Mum & I had a fair mission getting to the airport yesterday for our flight to Edinburgh. It was an early start of rising at 3am before the long trip by minicab to Luton plane port. To start with he was late but when we finally got going he kept going in circles because he couldn't understand his gps. I had to navigate and we eventually got to Luton with a little time to spare. Thankfully our flight was less dramatic and we arrived in Edinburgh pretty quickly, picked up our car & headed off into the countryside as too early to head into the city. Our first stop was Linlithgow where we grabbed some brekky before wandering through the town and up to Linlithgow Palace, birthplace of Mary, Queen of Scots. It was amazing just how well it has stood the test of time and great to get us in a medieval mood. From there we drove through a couple of inconsequential towns before heading to Edinburgh to check in and get prepared for our evening festivities. We grabbed our key before driving around to get some lunch and then back to the hotel for an afternoon recharge. I slept a bit longer then mum but in time we were ready to head up to the Military Tattoo. We arrived just in time to take our place in line, with 2000 other people, & were herded into our seats and the arena. The tattoo was amazing & a once in a lifetime experience (well unless you go twice), and something we will always have fond memories of. The weather had been great all day but of course during the show it rained quite a bit. Oh well at least we had wet weather gear. Of course it may have even kept us dry if we hadn't left it in the hotel. No matter as we had an amazing night and kept warm and didn't let it worry us at all. What an awesome evening!!
Today we were up early and off to tour Edinburgh. We purchased an all day hop on hop off bus ticket and started touring around the city. We only got to the start of the Royal Mile before jumping off and heading into the Castle to enjoy it's sights. We think the castle may be broken as once again it started to rain as soon as we headed through the gates but thankfully didn't last long. We spent a couple of hours marveling at it's splendor and taking a multitude of photos before heading back down the Royal Mile for lunch. The fringe festival is on atm and the city is alive with people and street performers which has created a real buzz to the city. We feasted on fish and chips and grabbed tickets for a tour of the underground city later in the day before heading back to the bus stop to continue the bus tour. We tried a few different buses throughout the day with different guides, of which I will steal some of their jokes, and got a good history lesson and layout of the city. As the afternoon wore on we made our way back to the Royal Mile for our tour of Mary Kings close. During the 17th century an underground city was created where people of lower and even middle class lived below street level. It was such an unbelievable experience and simply amazing to see how these people lived/struggled in this time. Finally it was off for some Nepalese before retiring for the night and another early start tomorrow. Edinburgh is one beautiful city mixing old with new and it has a humungous amount of history that we have only had a small taste of. It is high on the list of places to return to and I will get back one day. But tomorrow it is off for new adventures as we head north making our way for Aberdeen.