Edinburgh / Tattoo

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Today is the day of the Tattoo for us. We started early with brekkie then packed our bags, as we were staying at the Marriott Hotel tonight as part of the Tattoo package. We planned to spend much of today in the city looking at things we haven’t had a chance to yet. Firstly, we took our clothes to the Laundromat for cleaning, and was going to pick it up later.

First on our list for the day was a walk to Holyrood Palace. This was very impressive. We had an audio tour as we walked through. So many things to take in. The amazing part was a portrait of every King and Queen in Scottish history, which was vandalized a few hundred years ago when Bonnie Prince Charlie was in residence. The English came and slashed them all. The abbey out the back was huge and a real eye opener as well. Words cannot do it justice.

Once finished here, we walked around to Dynamic Earth for a look. It wasn’t too bad, showing the history of Scotland pretty much from the big bang, but it was more suited to students, rather than tourists.

Then we walked through the city to the other end, seeing Greyfriars Bobby, the dog who sat by his owners grave when he died, until the faithful dog died himself. What a story.

From there, we took the bus down to the docks to have a look at Brittania. That was an eye opener. The ship is still in full working condition and fully open to the public. The audio tour was excellent, describing what life was like for both the Royal family and workers on the ship. It still had the royals Silver Ghost?? Rolls on deck for when they visited countries without a suitable car. The engine room was absolutely immaculate, not an ounce of oil anywhere. It looked brand new, but had done over a million hours without failure. We spent a bit too long here and rushed back to the launderette to find it had closed for the day. We couldn’t get our clothes until Monday, where we would be in Aberdeen. What a pain.

Anyway, we then went to the Lodge Hotel to get our bags and headed to the Marriott. As soon as we opened the door to the room, the stench of smoke nearly knocked us over. So much for a non smoking hotel. Anyway, the room was huge, the bed was a king size, and other than the smoke, it would have been perfect. Once settled in, we decided to go for a walk to find something for tea, settling for a local pizza shop about a mile away. By the time we got back to the hotel and changed for the Tattoo, it was time to leave.

We had a personal escort to the Tattoo, as per the deal given to us by Flight Centre. We were picked up in the Mercedes and dropped off about 200m from the venue. Roads closer were closed. We were seated in an upper row and had an excellent view of the whole area. With the exception of the seat sizes, the whole setup was great. Before long, the show started. It was absolutely brilliant, with bands from all over the world, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Canada etc. The different groups were quite funny as well. The NZ ones even did a Haka at the end of their performance. They even had Chinese kids and African school children doing performances which were great. Anyway, the night lasted till almost 1 in the morning, but felt like no time had passed at all. The fireworks display at the end was great as well. An excellent night, which should be experienced by anyone in Edinburgh when it’s on.

We had our personal Merc waiting for us around the corner when the night was over, and he took us to the hotel, where we flaked it bit time.

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Comments

[Ally]

Did u end up getting your clothes back??