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.
Call in to get your kilt made. Inside the kilt shop.
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.
Holyrood with Arthur’s seat behind.
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.
Main Gallery at the Museum of Scotland
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!
The Festival’s Director Nicola Benedetti.
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.
A bubble car with band for tonight sitting waiting to go on .
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.
Fans of the Royal family or not there is always a fascination with their castles, palaces and this ship.
Decommissioned in 1997 as a working ship for the Queen, it’s clocks were stopped at 3 minutes past 3 when she stepped off the ship for the last time.
I thoroughly enjoyed the tour. As usual everything was well organised. No crowds to battle. Tickets are sold in entry times to stagger the people coming on board.
It took us first to the Captains bridge. All the important equipment for driving this ship! Beautiful shiny instruments now looking outdated.
We explored the crew’s areas. The mess for the officers, the seaman’s quarters.
Of course the Royal bedrooms were understated elegance. The Queen and Prince Phillip had adjacent rooms with single beds. Mmmm.
The Queen’s bedroom Prince Phillip’s bedroom.
The only Royal bedroom with a double was the honeymoon suite. Charles apparently requested a double when he and Diana married. Unfortunately, it didn’t work for them.
The sundeck room was fun with its bar and games and great views.
Formal dining room
We followed the numbered trail around the ship with our little audio handheld set pressed to our ears.
The officers’ dining room looked quite formal except for the wombat sitting in the fan ! Thrown there at one drinks session and never taken down.
As we moved around the ship there were lots of family photos. I think the Royal family loved being on board.
We saw the laundry, the hospital and the formal dining room room where many Presidents and Heads of State have been entertained
The sitting room.
By this time Steve would have enjoyed a beer. So he sat at the Officers bar. Unfortunately these were fake beers.
The ship is docked at Leith – the port about 20 minutes by tram from the centre of Edinburgh. Such a great tram system. One tram does a route from Leith through the city and then out to the airport.
And a big applause for the buses. We have worked them out and you can get a tap-tap-cap fare where after 2 rides the fares are capped for the day at £4.80 in total. So we’ve been jumping on and off the buses. Great bonus with a sore knee.
Being in Leith had me singing the Proclaimers’ song ‘Sunshine on Leith’ – it’s beautiful and is one of my choir songs. This clip shows scenes in and around Leith filmed in a cafe there.
The Matildas Australia’s favourite women’s football team was playing England. Big moment.
I choose to explore Lauder ( it didn’t take long ) even though I was walking at a snails pace. Steve decided to walk. Turns out he covered 19 km.
The beautiful sign welcoming people to Lauder
Lauder is a lovely Border town and has a nice little High St with a great cafe gallery. I occupied myself there for a while with the other people using walking sticks. I’ve really noticed how many people need a walking stick perhaps more here in Scotland?
I then returned to the Black Bull and chatted to the wife of yesterday’s timber man the owner – Steve’s new best friend . They have owned this pub for 8 years and have turned it into a friendly place for locals and tourists. Turns out they travel to Sydney every second year to visit their daughter in Sydney. She & her husband run an event company and recently organised the opening event to the World Cup which involved closing the Sydney Harbour Bridge for an opening party.
So she was more than happy to chat and have the tv on the GAME I sat there mostly alone ( it was 11am) with a coffee. Not a gin!
It was a great game but unfortunately Australia lost to England. Remember, I’m in Scotland and they were mostly supporting Australia! No love lost between England Scotland.
Meanwhile, Steve is walking along the road then detouring through fields , forests & villages.
A path Past cattle and sheep.
He found a beautiful old church and chatted for ages to the three ladies doing the weekly clean. The church only opens twice a week so he was lucky today was one of the days .
This church dates from 1242 it looks quite new but has recently celebrated their 781 year anniversary. The celebration quilt.
I left the pub and drove around the country side and arrived at the Juniperlea Pub to meet a very tired Steve for a late, late lunch.
We had a quiet afternoon as the afternoon ‘sludge’ had started. ( drizzly rain)
Dinner was at the Hotel pub and and early night. The food is good but it’s getting hard to select! I had the steak pie ! Steve the local cheddar Mac & Cheese. We’ve had the fish ‘n chips another favourite a few times. So time for a change.
Steve decided yesterday’s long walk was enough. It was cloudy and he didn’t want to walk in the rain, so we left together for an explore of the countryside. It’s so beautiful. Lush fields , stone fences where no one seems to be in a hurry. Lots of retirees in these little villages where there is nothing around. Most have few, if any shops at all so you have to get a bus or drive everywhere. oh it would be so cold in the long winters!
We found a laundrette in a supermarket car park. Such a great idea. Three big machines in a bus shelter type building. You pop your washing in, go into the Coop supermarket. Come out , change to the dryer and have a coffee in the adjacent coffee shop. So easy.
We drove up to the next village Dalkeith. It’s only about 30 mins from Edinburgh so would be a good place to live and commute to work in Edinburgh.
We visited the stunning Dalkeith Park. You can drive around it (a bit like Centennial Park in Sydney) and there is a Palace which is only open on weekends for tours and concerts. There’s a rotunda and nearby a part called Restoration. It’s a little piazza type area with restaurants, shops a great food hall and gallery. A lovely place to meet for lunch.
Pretty piazza Dalkeith Palace
There’s also camping in the park next to an adventure playground. Free for children but £4 for adults! It’s got all sorts of tree houses, slides sand play and from the delighted screaming for the children a fun place to spend some time.
Rotunda Great food hall
About 20 minutes away is Rosslyn Chapel. You may have heard of this chapel – mostly because of the book & movie The DaVinci Code. They filmed scenes here. The publicity was good for the chapel because visitors to it have increased . Before there was a little man sitting in a wooden box at the entrance where you entered for free. Now there’s parking , a visitor centre, lots of well planned & displayed information.
The chapel was started in 1442 and took 40 years to build. It was built by the wealthy St Clair family as a chapel on their land. It deteriorated over many years and was at one point used as a stable for horses.
Rosslyn Chapel
The design is gothic style with the most beautiful stone carvings. All designed to reflect stories from the bible.
It’s small with a limited number of people entering in each 90 min time slot. There’s a free talk about the Chapel, when everyone sits in the pews and look ready for a church service. Our guide was a frustrated actress or maybe a vicar. Reminiscent of Dawn French she brought the history alive with a few well told stories including dramatic pause, lowered voice and a laser pointer to highlight the stone sculptures.
Note the kangaroo in the bottom left. A wife of the Earl was Australian.
From the Chapel it was off to Edinburgh for a night before flying to the Shetland Islands. I pre arranged for Steven ( the man I’ve been communicating with for our 10 day apartment stay after Shetland ) to store a bag. So kind of him. We have limited luggage for the small plane to the islands & were planning on playing storage costs at a local place but it got complicated so I emailed my friend Steven and he met us at the apartment and took our bag to his place until we arrive back. So kind of him.
Pub near our apartment in Edinburgh. Staying there after our Shetlands trip.
The apartment position is great. Just behind the castle, 4 minutes from a tram line & Steve measured 75 paces to our local pub. Can’t wait to settle for 10 days.m!
We had the night at The Royal Scots Club near Princes St after a tasty Japanese meal. Huge variety of food places here.
A 5.15 am taxi pick up for our 7.20 flight to the Shetlands. I’m sitting in the little plane with only about 20 passengers watching the propellers twirl waiting for take off.
Off to find Jimmy Perez. If you don’t know the tv series take a look (and put the captions on to help with the heavy Scottish accents)
Too good to be true. Not taking off. The Shetlands control tower radio was faulty and had to be checked – so back to the gate for an hour!
frans travel tales 