburgh. Now that was an interesting insight into Royalty.
In some ways it is very plain and in other ways so amazingly opulent. Yacht is really a misnomer... it is actually a cruise ship and I imagine that Queen Bess is a little upset that she didn’t get given a new one when the Britannia had to be decommissioned. After the yacht tour we had dinner at Malmaison, a very ritzy hotel restaurant in the Port area and then headed back to collect the others for the tattoo. How exciting it was finally here.The seats at the tattoo are totally and completely squishy. Sardines in a can springs readily to mind. We were very lucky and asked for the seat on the end of the row because of Liz’s dodgy knee. So glad we did as she could extend it into the aisle a little. The Tattoo commenced with the massed pipes and drums and ended with the massed bands, just like it always does. In between there were performances from the NZ and Scottish highland dancers, the Jordanian army, the south Carolina Citadel Band, the Imps motorcycles precision team and the Military calisthenics troupe to name a few. They were all just so good but our favorite was probably the New Zealand Army Band who were very entertaining in their style of performance and played Colonel Bogey and St Louis Blues in one set. Yeah!!!! The whole night was so fantastic… it was everything that we had hoped for and more and they even recorded for the BBC so watch out when it comes to OZ… there might be a couple of mad Aussies on the end of a row in the middle of the stands about half way up having a far too good time.
At the end of the tattoo it is utter chaos as people leave and so we just walked very carefully down the Royal Mile and the Mound and back down to our hotel, so grateful that we were staying within walking distance and didn’t have to fight the masses off to find a coach and then sit in traffic for ages to get back. You see Edinburgh has a population of less than 500,000 but during festival time that is augmented to the tune of 1.5 million tourists per day… any wonder it was squishy… But WOW. Soooooo good!
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