Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood

Saturday we had a well-deserved sleep in, and enjoyed some sunshine and coffee looking out the window of the flat on to High St. No parades this morning….

Today we toured Edinburgh Castle – was fun to see the inside after many days of seeing the outside walls. The Royal Scottish Regiment was on guard and Kevin enjoyed seeing a changing of the guard while we were there.  Our tour guide, “a proud Fifer!” (meaning, she was from the kingdom of Fife, not an annoying piccolo player) brought the history alive, and was well worth tagging along with the guided tour. Would be neat to see the Military Tattoo show there, which happens from mid-July through August. They were setting up the bleachers this week.

Here are some photos of the Edinburgh Castle trip.

This is now a war memorial inside. If you look by the entrance you can see the two guard posts. 

 Building where the Royal Jewels are held:

This is one of two "hammer-beam" ceilings still standing. The other is in Stirling Castle. This one is reportedly in the best condition. Built 1511, not a single nail or screw holding it together. 

Photo from the Great Hall:

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Some views from the top. This is looking out onto New Town:

 Dog cemetary:

 View from the trip back down. The windowed building is St. Margaret's Chapel, the oldest building in the Castle compound. Built 12th century.

While in Edinburgh, we also went down toward Holyrood Palace and gardens. As I mentioned before, the Queen was in town for the Opening of Scottish Parliament, so the grounds were not open to the public. You could however, get a good view from walking by. There was a dinner party of some kind going on, when we strolled by. We think we saw Prince Harry out front of the palace smoking a cigarette. Guess Harry had to hang out with ”Grandmama” all weekend, with his usual playmate brother touring the Colonies. (What would you call the Queen, if she were your grandmother?)

Here are a couple pics of the Scottish Parliament building, across the street from Holyrood Palace. An interesting design - constructed between 1999 and 2004.  Building design was by Enric Miralles, who died before it was finished in 2004.

Holyrood Palace: Stuck the camera through the iron gates.

 Is that Harry in the doorway? (He had red hair, sure looked like him, but we were pretty far away)

The Queen's "backyard" -- some tents were up - clearly an event going on.

Next to Holyrood Palace are the Salisbury Crags, and volcanic rock outcrops that make spectacular viewing and tough climbing. This was at the end of our day, so we didn’t trek all the way up to Arthur’s Seat, as Kevin did a few years ago when he was here last. Some good views of the city all the same.

 View from the Craigs - I think this is toward Leith:

 One of the trails up to Arthur's Seat:

On our way up to Edinburgh Castle in the late morning, signs had been posted around Canongate Church (see the last blog) indicating parking would be blocked off. We think the Queen is going to church at Canongate on Sunday morning. We had booked a tour out to Fife tomorrow that left at 9am, so we couldn’t stick around to see the action. Looks like it was a zoo.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9R9cQKrZEaY Our flat was right beside the Canongate church. 

Kevin also finalized his Scotch purchases for the trip home. He was looking for two bottles that aren’t available Canada, to have something fun to share. He had purchased some mini-bottles for tasting, based on the recommendation of a whisky shop owner, of four small distillers for which the local demand is so great, there is no stock available for export. As well, one night this past week, we visited the “Rabbie Burns Whisky Bar” (sic), and went down to the basement bar where they advertised over 50 scotches available. The local bartender, who has likely not been fully sober since he was a teenager, gave him a “tour of Scotland” with many free samples of Scotch, and pounced on the opportunity to give a good Scotch education and talk Scotch with Kevin. Needless to say, he had a wonderful time. With all the sampling, he came up with two bottles to buy and bring home. (We thought that was our limit.) A bottle of Ben Riach 16 and Springbank Hazelburn. 

Kevin was disappointed to see on the Customs card at the airport, that we could have brought two more. Luckily, we were through the duty free by that time….

Tomorrow, a trip to Fife and St. Andrews