EDINBURGH CASTLE Day & Night

Day 113

Friday 22nd June

Edinburgh, Scotland

Can you believe...we went to Edinburgh Castle and spend the WHOLE afternoon there AND then went back that night.

Is that love and commitment or complete madness?

Or maybe it's just because we thought..when in Scotland, do what the Scots do!

So we did. I adorned my royal stewart scottish beanie, red raincoat with four layers underneath and Greg threw on his 3 layers and off we went..to learn all about the most famous castle in the world!

What an experience. We arrived at 1pm when the cannon blasts. A funny thing about that is everywhere else in Britain (which is the BIG 4 countries, as a guy on the bus told us! - Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales) has their castle cannons go off at 12 o'clock but the Scots thought they'd save a bit of money and have it go off at one o'clock....so they'd save 11 cannon balls each day!!! Now that's enterprise. Or frugality.

We went on a guided tour which we find really good because the guide usually has a grand wee wit..aye..and knows all the inside knowledge..and has great stories...and who doesn't like stories! THEN, after that we got an audio..ok we like the castle!

And the fact that it was built on top of an extinct volcano, with spectacular views across the city, it also has this incredible history attached to it.

We learnt a lot about the Scots and English history..which i won't go into depth with because you'll be wondering what relevance that has to anything (although believe it or not, with all our emigration to Aus it's very relevant but it all makes sense when you're actually standing in the the country clicking everything into place, rather than reading it on a blog!)

My favourite room has to be the royal jewel room where Scotland's crown jewels (or 'Honours') were, including jewels on a case on the wall and a sceptre, crown and shield were positioned in all their glory inside a glass cabinet...BUT....the most appealing and wondrous thing was...

THE STONE WAS THERE!!!!!!! Called The stone of Scone..or.. The STONE OF DESTINY. The coronation seat of Scottish Kings!

It was the stone we didn't see in Westminster Abbey. We saw the space, on the coronation chair that was especially made for it by the English when the English (Edward 1st) stole it. It was the Scots stone that went back to Scotland with Queen Elizabeth's permission (to come back at the next coronation).

AND......

It looked just like a plain old limestone block.

How boring is that. All my grandiose thoughts of this wonderful precious stone was shattered! Honestly.....you don't expect a stone to look so drab when it is so precious.

Anyway, there it sat. Alongside the Scotish crown jewels, in Edinburgh Castle, a precious piece of history and valuable in it's own right. It was so great to see it!!!! The mystery of THE STONE. I wondered what it'd look like. Now we know, and the beauty of it has been shattered.

Isn't that the way sometimes. Our dreams and expectations are often more colourful and fanciful than fact. But that's the illusion isn't it. Or the excitement of dreams and not knowing. But oh, do we feel so much more knowledgeable when we do know. Superior somehow. Geepers. Well maybe i shouldn't go that far. But i certainly felt a sense of knowing 'the secret' of the stone. :-)

That wasn't all that was fascinating in the castle.

There was the tiny St Margaret's Chapel which holds 20 people..so a lot of people like to get married there to reduce the wedding invitation list! (so they say). There's also the Royal Apartments and the Great Hall which was built by James 1V in 1511.

Fascinating is also the Prisons of War there...from the late 18th Century, where sailors from all different countries were captured were locked in underground vaults. Very atmospheric!

And Greg in particular, like the Mon's Meg. The huge cannon there! (apparently among the oldest surviving medieval bombards).

Oh..and the other thing was the Dog Cemetery! Really...there was a special dog cemetery for all the officers and important royal dogs..........cute. Took pics of THAT!

Oh yeah...of course there were the paintings, the pictures of kings and queens and other stuff....

We couldn't get enough.

So when we found out there was to be a 'Ceremony of Installation' of Major General D McDowall that night. Free. So of course we waited for that!

After quickly eating a 'sub of the day' at Subway and filling in another half an hour going into the Church of St Giles which had this amazing inscription to Robert Lois Stevenson. (He wrote Jeckyl and Hyde).

But we scurried back to the castle for the inauguation.

And talk about fascinating. We almost felt like we were at the real mcoy. The Tatoo (which is a huge Scotish extravaganza they have here for two weeks in August, of the best bands in Scotland and costing $1000 a ticket!).

The Band of the Royal Regiment of Scotland came out and played their bagpipes and trumpets, trombones, saxaphones etc which was played so beautifully. As Greg said, he hadn't heard a band that could play the highs and lows so beautifully. They played songs such as Skye Boat Song, Burns on the March, Castle Dangerous and Banks on the Ness. So Scottish. So touching.

After being told, 'No sorry, you can not have a program as you are not a dignitary' we were later given the official program when all the 'important guests' got theres, which actually felt very special.

What i found really funny was the way the Scots Guards came out to March. Before they actually marched there was a main guy that got them all into order. The way he did it was so HILARIOUS. The laughter in the audience couldn't be contained either. They were all lined up in 3 lines..and he'd stand in front of a line and yell, 'number 4' and he'd reshuffle his position, then it'd be 'number 6' 'number 8' then....rest of you! And the rest of the 14 or so men lined up would shuffle along. They looked like penguins!!!! (It was my favourite part of the night....whacky as i am!)

What a lucky night though, to be there for that. We saw the March of the Colours, the Troop and then the arrival of Lord Lyon, who is the Officer of Arms and the Governor.

After that they gave the General the key to the castle, with all his dignitary and 'right royal order' and we just loved it. (The microphone stuffed up which caused as stir which was also funny!!!)

That night we had that warm fuzzy feeling inside..knowing we'd seen a little version of The Tatoo for free!

Off to Skye tomorrow...