Edinburgh day 58 Tue 19 Jun 2018

Breakfast at Dorstan Guest House Edinburgh, then caught bus to Waverley Bridge. Picked up our bus tour tickets and took the green bus to Holyroodhouse Palace the Queen’s official Edinburgh residence. Very interesting audio tour of the historic apartments including the former rooms of Mary Queen of Scots as well as the State apartments with their fine plasterwork ceilings, tapestries and fine furnishings. The Great Gallery contained portraits of all the Kings and Queen of Scotland. We also looked at the adjacent Holyrood Cathedral ruin and the palace gardens. Then back on the green bus and hopped off at Edinburgh Castle. The seating used for the Military Tattoo was being set up probably for the Queens visit in a weeks time. (The Tattoo is held each August). Once inside the Castle beyond the area where the Tattoo is held we ate cheese, cucumber and crackers near where the one o clock cannon was fired from a modern cannon even though Queen Victoria had naval cannons installed for appearance that have never been fired. We joined a short introductory walking tour and then visited underground cells, the tower where Mary Queen of Scots was living while her husband appeared to live a floor below and the Scottish War Memorial. Back on the green bus to finish the tour, then we swapped to the red bus for another city tour. Dinner in a pub in the Lawnmarket area of Edinburgh, then Lothian bus back to Dorstan Guesthouse on Priestfield Road.Read more