all rolled into one along with what seems like hundreds of thousands
of tourists equals Edinburgh on steriods !
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| Fringe - the world's largest arts festival! |
Slept the sleep of the righteous – or the
dead tire and it was actually my alarm clock that woke me up at 7. Had to go
find breakfast as none in my arrangement there – sigh. Had gotten used to the
wonderful Scottish breakfasts. Actually if the truth were known I was not very
happy to be in a big city. Weird that.
I walked in the correct direction stopping
for a cappuccino (good) and a scone (not quite so good if not downright not a
scone!). My travel companions texted
that they were on their way so I went on down and walked up the hill towards
the castle.
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| Castle of Edinburgh with stadium seating for Tattoo |
It was only when I logged on to the Tattoo wifi that I found out
that I needed it to receive WhatsApp messages. We finally did re-connect with
each other around 10h00. I had meanwhile done the souvenir store near the
castle. When we connected we went back in and spent too much time there as by
the time we went back to the castle (which opened at 9h30 and had basically no
lines) the line was way too long. We proceeded to head for the Bobby statue
down at Greyfrair’s then into the church grounds and cemetery.
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| Greyfrair's Bobby |
Most of the
churches here charge £2.00 for taking pictures – hmmmmm….. We had gone past the
Elephant coffee shop where the first Harry Potter book was written and since G
wanted to eat there and none of us had had much breakfast we went at 11h30
before the crowds.
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| The Elephant House |
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| As the sign says... |
Afterwards we continued wandering down the
Royal Mile dipping into stores until we arrived at Holyrood – the Queen’s
residence in July. It was 15h30 so only time to take in the palace itself and
gardens. It didn’t take much imagination to see the Abbey ruins as a whole
building nor the “palace” as living quarters. I was actually rather awed to be
walking where the Queen lives at least a month of the year! Had a Prosecco and
a third of a polenta cupcake with lemon icing. My was that delicious in the
castle coffee shop.
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| More than one interesting sight on the street |
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| The Royal Mile |
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| The castle - a special camera setting |
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| Holyrood Palace |
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| The Abbey |
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| The world's best cupcake |
After having walked all the way back up the
Royal Mile and finding the store that I wanted to re-visit inaccessible due to
the arrival of the Tattoo participants, we
(or rather I) decided that we should look
for a restaurant down on Rose Ave. walking down the hill near the Museum.
£55.00 got us two great salads (Caeser for G and a “Rosehip” one for me with
greens, artichokes, pine nuts, croutons both black and white, and grilled
chicken – scrumptious – and Fish and Chips for M who for the first time was so
tired that he didn’t finish it). I treated them and gave G her two cards and a
book about Mermaids and other stories from Orkney and both of them a wee Orkney
desk calendar. Walked back to the Novotel and got some cheddar (ok 4!) on the
way in a Sainsbury.
Knew that I had a voucher at the hotel for
having them not make up the room so enjoyed a Prosecco down in the bar before
yet again tumbling into the last night of hotel or B&B beds. This travel is
hard work!
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