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Published: March 5th 2007
Edinburgh
From Edinburgh CastleWe got early on Saturday morning and headed down to Earl’s Court to find our random meeting point down the road from the tube station.
Typically, the coach arrived while Helen and I were off getting food, but we were soon on our way up North.
We stopped in the pretty region of Cumbria, near the Lake District, for Lunch and arrived at our hostel in Edinburgh in the early evening - 10 hours later.
Our room was pretty sweet with all new furnishings. We dumped our stuff then Helen, Klaus, Andy and I when to check out Edinburgh and walked over to Princess Street to see the festival’s carnival.
After dinner at a local pub, we went down to ‘The Three Sisters’ bar where the rest of our tour group were meeting. We danced the night away, Klaus and I being the last to leave in the early hours of the morning.
We stocked up on a big New Years Eve breakfast at the hostel, which was included in our tour. Klaus fed me some of his Haggis without telling what Haggis actually is… They said they would tell me at lunch time, so I was
Hannah & Helen
Prepare for the coach ride ahead... a little nervous!
I missed an ‘HAPPY NEW YEARS’ call from The Crew back in NZ, so gave them a call back. It was really great to hear all the familiar voices from back home, and sounds like they were having a pretty good time as it drew closer to midnight.
We caught up with Grant and had a look around Edinburgh castle, perched high up on the hill.
We had a reasonably good look around the castle before having lunch at the castle’s café and decided to have a quick look at the crown jewels before we left. On the way up, the others educated me on exactly what was in the Haggis I had this morning… screaming at the response, Oh My Gosh! I can’t believe Klaus fed me that! I was not overly impressed!
We found the entrance to the crown jewels, and just as we were walking in the door, the security guard told us all of a sudden that the castle had to be evacuated immediately!
All the buildings were being close and everyone was ushered out the castle gates. We had no idea what was going on, but assumed it
The Three Sisters
Andy, Hannah, Klaus was due to the weather and hoped it was nothing more serious as we popped into to have a look at a few little rooms that the security guards had not got around to closing, and then made our way out.
Just before we got to exit, a huge gust of rather cold, gale force wind sweep through over the castle’s hill, which pretty much stopped everyone in their tracks - it was so strong you could hardly walk! - we finally found out why the closed the castle!
We walked down the High Street to the fudge shop, stopping at a tourist shop called ‘Thistle Do Nicely’ for a photo for Andy’s ‘Dad Joke’ collection and I brought a Scottish flag to add to my collection.
We found Fudge Kitchen, and were treated with a free sample of toffee fudge - which just melted in our mouths! We couldn’t walk out without buying some, so I got some chocolate marble swirl fudge at just over ₤4 a slice (NZ$12), ouch!
We caught the bus - complete with tartan seats, and tartan CCTV camera(!) out to Leith to view the Royal Yacht ‘Britannia’.
We had an
Nicola & Hannah
Hanging at Three Sisters audio tour through the whole yacht including the bridge, the Queen’s bedroom, formal dinning room, staff sleeping area, the laundry and the engine room.
The Queen had requested that the yacht was decorated in more of a functional manner, like that of a ‘country house’, rather than an extravagant palace.
Yet every attention to detail has still been carefully thought of, with gold finishings everywhere, and tailor-made sheets and headboard specifically for Her Majesty.
Perhaps the odd thing was all the beds in the yacht were single, except for one which Prince Charles brought on for his honeymoon with Princess Diana.
The staff quarters were derelict in comparison. Cramped living conditions, old beds (which had replaced hammocks), next to no storage, but of course they were still expected to be presented in their finest uniforms - changing up to six times a day!
All works on the yacht, including the daily scrubbing of the decks, had to be done at night, in silence and completed by 8am. Should any one of the Royal family see them working, whey were to stand upright and look straight ahead perfectly still until they had gone past - What a job!
Edinburgh Castle
braving the weather: Helen, Hannah, Sally, Khoi We headed back into the city and tried to find a place to eat for dinner. However, everywhere seemed to have a minimum wait of 1.5 hours. It was absolutely pissing down with rain, and the gale force winds ripped through the city - even sandbags holding down temporary road closure fences were being through down the road! - Incredible!
We decided to give up before we got struck by flying sandbags or who knows what else and headed back to the hostel to have their below average, but highly priced ‘buffet’ dinner.
While we were eating, we found out that the Hogmanay Festival (the reason we were up here) had been cancelled due to bad weather!! Which sucks, but we could understand why.
I went with Klaus and Andy to the WalkAbout (of all places) and stood outside in the cold rain waiting to be let in. We walked past Princess Street (the ‘Queen Street’ of Edinburgh) on the way, which looked deserted.
We caught up with some of the others from our tour and even though we were in the Walky, I had a really good night! We had good music, good people, and
its cold!
Andy & Sally - Edinburgh Castle a well organised count down! - Hello 2007!
Andy and I tore up the dance floor until it closed in the wee hours of the morning, then headed back to the Hostel.
We chatted in the Hostel bar for a while then went bed at about 6am, rather exhausted, knowing we had to be up in a just few hours…
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