On Tuesday, August 16th, we took a late flight and headed for Scotland. We didn't land until after midnight, so it started out late and took awhile to get our rental car. I felt so bad for the landlord we were renting the apartment for, she met us there at 1 am and took the time to show us around, she was fabulous!!!!
This is the sign coming in at the airport. I thought it looked really cool!
Our land lady was very nice and told us about some cheap parking near the Royal Mile. It was under the Dynamic Earth. She said it would be good for a rainy day if we liked. I was hoping that the weather would be nice and we wouldn't have to because there is so much we wanted to see.
My monkeys - never taking the easy way anywhere. LOL I LOVE it!!!
We found the Royal Mile and headed to Palace of Holyroodhouse. Since the 16th century, this palace has marked the end of the Royal Mile. An abbey - part of a 12th-century Augustinian monastery - originally stood in its place. The Palace of Holyroodhouse is the Queen's official residence in Scotland. If the Queen is at home, you will see a flag called the Royal Standard flying over the rooftops. She visits once a year in the summer for a week.
Michael in one of the guard towers. I am not sure when the boys started posing like that in the guard towers, but it has been like that for quite a few of them!
This entrance front was conceived as a triumphal gateway, surmounted by the Royal Arms of Scotland.
AJ, Michael, and David sitting in front of forecourt fountain.
This is a statue of Edward VII outside of the Palace. He was the eldest son of Queen Victoria and her husband (first cousin) Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
The unicorn were special emblems of the Scottish royal family. Long ago, unicorns were thought to be fierce and hard to capture. Showing them tied in chains with Scottish crowns about their necks was a way to suggest Scottish royal power.
The forecourt is transformed into a parade ground for the Ceremony of the Keys, when the Lord Provost of Edinburgh presents The Queen with the keys to the city of Edinburgh. The palace as it stands today was built between 1671-1678.
The gateway is surmounted by the Royal Arms of Scotland. Above is a crowned octagonal cupola with a clock. You see the two chained unicorns to either side of a central shield.
This is the Quadrangle. Sir William Bruce has three of the five classical orders, Doric, Ionic and Corinthian in ascending order, on the facades of the Quadrangle, to emphasis the statues of each floor. This is also the place of many weddings.
The origins of the Palace lie in the foundation of an Augustinian abbey in 1128 by David I. Legend attributes the found to King David's vision of a stag with a cross or 'rood' between its antlers. By 1500 this was one of the largest and most impressive monasteries in Scotland.
Here we are standing in the nave, the only surviving part of the once much larger abbey complex.
By the time Edinburgh became the capital of Scotland in the fifteenth century, kings preferred to reside at the abbey, surrounded by pleasant gardens and a large park for hunting, rather than at Edinburgh Castle, on its exposed rocky summit.
David listening to some of the history of the abbey.
Here you can see some of the gigantic columns that were used to keep up the roof.
Here you can see how massive the abbey was, it was HUGE and this is only the main nave, the rest of it being destroyed in raids by English armies, Edinburgh mob, and stone slabs that were used on the roof to re-enforce it, but actually made the life of the roof shorter.
The Scottish State Coach was originally built in 1830 for the Duke of Cambridge and given to Queen Mary in 1930 as a gift from Earl of Albemarle. In 1968, the Royal Arms of Scotland and the Order of the Thistle insignia were added. The roof had two glass panels inserted, which makes the interior much lighter and affords a better view for onlookers. In 2011, this coach conveyed The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh to Buckingham Palace after the wedding of Prince William to Miss Catherine Middleton. It was also used during The Queen's 90th birthday celebration at Windsor Castle.
Next we headed across the street to the state parliament. They had these two great horse head statues in front of the building. We went inside for a quick peak, but no photos allowed.
After that we were all hungry for lunch, so we decided to head back to a restaurant called Oink. It had FABULOUS sandwhiches!!!!
Here is the pig that we ate. They had the head and everything right there. But however they cooked it, it was yummy!!! They also had quite a few types of fillings to go with it and sauces. I had haggis on mine.
This is the 1688 Canongate Kirk (church). It is where Queen Elizabeth II and her family worshipped whenever they're in town. The gilded emblem at the top of the roof has the antlers of a stag from the royal estate of Balmoral.
This is the Calton Cemetery up on Calton Hill. The obelisk, called Martyrs' Monument, remembers a group of 18th century patriots exiled by London to Australia for their reform politics. The round building is the grave of philosopher David Hume. The big, turreted building to the right was the jail master's house.
For centuries, a wall stood here, marking the end of the burgh of Edinburgh. For residents within the protective walls of the city, this must have felt like the "world's end," indeed. The area beyond was called Cannongate, a monastic community associated with Holyrood Abbey.
These brass bricks in the street trace the gate (demolished in 1764).
As we were walking up the Royal Mile, we came upon the beginning of the Fringe. It has been going on for 69 years. I didn't realize it was going to be going on at the same time as we were there until an acquaintance told me about it. I have never heard about it before, but it is HUGE!!!! There were over 300 different venues, over a thousand different shows. They were all size of groups and interests, from free to pricey. It was really cool to check out.
We stopped in at a shirt store and the boys found this transformer and they thought he was really cool and wanted their picture by it!
They not only had venue for people performing at the Fringe, they also just played along side the street. There were some really great musicians!!
This is the John Knox House, probably one of the oldest houses in Edinburgh. He was an important and controversial religious reformer in Scotland during the 1500s. He brought in a more democratic brand of Christianity also spurred Scotland toward political democracy.
We decided to head back to the apartment for a little while before the Tattoo for some rest and food. Well rest wasn't in the cards for the boys because they decided it was a perfect time to wrestle with Daddy!!! Who was I to argue. LOL :-)
This was just too funny - back of a cow out of a building and I wouldn't have never noticed it up there except it was on the boys' game of Pokémon go.
As we were heading up the Royal Mile, we saw this street performer doing some juggling and he was on top of a very rickety looking set up.
This is a statue of Adam Smith that was sculpted in bronze. He was philosopher and father of modern economics thinking. It was here, in 1759, that Smith published his Theory of Moral Sentiment, an antithesis to the human condition of selfishness.
AJ trying to get a better view standing on whatever he could find!!
This is a statue of Sir Walter Scott in front of St. Giles' Cathedral. He was a writer. The Duke looks down over the High Street, his right leg forward, his right hand clutching his cloak and his left hand holding his gloves. He wears the robes of the Order of the Garter. The tall hexagonal pedestal in stone has three tiers of bronze decoration: a top gallery with huntsmen and hounds chasing a stag (by D. W. and W. G. Stevenson) ; the second tier has reliefs of scenes from the Duke's life, and allegorical figures at the corners; the third tier has larger bronze reliefs of episodes in the Scott family history, and rampant stags holding shields at the corners. The cresting and other details are ornately gothic.
Now we are in the BIG crowd heading up to the Military Tattoo! I was so excited to see the show! I have heard nothing but great things about it and how it gets sold out early in the year. Which is why I bought the tickets well in advance.
Underneath the seats where many statues. When David went a couple of years ago, it wasn't during the Military Tattoo, and he said it looked like a whole different castle.
The start of the Military Tattoo. You can see the castle in the background. All these stands and extras are put up and down every year for the Tattoo.
To open the show, they have them take a shot of scotch and then when they finish it they kiss the bottom of it to show they drank it all.
They had cannons all over the castle - it makes me think of it when it was used for defense.
The boys and I enjoying the show!! Always having a great time together!
They had a fly over that I almost missed with my camera.
The cool thing about the Military Tattoo is that there are bands from all over the world. This is the Scotland band.
Then the bagpipes came out. It was amazing to hear them. It started out as not too many of them.
Then they just kept coming and coming and coming.
I have no idea how many of them were there, but they sounded AWESOME!!!!
I love the drummer's animal skin in the middle of the picture!! It was fantastic!!!
These girls was fantastic dancers!!
The other cool thing was they made different images on the castle as it got darker. The pictures went with the country and story from that country.
They even had fake snow coming down for part of the show set in the winter!!
It is just amazing what you can do with a castle backdrop and some wonderful lights!
These guys were fantastic!!! They weren't just adults, there were children out there driving the motorcycles as well!!
They had some great fireworks coming out from the back of their bikes!
They also came back with three to four people on one motorcycle.
This was pretty amazing!! They drove all over and that takes a lot of precision!
And what is a show without jumping through the fireworks!!!!
This was the British band.
The US band and singers - it was very cool to see all the different colors that they were able to put on the show and how much it changed the image.
Time for the good old USA!!!!
They did a fabulous job and played some fun music!!!
They were playing music from the Hobbit - can you see it?
This showed the army of Scotland and the wars that they fought.
Next came the processional of horses that are used when the Queen is in town. We saw these horses earlier at the Holyrood.
Here is the carriage that we saw earlier in the day!! It looks a little different outside of the plastic.
Towards the end they put up pictures of The Queen because it was her 90th birthday this year.
It was neat to see all of the pictures.
Then it was time for the grand finale!!! They brought out all of the different bands to play together.
The USA army singers were up front singing along and sounded great!!!
One of them even soloed during the finale!
What is the end of a show without some fireworks?!? They were really cool!
Everybody came back out and sang, dance and played!! It was soooooooo worth going just for the show, let alone for all of the history that we already saw. We all thoroughly enjoyed the show and all of the different acts from different countries. Each country brought their own flare! After that we walked out with the herd and headed back to our car.
