Edinburgh

Monday 23 August - Edinburgh

Today we were up early. Our Hotel provided us with a full breakfast. Following this, we were at George Square in time to catch the first hop-on, hop-off bus. We intended to hop off at the Cathedral but ended up missing that so we went on to the Glasgow university. Had started raining by the time we arrived to the

Uni so we went on to Kelvingrove Museum & Art Gallery to the Glasgow Boys Exhibition. Both enjoyed this and by the time we came out the rain had stopped so we walked back to the University. By the time we arrived back at Buchanan Street it was 1 PM so we collected our gear and caught the train to Edinburgh.

Drama when we arrived at the Travel Lodge. They had us in a double bed so went down to change and was informed that the Travel Lodge only had double beds!! Jo ended up getting another room.

We then walked up Princess street through the park to the ½ price tent. We collected a Fringe Festival Program so that we could decide what program we would watch.

We did watch a comedian in the park but then the rain began to fall. We decided to walk back to the pub near our hotel for a beer and some dinner.

Tuesday 24^th August – Edinburgh

Today we walked and walked. First stop was up the hill to Market Street to collect our Tattoo tickets. There were a few disappointed people as there were no tickets left and they were lining up for returns.

We then bought a ticket for the hop-on-off bus – 2 day pass. We did the New & Old City Tour on the bus then caught the bus to the Botanical Gardens, We wandered around them for a couple of hours. The gardens esp the glass houses were spectacular. The colours are so different from ours much more intense. We could not get over the size of the roses and many of the other flowers.

On the bus again and off to Leith on the Firth of Forth where the Royal yacht Britannia is moored.  We decided not to go on board and then headed back to Edinburgh. We went to Charlotte Square where the Book Festival was being held. However, we were not able to get tickets to the top authors as they were already sold out. From there we went to the Oxford Bar where Rebus author Ian Rankin often has a pint.

We then went walking to get tickets for a few of the Fringe Shows but we found we were at the wrong venue so back up George Street to the booking office. We got tickets for 2 shows and then ½ price tickets to a Aussie comedian, Tony Vincent.  Following the show, we had bangers and mash. It was 9.00PM and still some daylight. The castle looked spectacular. We were lucky that the showers that we had during the day were light and then the sun came out.