Edinburgh Castle and tennis

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The fine weather of yesterday has left us for the time being and we have awoken to grey threatening looking clouds and a forecast of heavy showers.
Being Sunday we gave ourselves a lie in as we doubt that the attractions and especially the one we want to visit today won't be open too early.
We have decided on Edinburgh Castle for our sightseeing and then we will see what the afternoon brings.
After another hearty breakfast that included bacon and eggs we set off for the castle downtown.
We were on the last few metres up the road to the castle and we felt spots of rain....and then a clap of thunder.Was this going to spoil our plans or did we just push on regardless of the weather??
We sheltered under one of the grandstands built at the entry to the castle for people to watch the Military Tatoo and other events due later this month.At first we stayed dry but as the rain intensified water started to leak through the gaps onto us.
The horizon from where the weather was coming from had disappeared and so we decided to abandon the castle sightseeing and head for home.
Gretchen had put the ANZAC ponchos(from our ANZAC day pack)in her bag and so we broke these out for the first time to put on and hopefully keep us dry on our way home.
Fully attired in clear plastic ponchos we splashed our way down the hill from the castle only to realise that the rain was easing and the sky starting to clear.
We have only been thwarted by rain on one day in Santorini and even then it was a day when we were in need of a rest after being on the go everyday since we started the adventure.
We weren't going to let a heavy shower and dark skies put us off so we stopped our quick march home and stood in a doorway of a closed shop and waited to see if the rain really was clearing.
Sure enough within a couple of minutes the rain did stop so we went back to plan A and walked back up the hill.
We forgot to mention that on Friday when we had dinner with Jamieson he gave us two annual passes for all of the Historic Scotland castles etc.We didn't have to join the long queue that had formed for tickets now that the rain had stopped.Instead we went to the priority desk and within a moment we were on our way into the castle.
The history of the castle is shown on display boards as you enter.While it is important to take in as much as one can when viewing attractions like Edinburgh Castle,the information we have read in all the venues we have been to since April19th means you can get information overload very easily.
The castle dominates the Edinburgh skyline and as a fortress it is easy to see why it was so difficult for the enemies of Scotland to conquer it.It is impossible to scale the rock and then the castle walls built on top of the rock on three sides and the gate with the road leading to it would have been stoutly defended.Then of course there was Mons Meg the largest cannon ever built although it never did actually work as it was supposed to have and was dumped after it nearly blew apart on its first firing.Today it is a major drawcard at the top of the castle road.
One of the unfortunate things about doing tourist attractions as popular as the castle on a Sunday is the crowds are bigger and there are more foreign voices on the soundtrack of video.At least with photos they are only faces!!
Probably the most impressive room is the Great Hall and we sat inside with eyes closed imagining what it would have been like during some of the noisy,bawdy celebrations that would have taken place there in the castles earlier years.While we were in the hall we were treated to a one man performance about a gathering of Scots in the 1860's when the King came up from England.The actor was representing the McGregor clan and he gave a humourous performance involving people from the audience in telling the story of how a tartan was picked up by various clans and of the King's visit to Edinburgh.
The St Margarets chapel is the oldest building on the hill being built about 1130 and is little bigger than a small and intimate room.It was difficult getting the right'feel' in the chapel due to the large number of people coming and going.
The number 1 attraction are the Honours of Scotland dating back to the 14th century and consist of a crown,sceptre and sword all of which are under as much security as the current royal jewels in the Tower of London that we visited back in May.
Our final building was the museum to the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards and this outlined their long history of wars and battles they have fought in right up to modern day.
As today is Sunday there was no firing of the 1pm gun so after a very informative couple of hours we headed home for lunch with the idea of seeing if there was anyone at the Croquet club for a game of GC.
As no one was there we came home just in time for the singles mens tennis final from Wimbledon.
Now neither of us have that great an interest in tennis but we thought we might just watch a bit to recover from being on our feet all morning.
Well as everyone knows now the game was such a thjriller that we couldn't leave it for fear we might miss the point where either player broke the other players serve to win the game.That eventually came 4 and half hours after it started and by then it was too late to think of going too far on a sightseeing expedition.
So we opted for the Old Town which is just on the other side of the Meadows and strolled out just before 7pm planning to be back to cook dinner in around an hour.
Although the light wasn't that great for photos we wandered in and out of streets and alleyways reading historical signs of things like "This was the place that......was butchered to death by a mob in December 1671".This city and country for that matter does have a bloodthirsty past!!!!
The weather had cleared nicely and it was a pleasant evening as we strolled home across the Meadows where groups of young people had gathered and were socialising in a way where alcohol wasn't required(wouldn't happen in NZ!!) and one group was even cooking a BBQ on a use once BBQ that you can buy from the supermarket for GBP2.49 everything included except the food and booze!!
A full day despite that a good part of it was watching tennis!!

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Photos

Looking a doufas in the poncho
Ach well it did keep me dry

Fireplace,The Great Hall
They need them this big to keep warm in winter!!!

Gretchen,Edinburgh Castle
The woman to the left of picture had hung around for ages while I tried to take this photo and I thought she was finally out of view....not so!!