August 3, 2018 - Scotland Trip Day 5 - Edinburgh & Easington

We spent Day 5 of our Scotland trip in Edinburgh.  It is a beautiful city, with tons of character.  

...and a few characters, too!

We decided to take a "Hop-on, Hop-off" bus tour, and it was a great way to see and learn about the city.  The audio recording provided many interesting facts that we would have missed otherwise.  We actually ended up going around the tour loop twice, hopping off the bus on the Royal Mile to walk around a bit.

Mark's mom quickly made another best friend by learning all about the life story of the woman sitting next to her on the bus.

Edinburgh Castle looms large over the city and is visible from most any point, sitting on Castle Rock.

The temporary stands in the picture below are set up each year in August for the Edinburgh Tattoo.  A tattoo is "a military performance of music or display of armed forces in general. The term comes from the early 17th century Dutch phrase"doe den tap toe" ("turn off the tap"), a signal sounded by drummers or trumpeters to instruct innkeepers near military garrisons to stop serving beer and for soldiers to return to their barracks, and is unrelated to the Tahitian origins of an ink tattoo. The tattoo was originally a form of military music, but the practice has evolved into more elaborate shows involving theatrics and musical performances." (Thanks Wikipedia!)

We assume that crowds in the city were much larger than usual due to the Tattoo.  We would have loved to have attended the show, but tickets were woefully expensive.

Notice the Salisbury Crags, where we hiked the night before, in the distance in the picture below.

The picture below shows the statue of Greyfriars Bobby, and once again we turn to Wikipedia:

Greyfriars Bobby (May 4, 1855 – January 14, 1872) was a Skye Terrier who became known in 19th-century Edinburgh for spending 14 years guarding the grave of his owner until he died himself on 14 January 1872. The story continues to be well known in Scotland, through several books and films. A prominent commemorative statue and nearby graves are a tourist attraction.

We hopped off the tour bus near Edinburgh Castle, which sits at one end of the Royal Mile, so that we could explore a bit.  Despite the crowds (or maybe because of them), it was interesting to see.

The picture below shows Edinburgh Castle from the center of the Tattoo stadium.  Wikipedia says the following about the castle:

Edinburgh Castle is a historic fortress which dominates the skyline of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, from its position on the Castle Rock. Archaeologists have established human occupation of the rock since at least the Iron Age (2nd century AD), although the nature of the early settlement is unclear. There has been a royal castle on the rock since at least the reign of David I in the 12th century, and the site continued to be a royal residence until 1633. From the 15th century the castle's residential role declined, and by the 17th century it was principally used as military barracks with a large garrison. Its importance as a part of Scotland's national heritage was recognised increasingly from the early 19th century onwards, and various restoration programmes have been carried out over the past century and a half. As one of the most important strongholds in the Kingdom of Scotland, Edinburgh Castle was involved in many historical conflicts from the Wars of Scottish Independence in the 14th century to the Jacobite rising of 1745. Research undertaken in 2014 identified 26 sieges in its 1100-year-old history, giving it a claim to having been "the most besieged place in Great Britain and one of the most attacked in the world".

The castle, in the care of Historic Scotland, is Scotland's most-visited paid tourist attraction, with over 2 million visitors in 2017[4] and over 70% of leisure visitors to Edinburgh visiting the castle.[5] As the backdrop to the Edinburgh Military Tattoo during the annual Edinburgh Festival the castle has become a recognisable symbol of Edinburgh and of Scotland.

As you can see, there were just a few other people there with us.

One of our last stops was the Museum of Childhood.  Though not as impressive as the one we saw at Sudbury Hall in England, it was still interesting.

Anyone want to play with a tiny butcher shop?

Or a lovely little old fashioned kitchen?

The sign below was posted right by where we were parked.  We were a little tempted to see what it was all about, but decided to head on our way.

We left Edinburgh and headed for our AirBnB in Easington, a town on the eastern coast of England. It was a comfortable apartment in which to rest our tired bones.