Edinburgh, Scotland (Day 1)

Fortunately, we are docked as close to Edinburgh as you can get and right next to the Royal Yacht Britannia, which was decommissioned in 1993, I think, and is now a museum.  Didn't get a chance to go today, but perhaps tomorrow.  We had to go through a lock to get into the port here in Leith, which seems odd to me.  It's not a very wide lock so that precludes the bigger cruise ships from coming here.  Michael and I were here in 2012 on a Princess ship that docked much farther away.  I only remember snippets of that visit, but I know we didn't go into the castle.

Our tour this morning was a bus tour of the Old Town and New Town and then a couple of hours of free time at Edinburgh Castle.   The city is beautiful, although traffic is a nightmare because this month is the time of a big festival as well as the Military Tattoo.

More of those blocked windows so they didn't have to pay taxes on glass windows.

Victorian Gothic monument to Sir Walter Scott

A castle on a hill

A view from the top

Even the rain downspouts are fancy

No guard here so Michael filled the job

Since this unfortunate new building looks a bit like the poop emoji, the locals call it the Royal Turd.

Very busy road near the castle. I think it was only closed off for the festival.

This is the Parliament Building and it cost $400 million.  What were they thinking?

After the city tour, we returned to the ship for a big lunch and rest before heading back to town on the ship's shuttle for the Military Tattoo.  We took the 4:30pm shuttle for the 6:15 show and were glad we did as it was a mob scene to get in.  The Tattoo began in 1950 as a showcase of British military including bagpipes and dancing.  It is now an international festival with hundreds of performers from all over the world.  Not all the performances are military based, which was a surprise to us.  Some of the others were three women singers, a whole troup of Irish girl dancers, and a large Mexican band and dancers.

 

They were outside the venue and said I could take their picture.

The grandstands are put up each year and it takes about a month to erect and break down.  It holds about 8,800 people per performance and there are 9 performances each week.

We were in the nosebleed section one down from the top which turned out to be good seats as we were mid-field and a bit sheltered from the wind.

The venue, the city and the Castle.

Bagpipes galore

Several bands all together, along with some of the other performers 

These guys were amazing with the rifle precision

And this is the Top Secret Drum Core from Switzerland.  Also amazing.

It was another madhouse getting out of the castle afterward as the first show is getting out and the people for the second show are being held back down the road a ways while we clear out.  And the road up to the castle is a bit narrow with cobblestones.  But we were able to find our way back to the shuttle pick-up spot without getting lost too badly (it was almost a mile away).  Fortunately, it was still light out and we got the last shuttle of the night back to the ship.  I'm glad we didn't go to the 9:45 pm show.