Edinburgh

Tuesday 12 August

The day began with a bus tour of Edinburgh followed by a visit to Edinburgh Castle. When driving to a lookout for views of the city we passed a family of swans and other birds.

The weather was once again cold and very windy so the photo opportunity was very short.

After the tour of the sites including the Old Town we were taken to the castle. By now it was raining which made exploring the Edinburgh Castle a challenge. As can be seen from the following images taking photos was also a challenge.

In two niches on either side of the entrance stand statues of William Wallace on the right and Robert the Bruce on the left.

Once inside the castle the first place that we visited was the Scottish National War Memorial

which was opened in 1927. Although built to honour those who were killed during the First World War it commemorates all Scottish soldiers who have been involved in later wars and conflicts.

The next site that we visited was Saint Margaret's Chapel, a very small building built by King David in the twelfth century for the use of the royal family.

The chapel was dedicated to the memory of his mother, Queen Margaret, who had died at the castle in 1093. She was made a saint in 1250.

Despite the rain there were some good views of the castle complex and of the city.

Despite the rain there were long queues to visit the royal apartments including the honours of Scotland so we we decided to avoid these.

Needless to say venues such as the Great Hall were packed with people sheltering from the weather so having a good look at the building was difficult.

Consequently our visit to the castle was restricted and in our efforts to try and keep relatively dry we missed some areas that we would normally have visited such as the National War Museum of Scotland. On a fine day, however, this would be a great site to visit.

Back in the town the Fringe Festival continued in the rain.

We took refuge in the Scottish National Gallery where we had lunch and then spent some time looking at the artworks.

On the way back to the hotel we passed a number of statues including one of David Livingstone, with seagull on his head, and also the Sir Walter Scott Monument.

Sir Walter Scott

In the evening we attended a Scottish dinner and cabaret - A Taste of Scotland - which was an entertaining evening of Scottish music. We also got to sample the Scots delicacy, haggis.

Edinburgh

Monday 11 August
The morning was cold and windy but there was no rain so we rugged up and set out to explore Edinburgh.

As in other parts of Europe masses of flowers decorate some of the buildings

and footpaths of the city.

August is a great time to be in Edinburgh. Not only is the Edinburgh Military Tattoo performed at night but there is also the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival so there is no shortage of entertainment on offer.

Princes Street is the main street leading to the castle and it was filled with entertainers performing their acts. We spent part of the morning watching Jerome set up and perform his act. Balancing on a unicycle while attempting to juggle flares in the wind was not an easy brief but he kept the large crowd entertained with his performance and humour.

To become familiar with the city we continued along Princes Street to the Edinburgh Castle and then moved into a side street for a view of the castle and also the seating for the Tattoo. Vans from the BBC were also arriving to prepare for the filming of that night's performance.

We also had a good view of the castle built into the hill.

In the other direction we also had a view of the buildings of Edinburgh.

Our next destination was the National Museum of Scotland in Chambers Street.

Exhibitions featured the industry and inventiveness of the Scots, especially during the industrial revolution.

The prominence of the Scots in English literature and the arts was also on display with writers and poets such as Sir Walter Scott, Robert Burns and Robert Louis Stevenson being a small selection. We also spent some time exploring the sections devoted to the history of Scotland. Obviously you could spend a great deal of time exploring the collections.

The weather was still fine so after returning to the hotel to check the details for the evening, we continued our walk to Calton Hill.

On the way we passed views of Arthur's Seat and Salisbury Crags.

There were also views of Palace of Holyroodhouse, the official residence of the Royal Family in Scotland.

The memorial to Robert Burns is an impressive edifice.

From Calton Hill there are good views of the city.

The most striking feature on the hill is the National Monument of Scotland, though you have to look hard for information at the site providing its history. Building was commenced in 1822 to commemorate the many Scottish soldiers who died during the the Napoleonic Wars. The Scotsman, on 17 February 2014, published an article on the state of the monument.

Another monument on the hill is a tower - the Nelson Monument, commemorating the victory and death of Lord Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.

Back at the hotel we met the other members of the group taking part in Insight Vacations' Country Roads of Scotland tour. After the group dinner we then travelled by bus to attend a performance of the Edinburgh Military Tattoo in the forecourt of the castle.

It was a great performance to watch. On television the different performances flow effortlessly from one to another and that was exactly how it happened on the night. The precision of organising the many performers and and performances is incredible.

As well as watching what is going on in the forecourt there is an associated light display on the walls of the castle to watch.

It was a great night.

Edinburgh

Sunday 10 August
Due to the RideLondon event causing many major roads being blocked to traffic, we had to leave the hotel at 9 am to travel to Heathrow for the 1.20 pm British Airways flight to Edinburgh. Ex-hurricane Bertha had crossed the Atlantic and was now visiting the UK resulting in wild, wet weather. The RideLondon event was meant to be 100 miles but was reduced to 86 miles to avoid areas affected by storm damage.All in all an interesting day for a plane flight. Four days later Bertha was still impacting on the weather in England and Scotland.

The flight from London to Edinburgh is short,  normally taking 55 minutes. We would not have been surprised if the flight had been delayed because of the weather but instead the flight was delayed because there had been a mix-up with baggage being transferred from another flight. Eventually the plane took off and the pilot warned us that there would be a few rough patches, particularly at the beginning and end of the flight. The passengers really did not need encouragement to keep their seat belts on. As a passenger sitting next to me remarked, the trip was rather like being on a roller coaster ride. When we arrived the pilot remarked that the trip had been a little rougher than he had anticipated and suggested that this was a trip that we would remember.

We found our driver and collected our baggage. Jan, a passenger from an earlier flight, had missed her lift to the hotel as her baggage had not arrived on the plane so she came to the hotel with us. The driver told us that baggage going to the wrong destination was a normal occurrence. We discovered the next day that the baggage of another member of our group had gone to Ireland and it was many days before she was reunited with her suitcase.

In Edinburgh we stayed at the Crowne Plaza on Royal Terrace in the area of the city known as New Town. The building of Royal Terrace began in 1821 following the designs of William Playfair (1789-1857). When completed there were forty townhouses within one facade. The residents of the new townhouses included men of wealth, solicitors, merchants and retired officers of the HEICS. The group of buildings were finally completed in 1860. In the 1920s and 1930s some of the townhouses were used a s boarding houses, hotels or offices. In the 1980s a number of houses were connected to form the Arden Hotel, later renamed the Royal Terrace Hotel.

When we arrived in Edinburgh it was raining but as the weather forecast for the next few days was not encouraging we decided to complete our first task which was to visit another location in New Town, Ainslie Place, where my great, great grandmother had been born in December 1830.

Before leaving Melbourne I had made a copy of the route from the hotel to Ainslie Place using Google Maps so we knew not only the route but also the distance between the two locations.

Using the earth view we also had an idea as to the layout of the buildings in Ainslie Place. There is a private park belonging to the residents in the centre of Ainslie Place with the townhouses arranged in one large semi circle on one side and two smaller semicircles on the other.

Number 11 Ainslie Place, the townhouse with the white door, is where my great, great grandmother, Eleonora Mackillop, lived with her family before they moved to Tasmania via India in 1833.

Ainslie Place was built on the estate of the Lord of Moray and was named after his second wife (the daughter of Sir Philip Ainslie). The townhouses were built in the 1820s. They each had four storeys and stairs leading to a basement. The design of this row of townhouses was similar to the townhouse that the family moved to in Grosvenor Place in Bath.

A feature of the townhouses was the elaborate wrought iron decorations on the lower windows.

As it was still raining we ceased our explorations for the day and returned to the hotel.