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Published: October 2nd 2017
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Charlie getting used to driving on the left.
Charlie's starting to get used to driving on the left. Geo: 55.9503, -3.18761
2 blogs today (maybe – it's getting late, and we're exhausted). We got in too late last night to send anything out.
We left the Highlands today. Back past Ben Nevis and the gorgeous and wild Highland mountains and glens. We're on our way to Edinburgh for the Military Tattoo – no we're not getting ink. It's a spectacle of music and dance with the Edinburgh Castle in the background. There are performances by military bagpipe and drum bands, Scottish dancers, and other groups from around the world. This year performance included groups from South Korea, Mexico, Mongolia and New Zealand. Incredible!
On the way we stopped at the Falkirk Wheel. This is a one of a kind rotating boat lift, joining the top canal with the bottom one (100' feet apart) without using locks. The engineer in the family found this incredibly interesting! But it took us a long time to find it and then got lost again trying to get back on the highway to Edinburgh.
When we finally got to Edinburgh we headed straight to our 2nd Air B&B place to stay. Katy was a 20-something pierced and very sweet girl. She had printed out maps
Falkirk Wheel
At the start. for us and walked us to the bus stop into downtown (no place to park downtown). The accommodations were okay, not great, but we were too tired to care. The Edinburgh Festival has been happening for all of August. This is the biggest arts festival in the world. Sort of like South by Southwest on steroids, without all the techie stuff and for a whole month. There's the "official" Edinburgh Festival and the Fringe Festival - a lot of impromptu street acts. And we do mean "Fringe." (See pictures below.) Tens of thousands of people in town.
We had free tickets for a bus tour so we got an overview (all we had time for really). Edinburgh is a wonderfully interesting old town (medieval even) but this is not the month to visit. But Mary especially wanted to see the Tattoo, and today was the last showing. I remember touring eastern Canada as a kid with my parents, and it seemed like in every town in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick there was a drum and bagpipe band putting on a show.
We also did a tour of the Edinburgh Castle. It's situated on the highest point in Edinburgh
overlooking the whole city. Saw the Scottish crown jewels and lots of other historical stuff. We had a very informative guide who explained the long history of the site – from pre-Roman times through today, as it's still officially a military installation.
The Tattoo did not disappoint. The show was at 10:30 at night, with the Edinburgh Castle lit up in the background. Near the end was a solo by “The Lone Bagpiper” on the Castle Ramparts, then fireworks. At the end of the show (after God Save the Queen) they asked everyone to join in singing Auld Lang Syne (with the words shown on the castle background). Everyone in the place crossed their arms in front and shook the hands of their neighbor on each side to the rhythm. Apparently it's the Scottish custom, and it was quite the thing seeing 12,000 people in the stadium doing this in unison.
We made our way through the hordes of people and luckily found the correct bus stop but didn't get back to the place we were staying until after 2 am. After mass we left Edinburgh Sunday morning, but more about Sunday tomorrow. Monday we're off to a
the south of England to stay on a farm for 2 days, hopefully catch up on this blog, some much-needed sleep and just relax a little.
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Jorge A. Borges-Ibanez
non-member comment
Hi Mary and Charlie,It was a real pleasure having met you, bad it was only for a few minutes!We think you are a very lovely couple and would love to see you again.Love,Jorge & Elaine