Today we woke up very early – at least for the girls and headed to Heathrow to fly up to Edinburg. We arrived well in advance and yet still ended up not getting breakfast due to too slow service. The plane ride was pretty uneventful – Emily was excited because she got to have tea.
We arrived at our hotel around 11 am and checked our bags and headed on the bus to the Britannia – the last royal yacht retired in 1997. Talk about decadence! The staff had to polish the silver everyday – whether or not the queen or any royals were there. There were pictures of Princess Di & the boys all over the boat as she loved the Britannia and it was where she and Prince Charles honeymooned. Interesting fact – The Queen & Prince Phillip had separate rooms whereas the only double bed was brought on board after Prince Charles & Princess Di were on their honeymoon.
After the Britannia, we took a bus back and checked in. The girls didn’t even bother to come to our room because Nana & Pop were already checked in and staying 2 doors down from our room. After visiting with them, we left them to nap and headed to the National Scottish Museum. This was not ranked too high in Trip Advisor but upon a recommendation from one of the restaurant staff in the hotel we met earlier, we decided to visit for an hour. It was amazing. They just went through a 47.4 million renovation. It had many interactive things – reminded me of a Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, sans the heart. We stayed there until it closed (and they started having everyone leave 10 minutes early so that at 5pm, it would be empty.)
Next, we went out to a nice, casual Italian restaurant a block from the hotel with Nana & Pop who we had slept through our knocking & 2 phone calls but luckily answered the door as we were leaving for the restaurant. The food was pretty good but it seemed like forever before it finally came out. We finished up dinner and ran out in the light rain to try to scalp tickets to the Tattoo.
The Tattoo is an 1 ½ hour music show put on by different military music groups and a group of dancing Scottish girls. The show is only put on for a few weeks in August. The show is right outside the Edinburg castle. As you walk to the castle, either side is flanked by stands with 26 rows (so pretty high at the top). It was a very good show except that it rained and rained and rained. Emily & I lasted an hour but Scott & Ainsley stayed the whole time. At the end of the show, a lone bagpiper plays in tribute to all the Scottish military men & women who have fallen during action. It is very moving according to Scott but after an hours of sitting in the drenching rain with no umbrella, comfort won out over moving – besides I can see it on BBC or probably YouTube in warmth and dryness. We walked into our hotel dripping wet – we were quite a sight to see given the fanciness of the hotel lobby. But when we said Tattoo, the staff just nodded as we were not the first to show up that wet.
After we all dried off and warmed up, we quickly went to bed. Emily slept in Nana and Pops room and Ainsley stayed with us tonight.
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