Any visit to Edinburgh, must include Edinburgh Castle, so that is where my adventure starts. I had tried to start it down at Holyrood Palace, but unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it...) they were getting it ready for the Queen's arrival.
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| Edinburgh Castle |
So I happen to be at the Castle at just the right moment, because they were also preparing for the Queen's arrival, but these were preparations that they tourists of Edinburgh could watch. The Castle was preparing to Greet the Queen and Prince Phillip with a 21 Gun Salute, which I then had a great view of! Those guns are LOUD! And there was an awesome little band that played God Save The Queen upon her arrival at the train station.
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| 21 Gun Salute! |
So then we take our touristy activities to the next morning and the opposite end of the Royal Mile. I just happened to be walking down the street (no really) and I came upon people (weird, I know). Apparently, today is the day that the Queen opens Scottish Parliment! The Scottish Parliment building, by the way, is the ugliest building ever. This picture is of probably its best angle...
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| Scottish Parliment |
So I join these people and wait for the Queen to arrive!! There really weren't that many people because apparently this wasn't advertised, and so since she does this every year, the locals knew, but not many tourists did. But I was perfectly fine with this, because this meant I was right up against the barricade across the street from the entrace to parliment! So suddenly, a few of us look up and see a few cars coming out of the Palace gates. What?
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| Cars leaving the Palace... I wonder who it could be? |
And so we look harder..... And we see the Queen!! Not 10 feet way in her bulletproof car!!! She is driving up the street to the Queen's Entrance to the Parliment building, so she can go do her speech-y stuff and open Parliment.
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| The Queen and Prince Phillip!! |
So then, after that excitment, we are looking around again, looking for more things/people to take pictures of, and we look up to see:
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| Two Guys on the roof looking for terrorists. |
Two guys on a roof in assault gear with binoculars..... Ok guys, seriously, I'm not a terroist.
And then we have most of the rest of the Scottish regiments lining the streets, march off somewhere. (I couldn't see where they went...) I loved the kilts! And then there were these guys with long bows. Wait, long bows? YES! These guys are called the Archers (the Scottish man next to me was so helpful in explaining all of this!) and they are pretty much a ceremonial band. They have to be asked to become apart of this troupe! And I believe its a lifelong thing, because the guys in the front, were rather elderly.....
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| The Queen's Band of Archers |
And then came the Scottish First Minister. You can tell which one is him because he is waving and also because he is the fat one (another lovely explanation from my newfound Scottish friends). He is how we knew to get our cameras ready for more pictures of the Queen, because obviously if the First Minister has left the building, the program is over.....
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| Scotland's First Minister |
Unfortunately, a police officer was standing right in front of my view of most of the Queen's procession through the line of Archers, so I pretty much was only able to get this shot of her back.
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| The Queen! |
And then I went a got some tea. And where better than the place that Harry Potter sprouted from J.K. Rowling's mind? Maybe I'll get some inspiration and write a best selling novel! (not likely.....)
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| The Elephant House |
And my adventures in Edinburgh don't end here! Look for my next installment: A Parade and the Hike that Never Ended!
Cheers!
KM
