Disney Sheep

Moving further into the park I kept noticing all of the flower beds around, and although it was a truly nice day, there was just enough cloud in the sky that the light enhanced the colours of the flowers, and the rose beds were even more vibrant than usual - and I couldn't resist taking lots of flower photos.

DS of course took that opportunity to mention that at home we live in a city with an amazing number of flowers (think annual tulip festival) and yet I visit Edinburgh and take photos of flowers!

At this point we were still on the Princes Street edge of the park and I took a few minutes to get photographs of the Royal Scots Greys Memorial (equestrian statue) I.e. The Royal guard in a tall beaver type hat on a horse.

Background from the web: The Royal Scots Greys was a Dragoon Guard that rode all grey horses. This equestrian bronze monument on Princes Street depicts a Royal Scots Dragoon Guard (Carabinier and Greys) in uniform with bearskin hat, sword and rifle. The monument to the Royal Scots Greys was erected in 1906 to commemorate the fallen of the Regiment during the Boer War.

I would like to point out that many pictures of this statue are deceiving, since the best vantage points for a photo with the park as a backdrop are probably taken from an upper floor window of a building across the street! From the street level, my initial view was of the horse's derrière! Alrighty then, photo snapped from the other angle and moving on!

It was incredibly slow getting out. Each row funneled into the central aisle, and seemed to be taking forever. As I looked across the field, it also seemed like the other side was moving much faster than us. But, I'm not sure that was true or just a perception.

 

DW just looked at your pictures. There were some she wishes she had had the opportunity to take. She has a good eye; she said you were less central than us. I agreed you were by 15/16 while we were very central in 14.

 

We managed to get past all our potential disasters that day. The camera that no longer worked now works again with a better lens. The lost tickets were replaced. (The only thing that did not cost us extra.) We got back despite the missed return trip on the train. And to make that day even more memorable, it was our wedding anniversary (#37).

I remember thinking at the time that if you wanted to have the performers facing you the majority of the time then you needed to be in sections 3 to 14, and ideally in the more expensive seats, farther away from the castle - those seats would also have let you see both the performers and the castle at the same time, and when the show let out, those seats would have gotten out quicker.

On the other hand, we still had a great time and I think we enjoyed the atmosphere in our section more than our table mates who were in a more expensive section (I think).

I am very glad that everything worked out for you in the end, and that your wife got a new lens for her camera. And it appears to have made for a most memorable wedding anniversary. I hope you had a Happy anniversary.

Entering Princes Street Gardens we snagged a few photos of the flower clock. The Floral Clock is located in West Princes Street Gardens besides the stairs leading into the gardens next to The Mound entrance. I had wondered why I saw lots of pictures of the clock, but few pictures of people with the clock - it became obvious once we arrived that the position of the clock and the stairs made photos with the clock challenging.

Background from the internet: This circular clock has been planted each year since 1903 with up to 40,000 plants in an ornate design reflecting a different theme each summer. The idea came from James McHattie, City Superintendent of Parks and James Ritchie, the Edinburgh clockmaker, using the mechanism of a redundant turret clock. He had been inspired by a carpet bedding display in Princes Street Gardens created the previous year to commemorate the Coronation of King Edward VII on August 9, 1902. In 1905 a cuckoo which pops out every hour was added.

The face of Edinburgh's floral clock is 11ft 10ins diameter.

- In the 1930s, about 13,000 plants were used to create the clock.

- By the 1950s-60s, the number had increased to 25,000.

- By the 1980s, the number had increased to around 35,000.

It took 3 gardeners about 3 weeks to plant the flowers each year (or it did in 1998!)

Until 1993, the plants were taken to Princes Street Gardens and planted individually in the clock.

A full-size replica of Edinburgh's floral clock was created and displayed at the Chelsea Flower Show in London in 2003, to commemorate the centenary of the Edinburgh clock. This replica was awarded a Gold Medal at the flower show.

Since 2003, there have been two clocks planted each year, both on the same site at the NE corner of West Princes Street Gardens - a Summer Clock then a Winter Clock.

Now, sixteen stainless steel containers, already planted, are brought to the gardens from the nurseries at the Inch. There is one container for each of the clock's numbers and four for the centre of the clock.

Edinburgh's early floral clocks had clock faces planted with numbers for the hours. The faces were planted in various geometric shapes, but no words were included in the designs until around 1927. The first words to appear on the clock were "TEMPUS FUGIT" (Latin for 'Time Flies').

Edinburgh, Scotland - Day 2. On Morning #2 in Edinburgh it was difficult to get moving, but easier than we thought it would be since after all, we were still in Edinburgh :).

Since we were moving a little slowly this morning, it was close to 9 am when we caught the mandatory shuttle to the cruise terminal and then a taxi for the three of us to the Inverkeithing train station £7. We purchased return tickets for off peak times and we only had to pay for two adult tickets, since kids under 16 got to travel for free with a paying adult for this trip. Total cost for a round trip on the train for the 3 of us was roughly £11.

Unfortunately there was a train just pulling away that we missed. And the next scheduled train simply did not show so we had to wait for the next scheduled train! Overall only about a half hour wait, but the gathering crowd on the platform did cause us a little bit of concern as to whether everyone would fit on the next train. In the end we all made it on the train, but most of us ended up standing for the trip to town. And I overheard a comment from another passenger while on the train station platform that there were missed trains the day before as well, so we were doubly glad that we had taken the taxi on the first day.

Arriving at Waverley Station we made our way above ground where we found ourselves close to the Scott monument and the lone bagpiper - unfortunately after logging so many footsteps the day before, including so many sets of stairs, climbing the Scott monument still remains on our 'to do' list :).

Even as tired as we were I think DS and I would have still climbed the monument's 287 stairs if we hadn't been short on time with a long to-do list!

We left after it was all over. And with the way they let everyone out row after row with us being near the top, it tool quite a while to get out. And then there was a crowd to fight our way through. We then went to the train station, and tried to find out which platform our train was leaving from. After being in the station what seemed like quite a while, we discovered that the last train for our station had already departed. This was despite the fact that it was still earlier than we had thought we had seen on the schedule.

 

I do not remember the time exactly, but it was definitely past 11. I think we found a taxi somewhere around the corner from the train station. It must have been around midnight when we got back.

Thanks for responding so soon Ontheweb. We kind of guessed that it would take a while to get out of the bleachers and back to the Royal Mile if we waited until the very end, and DH's ankle was starting to give him grief after our 12+ mile day of walking! I am glad that we left when we did.

I remember reading during my research that the last train to Glenrothe (which is the train that stops at Inverkeithing) left at 11:10 or 11:20 pm, and with the crowds we knew it would be tight. Fortunately you did not seem to have a problem catching a taxi back even though you were looking for one later than we were, so I think that planning to catch a train and/or taxi back around 9 pm is potentially doable, that said you do have to be comfortable with whatever decision you take in these situations.

Many thanks for your info.

Enjoying your review and great photo's.

Glad to have you reading along. Hope to start posting Edinburgh Day 2 by tomorrow.

Thanks for the Tattoo pictures (that we were not able to get because of the dropped camera). I'll have to show them later to DW who is away, and will be most of today. I believe you can watch the entire Tattoo on YouTube.

 

There are real similarities in our experiences. We originally booked the least expensive Princess Tattoo excursion. We had not yet found airfare at a somewhat acceptable price, so we wanted to make sure we had tickets, but not the online ones that would not have been refundable. I think it was March, or possibly April, when we bought our online tickets and cancelled out Princess excursion.

 

Our seats were very near where yours were. We were in section 14 a very few rows from the top.

 

Instead of telling the cab driver Rosyth, we told him we needed to go to the cruise ship. He knew where to go, so no difference in communication due to different accents.

 

Speaking of different accents, when DW made a purchase in Dublin, they took off the VAT and gave us a form to fill out. I asked if they needed proof that we were not from a European Union country. The salesclerk laughed, and said she could tell from our accents that we were not European. And soon, it will be cold enough for DW to wear her new sweater.

Hi again Ontheweb. Taking photos at night is definitely challenging at the best of times, and with my camera battery dying i am glad that I had at least a few photos that were representative of our experience at the Tattoo, even if they were a little soft from a focus perspective. I just did not have the option of trying again and again for a better shot!

In the interests of trying to help Kristen/Kewz1 who posted up thread, I hope you can answer a few questions. Just wondering what time you left the Tattoo - was it after the National Anthem? Did you get caught up in the crowd since our location was closer to the castle and therefore behind the crowd heading back to the Royal Mile? Where did you catch your taxi? And about what time did you catch it? And, as a result what time did you get back to the ship?

Technically she should have 4 hours after the Tattoo next summer to get back to the ship (or 3 anyway if she reasonably wants to be back at the ship by 11:30 pm, an hour before Sailaway).

Looking forward to your experience in this situation.

Hi Disney Sheep

Nice to hear that you had a good day in Edinburgh, however you will need to come back to check out Stirling Castle and Uni, St Andrews and its Uni or you get the idea ,

Next to where l live we have the Kelpies

 

Leaving for my own cruise in a few hours will catch up with your great posts once l am back

 

Yours Shogun

 

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Forums mobile app

Hope you have a great cruise Shogun! I agree that we need to make it back to Scotland to check out Stirling and St Andrews as well as lots of other choice spots :). Just spent today at a local university's open house with DD and one of the first things she wanted to check out was the Study Abroad program. She is very determined :).

And as for kelpies, I am sure they need checking out as well during another visit to Scotland. To paraphrase 'Outlander', there is no place on earth with more magic and superstition woven into daily life than the Scottish Highlands - or Scotland period! DD loved Stirling by the way, and the Unicorns.

I'm glad I popped back in! Thank you for your intensive postings about the Tattoo. I would prefer to do this on our own - the cost being higher than I really want to pay when you look at the actual cost of the tickets.

 

Our problem is that we want to go to the Saturday night viewing. As of right now, the Ocean Princess leaves at 12:30. With the show starting at 7pm can we make it back in time? I'm assuming we have to be back at least an hour before that. If we don't make it out until after the National Anthem will there be any taxis left?

 

I'm sorry to hijack your thread but I'd love to hear your opinion.

 

Kristen

Hi there again.

First, I truly hope that other people come on and try to answer your question since my experience is limited to one cruise that stayed overnight this past August.

That being said, I think you should be able to do this on your own. First, the Tattoo seemed to go off like clockwork. We all commented at dinner the next night how they started precisely on time. And, they finished on time an hour and a half later. Which if it starts at 7 pm means that it should be over by 8:30 pm.

Especially if they have a 10:30 pm show on (given that it is a Saturday night).

You should be able to find a taxi if you are quick off the mark. Even if you have to head for the train and catch say the 9:30 pm train, that should still put you back at the ship by about 10:30 pm I am guessing. Although from my perspective the taxi was well worth the money.

As I said, hopefully others with more experience will help you out, but also consider starting your own thread on the subject. I have seen so many helpful responses, especially from Scottish Cruise Critic members on this subject.

Booking the Royal Edinburgh Tattoo on our own vice booking a Princess Excursion.

When we booked this cruise, the first thing we did was book through Princess for the three of us to go to the Edinburgh Military Tattoo - the quoted cost was $229 US each, which for the three of us came to just under $700 US. That seemed a 'little' steep to me. And so I researched the heck out of the subject - thank you Cruise Critic.

In the end we realized that because we were on the Ocean Princess and docked and overnighting in Edinburgh we did not have to be concerned about getting back to the ship by a specific time. Instead, we cancelled with Princess and purchased 3 tickets through the official Tattoo website for £35 each, plus a £5 admin fee, for a total of £110 (or $207 CDN with the exchange rate at the time). We picked our tickets up at the official office in Edinburgh while sight seeing during the day.

Since we were docked and off the ship so early and we took a taxi in to Edinburgh in the morning for £36 and then much much later, we took a taxi home after the Tattoo for £40 (the difference in cost may have been due to the 'language issue' over me saying Ros-yth vice the cruise terminal at Ro-syth, but even if it wasn't, the convenience and efficiency of taking this taxi after our long busy day was so worth the cost:).

Let's just guesstimate transport for Edinburgh for Day 1 at $150 CDN (with exchange and any extra tip etc) and that makes our total cost for the Tattoo roughly $360 CDN. Definitely a huge savings compared to the $690US (or more realistically $760 CDN after exchange that Princess would have charged us). So even adding in our very nice evening meal at The Worlds End Tavern (roughly $70 CDN for the three of us) we came out ahead AND we had more time to explore and enjoy Edinburgh.

Side note: our table mates did take the Princess excursion. I believe their seats were indeed in one of the better/ more expensive sections, and yes they enjoyed themselves. That said, I believe they were not completely convinced that the cost that they paid was worth it given the ease with which so many other passengers did this excursion from the Ocean Princess on their own. I also know that they cancelled all other Princess excursions for the rest of the cruise and did the ports on their own - and they had a fabulous time, at least based on the details they shared with us at dinner.

As an added bonus, since our taxi driver was very 'efficient' we arrived back at the ship by 11:30 pm, well ahead of any others who attended the Tattoo.

Overall, we really enjoyed the Tattoo for the entertainment spectacle that it was. And we giggled at the joyful atmosphere created by the large group of Northern Irish visitors in the section we found ourselves in. After I jumped at the pyrotechnical explosions that were part of the Royal Marines military demonstration the lady beside me put her hand on my arm and told me "not to worry about the 'little pop bangs' dearie" since as she stated she was from Northern Ireland and they didn't bother her since she was used to them! And instead, she and the rest of the section just Oooohed and Aaaaahed over them as if rating them! This crowd in our section was pure fun and high spirits.

Massed band before the finale

Finale Fireworks

As the evenings performance drew to a close they played Auld Lang Syne - I am not being facetious when I tell you that it felt like it was almost a religious experience in Scotland. It is sung with such a passion and it included the entire audience crossing their arms across their bodies and holding hands and moving together in an almost frenzied kind of unison. Auld Lang Syne was followed up by the National Anthem.

We left our seats immediately as the National anthem finished - that would be just before they announced that no one was allowed to leave at that point. Since we were already in motion we kept going, sort of a damned if you do damned if you don't situation, but since DH has a bum ankle that becomes painful after a lot of use and especially in cold damp situations, there was no way we were climbing back up to our seats. They did hold us at the gate, but we were well ahead of the crowd, even with DH having to limp a little until his ankle warmed up. So, if you plan a quick exit, try to make it out directly after Auld Lang Syne rather than waiting respectfully for the National Anthem!

As we walked out past the Esplanade and down the Royal Mile (but were still on the pedestrian section of the street), we giggled at the police officer commenting (to the crowd at large via megaphone): if you are looking for a bus turn here, if you are looking for a train turn there, if you are looking for a taxi - good luck!

Since we listened to the first police officer that we spoke to on our way in to the Tattoo, we found a taxi almost immediately - DS however was very amused when the taxi driver and I had a long discussion, me in 'Canadian' and him with his -as stated in the Princess Patter - 'strong regional accent' (I.e. Scottish :) as we debated whether I wanted to go to Ros-yth or Ro-syth :).

When we drove from Rosyth to Edinburgh in the morning we were simply intrigued by the fact that our taxi was being driven on the 'other' side of the road than we are used to in North America. However, after a full and busy day of sight seeing I was definitely tired and it was very dark outside (it being night time and all:) and it was a completely different experience driving on the 'wrong' side of the road from my perspective. And to add to the challenge of that experience, our driver must have been channeling Mario Andretti. On the positive side, we reached our ship at Rosyth and were actually in our cabin before 11:30 pm!

We were among the very first back to the ship after the Tattoo. We headed straight for the Panorama buffet after we dropped our bags in the cabin, and we had a fantastic late night snack. Princess truly got that part of the evening right and it was wonderful customer service! In the big picture, booking our own Tattoo tickets online and taking the taxi was definitely a good decision on our part.

We were so tired by the time we crawled into bed around midnight that we fell into a deep well deserved sleep very quickly. My Fitbit registered over 30,000 steps for the day which equated to over 20km (I.e. over 12 miles) walked, and at least 2 of those kilometres were almost straight up hill. Actually with all of the 'up hill' walking all day long, my Fitbit registered that I had climbed 135 sets of stairs!

A very well deserved sleep indeed.

Description based on the internet: The 2014 Tattoo celebrated 'Home, Friends and Family'.

The 65th Tattoo, was based on the theme “Our Home, Friends and Family”, to reflect the Year of Homecoming 2014.

A band of 260 pipers and drummers from around the world crossed the drawbridge through smoke and light, to take to the arena.

As well as drawing on *musicians from famous regiments, the band will include civilian *pipers from around Scotland recruited to take part in the Tattoo.

{Side note: apparently there are more pipers in Canada than in Scotland - we Canadians are very proud of our Scottish heritage - and I am not sure about pipers, but we spotted several drummers in the massed band who were clearly from Canada, at least based on the designs on their drums.}

The program then embarked on a “journey” around the world, taking in a number of Commonwealth nations. First up was Malta, with The Band of The Armed Forces of Malta making their debut at the Tattoo, with 58 musicians and dancers on parade.

Next was South Africa, celebrating 20 years of democracy this year, and the iNgobamakhosi Zulu Dance Troupe with some of their *battle songs.

Other performers included the Nagaland Folkloric Group from north-east India with songs and dances celebrating their rural lives, as well as the New Zealand Kapa Haka Dancers and New Zealand Highland Dancers.

From the southernmost island of the Caribbean, the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force Steel Orchestra returned for its fifth appearance.

Followed by a huge band of 40 fiddlers from the Shetlands, clad in distinctive Shetland Island jumpers.

And as part of the celebration of the 350th anniversary of the founding of the Royal Marines, they put on an anti terrorist demonstration.

The finale, with more than 1150 cast members, included the Erskine Stewart’s Melville Schools Choir, balloons, flares, dance music from across the century and fireworks.

Heck yes it was an impressive evening.

It took us about 20 minutes to walk from Calton Hill back to Edinburgh Castle for the Royal Military Tattoo.

When we reached the 'bottom' of the hill near the castle, there was a security 'gauntlet' that you have to make it through on the way in to the Tattoo. We arrived at the gate to the castle area around 8:40 pm.

(Note: This is actually DD's photo, and she arrived with her group roughly a full hour ahead of time at 8 pm - when we arrived at 8:40 pm it was much much busier. Back to our regularly scheduled programming. :))

There was a line up that was moving relatively smoothly as they had several openings in the gate, but if you had bags or a backpack the security personnel pulled you aside and searched your bags. Unfortunately the gentleman in front of us did not seem to understand that he could not go in until he let the security officer search his bag - which of course meant that those of us in line behind him had to wait several minutes until it all got sorted out. And then of course we got pulled to one side for a bag search since I had a big backpack full of thin layers of clothes for us to put on if we needed them while watching the Tattoo.

On our way in we asked a police officer outside of the castle what would be the best place to catch a taxi after the Tattoo and he pointed to a street on the right (as you walk away from the castle) near a hotel - it was actually fairly close, much closer than the train station etc. There was an orderly line of taxis and we just followed the crowd and asked the taxi at the head of the line. We were sitting comfortably in our seats well in advance of the precision start at 9 pm.

Our seats for the Tattoo were at the very top of the stadium between sections 15 and 16. If you are planning on this cruise early enough, I believe that tickets for the Tattoo go on sale in November or December, and that people who sign up to be Friends of the Tattoo can get advance booking options. Just something to consider.

Given that we booked this trip end May/early June our seat options were limited, however we could have chosen other seats in the nearby area lower down, but the seats we chose had the advantage of having no one in front of us, so more opportunities for photos and the ability to leave without disturbing others. And as I read often beforehand, pretty much all of the seats appear to have good viewing. Realistically, if you want to only have the performers facing you most of the time, then you need to be in sections 4 through 13.

Given the extensive movement of the performers and the high energy of the performances, we did not feel that we missed out on anything. And yes, we could see all of the light show designs projected on the castle, however we had to look at the castle or look at the performers rather than being able to see both at the same time like those in the more expensive seats.

Although it was a clear and dry night, if it had rained, the seats at the very top of the stadium seating had a very small lip or 'roof' over them. The evening actually started out fairly warm, but we found that about every half hour we needed to add a layer of covering to keep warm - partly because we were mostly sitting without moving around a lot.

We bought our Tattoo tickets on line. After we left the ship, we bought round trip tickets back for the train. We were advised that it would be too busy at the station to buy the return ticket. We then would have had to pay another 10 pounds (plus a tip) for a cab back.

 

It turned out that we had no chance of catching the train back. The cab ride back was now 40 pounds (+ a larger tip). It was still much less expensive than using one of the Princess excursions. And we could be off all day in Edinburgh, not having to be on ship to catch the excursion.

 

Note the taxi needed cash, would not accept credit cards. (That is not to say that all cabs do not accept credit cards.)

Thanks for weighing in, our experience was similar to yours, except that we made the decision in the morning to take a taxi both ways.

Tattoo up next.

Loving the pictures!

Many thanks for your kind words and glad to have you reading along.

The Scott Monument and Arthur's Seat are two of the reasons I didn't gain weight in Edinburgh! Haha! We're a family of climbers too.

 

Can't wait to hear about the tattoo. I'm still debating on whether to take the Princess excursion or book ourselves.

 

Still enjoying your report!

Kristen

Although I am a little sad that we did not get to climb the Scott monument, I intend to use that fact as leverage to convince DH that we need a trip back to Edinburgh sooner than later :). The Tattoo is up next, and I will try to cover our approach to attending the Tattoo. Since we were docked and staying overnight it made perfect sense to do this port on our own.

Did you dock or tender in while at Edinburgh? We tender in while on the Caribbean Princess.

Hi All

Little ships dock in Roysth in Fife big ships tender into South Queensferry

Yours Shogun

Hi Phabric,

Shogun is correct as usual, the Ocean Princess docked at Rosyth, which is one of the main reasons that we booked this cruise.

And many thanks Shogun - work keeps diverting me from my report!

Enjoying your review so very much. We were on the Ruby in August for the British Isles. Unforgettable trip.

I took lots of photos of the Elephant House restroom, too, before our evening at the Tattoo. Delightful. We were docked near the Ocean at one of our ports, but can't recall which one.

Glad to have you reading along. I agree completely that this truly was an unforgettable trip. I had not really researched the Elephant House, other than knowing that it was famous as a place where JK Rowling had written some of Harry Potter and that the food was supposed to be good. The bathroom ended up being a real surprise to me - and I am glad that I did not miss it.

We considered doing the British Isles cruise on the Ruby, especially since there were probably more kids and more stuff to do for entertainment, but we really needed to be docked at Edinburgh, since I had read reports where ships had to miss Edinburgh since the sea was too rough to tender - and we just couldn't risk missing DD. You were fortunate to get the extra ports that we would have loved to have seen.

When we left the pub, I informed DH that I wanted to go to Calton Hill to get some photos of the city at sunset - since it was in the opposite direction to Edinburgh Castle and the Tattoo, neither of my boys were excited about this opportunity. When I indicated that I was willing to go alone and suggested they give me my Tattoo ticket and we would meet back at the castle, DH resigned himself to even more walking for the day and we all headed for Calton Hill.

Calton Hill is located in the city of Edinburgh just beyond Princes Street. At one point there was actually a village of Calton (but spelled differently I think) which is probably what made it Calton's Hill - that would be back when Edinburgh stopped by 'the World's End Tavern' and Holyrood Palace on the southern slope of the hill was another 'land' altogether!

The hill is now the location of several iconic monuments and buildings: the National Monument, the Nelson Monument, the Dugald Stewart Monument, the old Royal High School, the Robert Burns Monument, the Political Martyrs' Monument and the City Observatory.

Twenty minutes later we climbed up a set of stairs and found ourselves surrounded by several of these intriguing monuments. I was torn between the delicate round columned Dugald Stewart monument that is based on the 'Lysicrates' monument in Athens that often 'grounds' the amazing views of Edinburgh,

and the 'Parthenon-esque' National Monument that DS just could not wait to climb.

Initially the light was a little duller than I had hoped for and to add to that I discovered that my camera battery was low. Urgh.

And then magically the sun shone through the evening clouds and lit Edinburgh up just enough to make me happy with what my camera was 'seeing'.

Even better was DS's attitude - then again, we are a family that loves to climb things. Watching DS enjoy climbing (along with lots of other tourists) over the Parthenon like monument made me very happy, but it also made me wish we had more time - and more camera battery(!), in order to explore Calton Hill more fully!

We didn't even get to check out the Nelson monument.

DH was pretty insistent at that point that we needed to head for the Tattoo.

The World's End (the Tavern as well as saying good-bye to DD). Texting with DD, we found out that she was once again 'free' for a short period of time, and we once again walked back up the Royal Mile to meet her (and her group) near a Starbucks close to St Giles Cathedral.

Although we only had a short visit with her, it was great to enjoy more hugs before she and the group had to continue on to their next scheduled activity! And the hugs were great - even if the kids were teasing each other and messing around a little again- especially with the photographer!

The three of us started back down the Mile, heading for The World's End Tavern.

Originally, for people in Edinburgh, there was a wall around the city at this point, and in many ways it was the end of their world. I was interested in eating there because it was part of the world of Claire and Jamie Fraser in one of Diana Gabaldon's books from the Outlander series. Actually most of Edinburgh seems to be an 'Outlander stage' once you have read the book series.

The only rain shower of our trip that we got caught in started just as we approached the pub and we made a rapid dash along the remaining distance to the door. It seemed however that everyone else had the same idea of getting dinner and of getting out of the rain, and we ended up having to wait a little while for a table. Since we managed to find some chairs/stools near the bar we were happy enough to simply take a rest and wait patiently.

Eventually we did get seated, and service was efficient and the food was great. DH had fish and chips, DS chose the steak and I had an amazing salad that was more than a salad - and yummy. Truth be told I can't remember what it was called, just that it was delicious. As a side note, this was not a cheap meal, but it was perfect for what we needed right at that point and we did feel that we got value for our money.

Clearly my boys were both more than a little tired after our busy day of sight seeing so far - and it wasn't over yet! We really enjoyed the World's End Tavern, my boys for the food and the rest after our day. For me it was for the same reasons, as well as for the 'Outlander ambience', even if that was mostly in my imagination :). And it was also kind of a celebratory meal for us after successfully climbing Arthur's Seat.

As we left I made sure to snap a picture of a lighted display box'.

Loved the "Arthur's Sea" series pictures. Keep them coming.....:):):)

 

Bob

More trip report coming up. Glad you enjoyed the photos and to have you reading along.

The requirement for automatic citizenship, for people born abroad, is that one of the parents must have been born in the UK.

 

There is one very famous example of this. The late Spike Milligan a very famous comedian in the UK, was born in India whilst his father was serving with the 'British Indian Army' prior to independence. Both his 'British' parents had also been born in India whilst their fathers had also been serving with the 'British Indian Army' and they both had British passports. Spike lived in the UK for most of his life and fought for his country in the British Army during WW II.

 

However, when we started to increase immigration controls on people with non-UK Commonwealth passports, he applied for a full British passport, only to be told that he did not have an automatic right, though they did say that if he applied for citizenship, it would be granted.

 

He objected on the grounds that his grandparents, parents and himself had all fought for the British Army and that the only reason he did not have automatic right to a full British passport was because both his parents and he had been born abroad whilst their parents were serving with the Army as he had done himself, and that as a point of principle he should not have to ask to become a British citizen.

 

Everyone agreed that he should be given full British citizenship but unfortunately the bureaucracy still required him to apply.

 

It was made clear, however, that an application would be accepted, and he simply had to apply, but he refused to do so on the basis that he should not have to ask to be British.

 

In the end the matter was sort of 'solved' when he applied for, and was granted, Republic of Ireland citizenship which, as Irish citizens have full residential rights, including voting, gave him all the full right of abode, without him having to compromise on the principal that he should not have to ask the British Government to grant him citizenship.

 

He remained living in the UK, but died, many years later, still an Irish citizen and was buried in the UK.

 

As a final protest, he asked for the inscription on his grave to be written in Gaellic. Translated into English the inscription reads 'I told them was ill'.

And this is one of the reasons that I love Cruise Critic - this is where you benefit from the knowledge of others. Glad to have you reading along.

I am totally addicted to this TR and thought I had caught it at a good time but now realize I must patiently wait for more posts!! :p

Glad to have you reading along. Photobucket has been challenging me, but I am persevering. And it will go faster after Edinburgh - but we really enjoyed Edinburgh :).

Heading back down over the hill, we were as excited as a basket of energetic puppies over our climb and reaching the top.

Yeah I know, we look goofy, but the nice guy who offered to take our picture really really wanted us to jump! Note this picture was taken near the bottom of the climb down the hill.

Granted we still had a long trip down that required us to pick our foot placements carefully, but going down for the most part was easier than going up. As we headed down, DH spotted a path of easier egress and we walked casually down that way, towards a car pull off area by a road way.

The only problem with taking this path was that we still had a fairly long walk to go to get back to the end of the Royal Mile. And although it was literally ‘a walk in the park’ compared to the other path, we still had to go down hill over an expanse of grass – so DS chose to simply throw himself to the ground and roll downhill. He had fun.

Realistically it took us about 45 or 50 minutes to climb to the top of Arthur’s Seat, and probably about 40 to 45 minutes to climb down, but it then took us another 20 to 30 minutes to walk all the way around the hill and back to the Royal Mile. So total time from the car park until we were picnicking on our bench was roughly 2 and a half hours, with about 10 minutes spent at the top.

DD also climbed Arthur’s Seat with her group. They headed up very early one morning in order to watch the sunrise over Edinburgh and when we teased her about having to get up so early she told us that everyone in her group declared it totally worth it. High praise indeed from a group of sleep deprived teenagers.

I have since googled ‘climbing Arthur’s Seat’ and discovered that there are probably a half dozen different routes that would have taken us up over Arthur’s Seat. Further, if we had travelled back down over the other side of the hill, closer to the car park, we could have checked out a small ruined Abbey. I know that if we get the chance to return to Edinburgh, Arthur’s Seat will definitely be on our ‘to do’ list.

Eventually we reached the Scottish Parliament building and decided to sit down on a bench in front to re-group and enjoy our picnic and figure out where DD was (so lots of texting at this point).

Sitting on the bench and looking around I noticed the Royal lion on top of the Queen's Gallery and pointed it out to DH and DS and questioned the colour.

They both immediately rolled their eyes and shook their heads at me. Realistically, to my eyes the statue looked 'pink' rather than the Royal red, perhaps it was the setting sun or perhaps I do need to get new glasses.

Edinburgh. Culturally impressive, historically significant, architecturally fascinating. In short lots of really really old and really really cool stuff. And yet our best memory (aside from hugs from DD on the Royal Mile) was climbing Arthur's Seat together. Or rather having climbed Arthur's Seat together. The past tense part was good :). And so were the GF shortbread cookies and Coke products picnic we enjoyed afterwards on a bench between new city hall (definitely not as architecturally impressive as the older structures in the city IMHO) and Holyrood House Palace.

Eventually we came up over the top of hill #2, and saw hill #3 ahead of us!

There were people having a picnic in the field in front of us, but we were focused on the hill that is known as Arthur’s Seat. Although there appeared to be a less steep path that wound around the hill, we headed for the path that pretty much went straight up – and when we hit the apex of the hill, a wall of wind hit us! Once on the top of Arthur’s Seat we saw that there were a fair number of people already there. On the positive side, that meant that there was someone there to take a family picture for us, however it also meant that we had to wait until lots of people got out of our way so we could take the picture!

Who expected a crowd at the top of a 2 Km almost straight up climb?

And of course I got DS to climb on top of the cement column structure that is at the very top in order to get a picture.

And then perhaps I had to stand on it for a picture.

Honestly, DS was worried, and not without good reason, that the wind might just blow me right off. Luckily I was able to counter balance by leaning into the wind, without any ‘Flying Nun’ issues.

I used my zoom lens to get a great shot of Edinburgh Castle with the bleachers all set up for the Royal Military Tattoo.