Time for
AFC [Another Freakin’ Castlle] or as the tour is advertised, “City of Edinburgh
and Castle".
Since our
tour must meet in the Masquerade Theatre for bus # stickers at 8:15AM, we need
to meet Barbara of B&M at 8:00AM so that she can get us all on the same bus, all but
the Tempelshifs that is, who have done this before on land with a School Group they chaperoned a few years back and who are doing a HoHo bus around Edinburgh instead. The Plan was to try and have We4 meet up somewhere
around 4:00PM’ish, or maybe not.
So it was
continental breakfast in the room before we head down to meet Barb, who gives
us "The Look" because we were a tad late.
Oh wellllll. As soon as we get
our stickers, TE10 [–2] headed to the tenders for the bumpy ride to shore, and
board our bus in the lot behind the Fishmonger [if the smell didn’t give it
away… nothing could] for a leisurely ride into town.
Our
lovely guide was Karen Mc "something or another" [from Madison Wisconsin of all places] who
married a Scotsman while they were both doing their Masters studies in the U.S. and emigrated to Scotland 30 years
ago. She is one of about 2400 “Blue
Badge” guides throughout Scotland who go through 2 years of school to be certified
to conduct paid tours in Scotland.
Since
several on the bus, including us, do not plan to take it back, Karen will finish
the tour at the Edinburgh
Castle and do her basic tour in reverse, starting with several stops on the way at the homes of select historical figures or celebrities. Her dialogue and knowledge was quite
impressive, answering questions with great enthusiasm and humor.
We arrive
at our stop for the castle at the Church Square called The HUB, at the base of
a steep walk up to the castle grounds where Karen counts heads, identifies those who don’t’
want to make the steep walk up, considering that inside the castle, there are
more steep ascents. Several of TE10 [-2]
have mobility issues and elect to wander “Down” the Royal Mile and meet back at
the bus for the ride back to the pier.
As we
move up to the castle, Karen advises that she will race ahead and get our entry
tickets, meeting us just outside the entry arch. But in order to keep the group
together and moving forward, she hands Chucky the “lollipop paddle” with the
bus number to lead the pack to the castle.
Now ya gotta see the look on DL’s face as she is snapping pics of Chucky
with her phone as he leads Bus #3 up the hill.
It looked like a lame cavalry charge as Chucky is giggling and humming
some old cadence call from his Air Force Drill Team days [the melody and lyrics of which we’ll spare you
here].
Karen is
waiting for us with tickets and we whizz past the long queue for tickets avoiding
the glare of those in line.
The enormous history of the castle is better told
using the link above, including the part it played during the War of The Roses,
Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots etc. Karen’s
running dialogue was quite informative right up to when we got in line to view the
Crown Jewels, etc and the interior of the private apartments of Mary Stewart.
After visiting all the necessary areas, Karen insists we look into the Tiny Chapel which is quite popular for weddings, drawing brides from around the world.
The running joke is it makes the father of the bride happy since the
chapel is so small, the guest list must be truncated dramatically, to about 12-15. It's really verrrry small.
We’ll
finish Day 2 in the next post where we'll Follow our Traveling Wackos around Edinburgh,
the interesting ride back to the boat, Dinner drama etc..
Ciao 4 Now
Uncle
Chuck & The Getting very Castle Weary,
Dragon
Lady
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