A little sleep in today. Lots of late nights trying to see everything is exhilarating but tiring. Steve headed off to two sessions of the Writers Festival. I’ll be going tomorrow.

With plans to meet at Holyrood Palace I set off to the Royal Mile and after getting off a bus made my way down the hill. The Royal Mile connects Edinburgh Castle with the Palace. And along the way you pass every tourist shop. Tartan galore, kilt making shop ( which I thought was very quirky) fudge shops, cashmere, a Scottish Christmas shop, Celtic jewellery , just to name a few.

I called into the a Museum of Childhood and tripped down memory lane. All the games and toys I remember using. Oh how old I feel. It was a fun interactive place for children. Further along was the museum of Edinburgh. This tell the story of the history of this fascinating town.

I made it to the bottom of the hill and into Holyrood we went. A very good audio guide with pictures on the hand set made touring the various rooms of this smaller palace just right. No photos allowed.

It brought history alive particularly with the reign of Elizabeth of England and Mary of Scotland, married to Lord Dunbar. I’m listening to a book called The Last Tudor by Philippa Weir. She’s a great author for retelling historical stories and this one is about Lady Jane Grey and her sisters Catherine and Mary.

Deciding to head back to our apartment I caught a bus to the Museum of Scotland for another quick look and Steve went home via the Museum of Edinburgh.

We had a quick turn around and out to Usher Hall. This is our third visit to this place. The orchestral type music is here. It’s a very comfortable theatre. Plenty of room for legs to stretch tonight was the Festival’s Closing Concert.

It featured the BBC Scottish Symphony with a dynamic American conductor Karina Canelakis . She had such control and was so expressive in her conducting. The program included a Rachmaninov Symphonic poem sung by a Soprano, Tenor and Bass with the Edinburgh Chorus. A full sound!

After the concert, yet another bus back to the city for a quick dinner then into a line up for the Jazz Club. While in line we spied the cutest BMW bubble car.

I recognised the band sitting in the bar next door. Even they have to wait. The shows in these little downstairs bars are pretty much back to back! And if you get there late you might be standing. This is for the fringe shows. The big shows get you a numbered seat!

Tonight a fabulous performance by Valery Ponomarev on trumpet with a bass, sax , drummer and piano. It was a great night of jazz including some very funny chat by Valery. He’s 80. From Russia he has lived in the US for years. He’s played around the world including at this festival for 23 years.

He has written a book ‘On the Flip side of sound’ which he showed us and made many jokes about.

The whole night was great – also because we met some people in the queue. They are friends – one from Edinburgh and a couple from near Chester England. We had a fun night together.

Home to bed around 1am!