Our first day in Edinburgh after arriving on the train from London. Instead of going to our hotel our Monogram host took us on a morning tour of Edinburgh. It was a brief tour of the center city area that our heavy accented guide used to pepper us with puns throughout the morning. At one point we did stop at the hotel to drop off our bags and make a restroom stop that pleased everyone.
After the pit stop we boarded back on the bus and were taken to Edinburgh Castle where the tour ended. It was still very cold and threatening rain. The bus was parked and we walked up to the Castle where there were wonderful dramatic views of the city and beyond. The tour guide left us there to explore the Castle on our own. There were lots of displays inside but most were underwhelming.
It was interesting that the castle stood on Castle Rock which has been occupied since the Iron Age and has been the longest continually occupied site in Scotland. It has also been a royal castle since the 12th century. A lot of important historic battles took place at this castle. The rock the castle stands on is the remnants of an extinct volcano.Edinburgh Castle is located at the top of the Royal Mile at the west end of the old town. There were many interesting gates and buildings on the site. We had a nice time wandering about despite the blustery cold day.
During the previous week there was the annual series of performances known as the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. We scheduled our visit to avoid the huge crowds that were there for this event every August. They were still taking down some of the stands in the area during our time there. After awhile we left the castle and walked down the Royal Mile to our hotel which was a couple of blocks down the street. We got our bags, checked in and went to our room to get some rest. It was a busy day.
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