August 25th, Day 29 - Edinburgh Tattoo

We had a big night ahead of us, but Constance and I headed out bright and early in the morning anyway starting at the National Museum of Scotland...

Upon entering the museum we went directly to the nearest elevator which took us to the 5th floor where we went outside to walk up two flights of these spiral stairs...

...and here is Constance giving me a dirty look for making her walk up those stairs...

...but once we made it to the top we had a spectacular 360 view of Edinburgh....here's the castle...

...and Constance enjoying the view of the castle...

I think this tall building is the Tolbooth Church - now known as the Hub - information central for all theatre festival...

The museum itself was one of my favorites we've visited so far. Among the many exhibits, there was one in particular that I managed to get lost in for a good long time. It was about Britian during World Wars I and II and contained the stories of real life people.

The museum also had a special exhibit of the Lewis Chessmen... 

Ninety-three gaming pieces were found on a beach in Scotland in 1831 - they are carved out of walrus ivory and whales' teeth. There is much mystery surrounding the origin of the pieces and how they came to be buried on a beach in Scotland. Whatever their history they certainly are intriguing to look at and wonder about!

We eventually made our way out of the museum and up the hill and down the other side to Princes Street - the big fancy shopping street in Edinburgh...strickly for browsing though we did go into the Marks and Spencer for some picnic food. It was a gorgeous day and we found a bench in Princes Street Gardens to rest our bottoms and enjoy our lunch.

After that it was back to hotel for a rest before our big night out - the Tattoo! We wandered around looking for a place for dinner before the Tattoo and landed in a little cafe sitting next to woman eating alone. A few men in uniform walked in all three of us turned to look and she said, "You're never too old to look!" which, naturally, sparked a conversation. It turned out she was from the American south, but married a man who was "in oil" which moved her family to Aberdeen for many yearas - though she was currently living in Paris. How glamorous! Her kids were all grown and she never said where her husband was, but she was in Edinburgh for the theatre festival. She "flew over for a long weekend..." Ah, what a life....

But I digress...we were headed for the Tattoo...

...the view from our seats - perfect!

...the crowd!

Some spectators really got into the spirit...

Constance and I were just happy to be there...

Opening the event was the Massed Pipes & Drums, featuring an enormous band – 12 pipe bands in all – made up of the very best pipe bands from across the globe!

It a bit fuzzy, but this is a picture of the Imps Motorcycle Display Team - a group of 38 youngsters aged 5 (FIVE!) to 16...

The Citadel Pipes from the Military College of South Carolina...

Echoes of Jordan

77 armed forces musicians from the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, accompanied by a 24-strong Drill Team, a Mounted Honour Guard – astride 8 military horses – and its six member Circassian Guard of Honour!

Kinloch Anderson Highland Dancers together with a young group from New Zealand

 Representative Band of the Border Guard of the Republic of Poland...I think that is what this picture is of...grrrr...my photos came out so blurry! They were wearing green capes and round hats with an eagle feather.

The New Zealand Army Band

I know - another blurry one, but this is some of the British Army's "finest gymnasts." The Army's Physical Training Corps was celebrating its 150th anniversary.

The grand finale brought everyone back onstage...

Such an impressive production!

Constance and I had a great time at the Tattoo, but she refused to go along with my idea of the two of us getting an actual tattoo to commemorate the experience...

August 24th, Day 28 - Edinburgh

Once again, Constance and I hopped on a train and headed for her homeland - Scotland! Edinburgh to be exact. Our mission was the to see the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo which is a giant military musical extravaganza that has been held every year for a few weeks since 1950. In fact this year marked the Diamond Jubilee of the Tattoo! For those of you who don't know, the entire UK portion of our trip centered on our tickets to the Tattoo. Once we secured our tickets to this event we were able to plan everything else around it. So you see, this event was a main event of our trip...if not, the main event.

But first we had to get to Edinburgh. The train was no problem...we took a cab to the train station in York, got on the train (we were old hands at this part by now) and got off the train at the Waverly Station in Edinburgh. The real challenge, believe it or not, was getting out of the train station! One thing we noticed right away about Edinburgh is the lack of elevators and escalators. Constance is a strong gal (she plowed the back 40 acres for years according to my dad), and I'm in relatively decent shape, but neither one of us is what you would call a spring chicken and when you add on a couple of pieces of luggage and no elevator or escalator in sight, you end up with two tired old ladies before we even get started!

What we did find was a ramp...a long relatively steep ramp, so I would say it was more of a hill...that we were able to make our way out of the station on. Once out, I had the brilliant idea (yet another one) that we could walk to our hotel, but after looking around and seeing all of the other hills we would have to climb, we opted for a cab and made our way to the Apex International Hotel. The Apex is a modern hotel and both Constance and I were glad for it after our historical stay in York...not that we didn't enjoy York and all it's history, but we are a couple of modern old gals after all!

We decided to take a walk around the city and find where we would need to be the next day for the Tattoo. This meant that we had to walk...up a hill! Buns of steele is what Constance and I will have by the end of our time in Edinburgh! Well, we should have had anyway...

...the first part of the hill...West Bow...

Buns of steele or not, this is what we found at the top of the hill...a new wave bag piper and drummer...one in a kilt and one with tattoos and funny goggles!

From there we found directions to the queue for the actual tattoo...

 

From there we found the Deacons Cafe and had a delicious lunch. On one of the walls hung this plaque of thistle...the words underneath mean (in Irish Gaelic apparently) One hundred thousand welcomes...

This gothic building is disappointingly called The Hub and is a place of information on all that is going on for the Edinburgh Festival - the theatre festival we landed in the midst of...

Further on we found a proper Scottish piper...

...and then, the stands where we'll be sitting for the Tattoo just outside of the Edinburgh Castle...

...where all the action will take place for the Tattoo...

...over the Castle bridge, but not in the Castle itself - Constance wanted a picture of the the coat of arms...

...and of course, a picture of her in a phone booth...or phone box in the United Kingdom...

High Street, Edinburgh...

As we walked along High Street - which turned into the Royal Mile (the stretch of road that runs between the castle and the Palace of Holyrood House) we ran into the new Scottish Parliament Building designed by Catalan architecht Enrico Miralles and build in 2005...

...the side of the building is filled with engravings of various sayings by various poets...this one Constance and I especially liked....

...but the building itself, we thought, was quite an eyesore...

From here we took a walk through the gift shop of the Holyrood House before getting on a city bus (so as to avoid walking up yet another hill) and making our way back to the Apex Hotel..

...the view from which was lovely...Edinburgh Castle at night...

August 23rd, Day 27 - York, Day 3

Our last full day in York was a rainy one but that didn't deter Constance and I from hitting the pavement for some culture...

We made our way past York Minster once again on our way to the Yorkshire Museum...

Constance navigating her way around the puddles around the Minster

A watcher of the Minster...

Constance patiently waiting for me outsite the Yorkshire Museum...can you see her? She's the one with her hand on the bench on the right...

The Yorkshire Museum was closed for nine months and had recently reopened on August 1st of this year, newly refurbished with lots of new interactive exhibits for adults and kids alike. Most of the museum is dedicated to the history of York with a ton of archeological artifacts including the York Helmet which was found by a mechanical digger while the area was being prepared for the building of a new York shopping center. It is only one of three fully in tact examples from the Anglican period in England.

The York Helmet - also known as the Coppergate Helmet, after the area in which it was found.

Amongst all of the historical artifacts of York in particular and England in general, there is an entire section of the museum dedicated to a biology collection containing over 200,000 specimens from all the major biological groups. It was a little odd to find this in such a museum and to be honest, at that point in our tour, Constance and I had little interest so we decided to head outside to the gardens to get a closer look at St. Mary's Abbey.

Originally built in 1088, the Abbey is now, obviously in ruins...

Constance in ruins...I mean, in the ruins...or amongst the ruins...

...and me, of course, in ruins!

After our tour of the museum we decided to take a walk along the river Ouse - the proper part of the river walk as opposed to the day before...

So proper in fact, we found a section dedicated to none other than Dame Judi Dench...that's Constance there, not the Dame...though she bears a striking resemblance don't you think?

August 22 Day 26 - York Day 2

York day two was our first full day in the city - and it was a full day indeed!

The first thing we wanted to do was take a walk on the city walls York has more miles of intact city walls than anywhere else in England and some sections date all the way back to Roman times - the 2nd Century! The walls have four main gates - or "bars" as they are called in York (they call gates "bars" and streets "gates...go figure) - that will lead you into the city center.

Constance on the wall having a peek into someone's backyard...just kidding, but there were what looked to be townhouses on that side of the wall.

Constance having rest on the wall.

After our walk on the wall - well a small section of the wall - I had the brilliant idea to walk along the river Ouse (pronounced ooze!) until we made our way to the York Castle Museum. Unfortunately, we had a problem finding a path to the river - we could see it but couldn't find the way to the path that ran alongside it. After walking for a few minutes we did find the path along the river, but it wasn't a very nice section of the river...certainly not the portion that was meant for a leisurely stroll. Once we came upon a rather steep set of stairs we opted to get off the river path and head for the main street where we first happened upon a street named Margaret...



...where I forced Constance (a.k.a. Meg, short for Margaret) to let me take her picture...

and then we happened to run into the dapper older gentleman from the day before! He was so nice. We stopped and chatted for a bit and discovered he was visiting from London for a christening (since we arrived in London two days ago I've been expecting to run into him again).

Eventually, we did make our way to the York Castle Museum, but we first stopped for a look at (and for me a climb up) Cliffords Tower.

Yes, that's me at the top...I ran the whole way - at least two steps at a time...

Cliffords Tower didn't seem terribly interesting - until I read this on a plaque at the bottom:

On the night of Friday 16 March 1190 some 150 Jews and Jewesses of York having sought protection in the Royal Castle on this site from a mob incited by Richard Malebisse and others chose to die at each others hands rather than renounce their faith.

The mob grew so great and upon reaizing they'd never get out alive, they decided to set the keep on fire. Miraculously, there were some who survived only to be massacred by the waiting mob the next morning. I am so ignorant of so much, but I did learn something today. 

Right across the street from Cliffords Tower was the York Castle Museum which wasn't at all what I thought it was going to be! I expected a tour through a castle with royal artifacts and paintings and portraits, but what we found was a museum chock full of information about everyday life - how people (British people mainly) have lived throughout the ages. From Victorian times to the groovy 60s, from pop culture to prisons!

Constance in the stock...I forced her into this one too...

This was the only picture I took at the York Castle Museum...but isn't it a grand one?

After the stock, we headed for York Minster...

The first York Minster was built the year 627...this one here took something like 250 years to build!

I believe it's one of the largest - or finest according to some - of its kind...

 

The Nave...

The ceiling from the middle of the cathedral...

One of the many grand stained glass windows...

The massive organ pipes!

And then there's this guy who stands amongst 14 other statues in the Quire Screen (this leads into the Quire (choir) room) - they are said to be 15 kings of England, but I thought it looked like he was looking at his nails...

And thus ends our first full day in York. What better way to end our day than a fancy dinner right in our own room?

Complete with authentic Yorkshire wine...classy I know...