Saturday, August 19, 2017

The Fringe, Hub and Tattoo…


all rolled into one along with what seems like hundreds of thousands of tourists equals Edinburgh on steriods !

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. 

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. 

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.

The Elephant House

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. 

More than one interesting sight on the street

The Royal Mile

The castle - a special camera setting

Holyrood Palace

The Abbey

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!

No comments:

Post a Comment