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...