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A wet and windy day greeted us this morning - and we certainly now know cold ☺
We are staying near The Britannia, so a bus ride into town is our transportation. We wished we had timed our wait at the bus stop a little better so that we didn't have to wait in the cold. The bus wasn't too far away but it was long enough.
A bus ride is good as you get to see places you wouldn't normally see - nothing exciting but still interesting.
We got off near Scott's Monument in the centre of town and walked to Edinburgh Castle. Again - impressive. Huge, old, historic and full of interesting things to see.
We wandered around for a while checking out the view (wet, cloudy - so the view was not that good), there was a dragoon exhibition, the crown jewels, the museum, the great hall. We also got to see what it was like to be in prison at the castle - pretty bad if you were a prisoner of war (cramped quarters - sleeping in hammocks strung close together, little heating), not so bad if you were a military prisoner (your own room, heating, regular exercise and food).
The best part was the firing of the time cannon at 1pm. Edinburgh, since 1852, would drop a ball at the top of the Nelson monument at 1pm every day. The problem being that with Edinburgh's weather, the ball is often hidden by mist etc. So to solve that issue they started firing a gun at 1pm to coincide with the ball. They have even worked out how to account for the speed of sound to keep everyone in time.
Anyway, we stopped to watch the procedure and there was ceremony with it. The man stands for a long time waiting, as we did, but he knew when it was going to happen - we didn't and were surprised. I almost dropped my camera.
A quick bite to eat and then we went to the Tartan Weaving Mill where we found all things tartan including the Mackenzie tartan - we now have a blanket in that tartan.
To finish the day off we walked the Royal Mile - the road from Edinburgh Castle to Hollyrood Palace. The palace will wait for another day as we were too late getting there.
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