Edinburgh, Scotland

 August 3, 2024

We were up early again today. . . Well, 6 a.m., which is early if you’re retired. We had our in-room breakfast and joined our friends and walked down to the theater. From there we were treated to a ride on a ferry (not the water shuttles aka lifeboats). The ferry was much more comfortable and all enclosed with several levels and operated by the Queensferry port. Once in to the port, we joined others on the motorcoach for the ride into Edinburgh, pronounced “Edinburrough.”

We again had a very capable narrator named Fraser. Our driver took us in the city and we drove around with Fraser pointing out landmarks, statues, neighborhoods, etc. Eventually we made our way to a street near the Edinburgh Castle, which is high up on a rock and the only way to get up there is to walk uphill. In fact, the entire city is built on the slope of said rock and you are either walking uphill or downhill. It is very tiring to do either one, but we wanted to see the castle, so we followed along behind Fraser’s yellow flag with the red lion. It was an arduous walk to say the least; because in addition to being steep, it was all cobblestone and very uneven. I would have been able to put my walking stick to good use, which I did yesterday; but I decided not to take it today as it is just one more thing to keep track of. But it would have been helpful. The castle is monstrous and we were able to walk into it through the gate and up to the various lookout points. This castle was besieged numerous times and burned, destroyed, rebuilt, etc. The history is quite impressive. We went inside St. Margaret’s Chapel which was very small but can be rented for weddings, baptisms, etc. We also saw where the royal rooms are located and I was able to get some pictures inside the Great Hall. 

Once again, we didn’t have a lot of time to explore on our own after our guide finished, and we decided to peruse the gift shops within the castle grounds. Once Sharon and I were done there, it was time to get back on the bus and head to the ship. We did pass by the Royal Mile which was at least partly closed to motor traffic. I should mention that the Edinburgh Festival is currently in full swing; and there were, according to our guide, twice as many people in Edinburgh as there usually are. There were masses of people all over the city and tonight is Day 2 (I think) of the Military Tattoo. That would be worth seeing, but we will be sailing on by that time. When we got off our motorcoach, we did some shopping right at the Queensferry port as they had a shop that had various souvenirs. And another shop on the pier had some interesting items.

Once back at the ship, we grabbed a bite to eat and are now resting in our room.  It is 3:30 so we have 2 hours before dinner. We had good weather today, very sunny starting out; but it got a little cloudy and very windy, so I was glad I had once again layered up and was comfortable. 

We started sailing while we were eating dinner and now we are all back in our rooms. Tomorrow is a sailing day, so we get to sleep in. Yay!

Till next time. . . 

Dale