May 23 Edinburgh

We had a lot of rain during the night but when we woke it had stopped so we did our chores and summoned an Uber into town. On the advice of our taxi driver from the day before we decided not to take the wet weather pants.
We had decided to start at the end of the walking tour we had started the day before and work our way backwards so first stop was the Palace of Holyroodplace which is the King's residence in Edinburgh. Unfortunately it was closed as young Edward had had a bit of a kip there the night before. We were standing outside looking in when yet again we were surrounded by police. Gaye got talking to one of the policewomen and said she thought that Edward was looking a bit thin based on our glimpse of him yesterday. The policewoman said he will be fine if he gets through the breakfast she had seen for him inside the palace. Next thing Edward arrives. He made the effort to wave to Gaye as she leapt up and down and tried to take her top off (not really) but she was chuffed.
From there we worked our way back up the Royal Mile. Why do they always stick these castles on top of a hill. By the time we were halfway up the rain was really quite persistent and because verandas out the front of shops had not been invented in Edinburgh there was absolutely nowhere to shelter. If I had the phone number for mother of the taxi driver from yesterday I would have loved to talk to her about her son's future as a weather forecaster.
Eventually we found a Starbucks and sloshed our way in there for a coffee and made puddles on their floor. We stayed there until we had warmed up and people were starting to look funny at us sitting in our underwear with our clothes on the radiators.
Eventually we got dressed and made our way to Edinburgh Castle where we enjoyed standing in line in the rain with the 1 pm intake. We made, what is yet to be confirmed by the Guiness Book of Records, the quickest tour of Edinburgh Castle. Gaye did an outstanding job of getting some photos while I bitched about the weather and how we should go the Whisky Experience next door.
Eventually we made a hasty exit back down the hill to a pub called The Royal Cafe that a Facebook friend, David Whyte, had recommended. What a beautiful pub. We again made puddles all over there floor and had a great lunch - this time at 2.30 pm.
When we emerged from the pub the streets were underwater and it was clear that tourist activities had been abandoned by everyone and they were all looking for a taxi. I managed to connect with an Uber out the front of the Balmoral Hotel but the the app was telling me we had to go to exit 4 from the railway station for the pickup. Off we headed but every drop of rain that hit the screen on my phone was changing the page and we had no idea where we were going. Eventually we were able to find some shelter under a bridge and the Uber driver messaged me to say that he would come to us if we would stop bloody moving. So we did and he did too. There was a delay while good old Edward and his convoy brought traffic to a standstill so that he could wave to Gaye for a final time. The driver found us in his nice Mercedes van and we piled in totally soaked and dumped our wet stuff all over his nice leather seats. On the way back to the camp there was a road closure which took him way out of his way and the traffic was shite. Gaye gave him 10 pounds for his trouble. Hopefully his van has dried out by now. Needless to say we didn't go out anywhere after that and spent the night trying to dry out our stuff. My phone took 3 hours in front of the heater vent before it was dry enough to let me connect the charger.Read more