A wee post about a wee place called Edinburgh

Rule Britannia! Britannia rules the waves... Britons never, never, never shall be slaves!


This was the tune going around and around in my head as I left my hostel on Wednesday morning, bound for the Ocean Terminal which houses the Royal Yacht Britannia. I needed to find a bus, and after much walking from bus-stop to bus-stop looking for the number 11, I saw one... so followed it to the stop! I paid my £3.20 for my day pass (did you know they don't give change on Scottish buses??!) and found a seat. There weren't many people on the bus, and I quietly started looking out the window so I could get my bearings (something I am pretty good at now - I can think of a fair-few people who would be so impressed with my newly acquired ability to know where I am and how to find my way home again!)

There was an older Scottish man sitting on the other side of the bus, and I could *see* him staring at me. I was just waiting for him to talk to me, but hoping that he wouldn't. I had my sunglasses on, but could see him edge closer towards me in my peripheral vision, and then he opened his mouth. In a broad Scottish accent he said;
"It's a beautiful day it, aye" 
Dammit. He spoke to me. That meant that I now needed to reply - all in my good nature! I turned to look at him, as he was grinning at me - gaps between all of his teeth which made him look slightly on the crazy side, like Shrek. I replied;
"Yes - luckily it has stopped raining" and hoped he would be satisfied. Fail. He then wanted to talk to me. Awkward much? I just wanted him to get off the bus. Another reason being a single female, traveling alone... I am such a target for random strangers to talk to me. He finally got off the bus to my relief, and the stop after that - I was at the Ocean Terminal.

Feeling quite chuffed with myself that I managed to find the Royal Yacht, I made my way to the entrance. Right from when you enter the building you are made to feel incredibly important, they treat you as if they are *so* pleased that you took time out of your day to visit. It was really lovely! I collected my ticket and walked through the mini exhibition to collect my audio guide, all included as part of the £11 tour - bargain! See, the Royal Yacht Britannia is something I was very interested in seeing, as I know that my Grandfather served on board as Royal Marine Bandman for twenty or so years, and I am pretty sure (although I could be wrong!) that Rodney, who I recently stayed with in Portsmouth, also spent time on board. It was really cool to be able to see what life might have been like at sea on board this yacht. I did find that I got quite emotional at one point, because as much as I would like to be dead proud of my Grandfather and his amazing achievement of playing in The Royal Marines Band, in the company of the Queen on numerous occasions, I can't be - very mixed, I even brushed back a tear or two a few times.

There she is. The Royal Yacht Britannia.

The uniforms of a Royal Marine. 

The tour was excellent - in fact, if you do come to Edinburgh I would recommend this as a *must see* attraction. The audio guide was informative but not too over the top as sometimes audio guides can be. The way that everything is on display is fantastic, you can see it and touch most things too - and the staff are superb. They have plenty of staff about to offer help when required. My audio guide stopped working at one point and the girl was so apologetic about it and ran off to get me another. They are also around to take photos of singles like me!

I was quite surprised to see how small the living quarters for the Marines was, and struggled to imagine what it might have looked like in there, full of musicians and all their uniforms (apparently sometimes they changed uniforms up to six times in one day!) and all their personal belongings.. it just didn't seem big enough, but I suppose they managed alright! It was even cooler to think that many of those ex Royal Marines I played in the RMA band the other night may have stayed in here too - it just makes it so much more authentic and interesting when you have some sort of tie.

Looking into the Royal Marines barracks - that's a violin case on the bed back-left :)

I finished the tour with a pot of Earl Grey and a scone with jam and clotted cream at the on-board cafe - which was a nice relaxed finish to the tour, and it gave me time to plan where to next! I knew that I was booked in to see Stephen Sondheim's 'Sunday in the Park with George' at 3.35pm, so I needed to go and collect my ticket from the High Street and then find the location so that I wouldn't be late. Can I just pause here, briefly, and say: Thank goodness for iPhone's! I basically punched in the postcode of where I needed to be and my iPhone worked out the best bus route *and* told me how to get to the right bus stop. iPhone's really do make life easy. And my iPhone makes me *very* happy. I got on the number 35 and got off at Cowgate, found the High Street and collected my ticket and then realised I had two and a half hours to kill... so I had a look at my 'What to see in Edinburgh' map that I had circled points of interest on and noticed that St. Cecilia's Musical Instruments Museum was only minutes away. I found it easily enough, and was let in by a guard, which really goes to show the immense value of older musical instruments. It was free, I repeat - *free* to have a look at the Harpsichord collection on display. And when I say harpsichord - there were *heaps* of them!

There was a man inside who is a music lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, and also restores and maintains the harpsichords. I asked him a few questions and he proceeded to talk to me about harpsichords, demonstrating and playing them as required, for the next 30 minutes. I was in my ELEMENT - given that my musical period of choice to play is hands down the Baroque period, and this is where the harpsichord is mostly played. I love the clockwork sound - and to learn about how they actually work was really interesting. What a stroke of luck!

This one was built in1650. Crazy. It even has cherubs on it 

Once I left there I stopped off at a bakery and got a REAL MEAT PIE! OMG I haven't had one in like, forever! It was a mince and potatoes one and it was awesome - AND it came within my daily food budget, costing just £1.50! I sat on the street like a homeless person and ate it, before heading into the venue for 'Sunday in the Park with George'. For those who don't know, it is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim (Into the Woods, Sweeney Todd...) and is inspired by the painting 'A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte' by Georges Seurat. Basically, George is a painter and the whole musical is based on his concentration surrounding his work, and what he doesn't see going on before his own eyes because he is so immersed in his work. It is very, VERY clever. The props are all 2D and painted in the same style as his original work, like lots of little paint splodges and it is all set against a backdrop of an empty park somewhere in France.  You can read more about the plot of the show here if you are interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunday_in_the_Park_with_George

Because I was pretty much first in the door, and seating was unreserved, I chose to sit right in the front row in the middle, which was an excellent choice. The theatre only seated 120. The only problem with sitting that close was that I could see things I probably shouldn't have seen. Like the gaffa tape holding the sole of someones shoe on, or the 'little red book' which is supposed to be an old grammar book which said 'Black Beauty' on the title page, which I saw as the character was flicking through the book. Also at one point someone forgot to turn off a mic, so backstage talking could be heard for about 20 seconds! Oops! The orchestra were seated on stage, like in 'Little Women' at Centrestage last year, and it was a small group too. Keys, Reed 1 and 2, Strings 1 and Horn. I could just see Rey, Vanessa and I, up there with Cath - and a string player... ummm? They sounded great, the music is awesome, in true Sondheim style. What I most enjoy about his music is the lyrics and how he packs so many words into one line - almost too many words for a human to manage to spit out - but the cast did so beautifully. The woman playing Dot was awesome, she looked like my friend Emily, too, so that gives her extra points.

The song 'Sunday' was sung really well - it gave me goosebumps so it must have sounded good. The characters in the musical basically become the painting - and a copy ofthe original painting itself is in the backdrop and you can clearly see the positioning of each character, carefully mimicking the character in the painting behind, right down to the angle and direction of the head/arms etc. The characters then remain frozen in that position for about 6 minutes which is how long the interval was, before Act II commences and they all start singing 'It's hot up here'. I won't give away the ending, but this was an excellent show - which I have heard is hard to stage, but this version seemed quite simple, but would require spot-on precision direction to pull it off. I really, really enjoyed the show.

Today I woke up early so that I could get into Edinburgh Castle before the crowds of the day filled it up too much... as I know now from experience that attractions are *much* more enjoyable when there are not many other tourists! I was right - I arrived and there were about 50 people. When I came to leave about three hours later, there were more like 500! I walked through Princes Street Gardens to get to the Castle - what beautiful gardens they are too! Remind me a lot of home, being so green! I stopped to take a photo of the thistle, Scotland's national flower, and as luck would have it, upon taking the photo, a bee landed on it! Is that luck or what?

A *very* lucky shot!

I paid my £15 for entry to the Castle, and was asked if I would like an audio guide for an extra £3.50. I declined, being I had seen on their website that they run free guided tours - so why would I want to pay anything extra? The guide we had was a lady, very knowledgable and quite funny too. She spoke just like Mrs. Geddes (teacher from Primary School) so I liked her even more. She gave us information about Edinburgh in general as well as information about the Castle, so it was a fantastic guided tour - and free stuff makes me smile a LOT these days. That whole 'on a shoe-string' thing when traveling, I know all about these days! I am doing well at keeping within my 'no more than £20 per day on food, total' so that is helpful, but obviously when you are a tourist there are so many attractions that you want to go and see, which all add up for sure. I have to say, however, that every attraction I have been to I have learnt new things, and have enjoyed - which makes the money spent all worthwhile. Afterall, it is only money - you can't take it with you!

The Castle is well and truly perched on a hill - and it is quite magnificent. You have probably seen it on the TV for the New Years fireworks count-down - that's where I have seen it before, so I knew exactly what it was when I saw it from the doorway of the hostel I have been staying at.

The view from atop - AMAZING

Obligatory cheese shot

After I spent about three hours at the Castle I left there, and went to what is known as the Camera Obscura, which is the very first purpose-built tourist attraction in Edinburgh. It was really cool having a look at the town from above, scooping up people and cars with bits of card... those who have seen a camera obscura before will know what I am on about. The other floors of the building were filled with optical illusions which was so cool - I love that kind of thing. I spent about an hour and a half enjoying the five floors of illusions, reading everything and thoroughly getting my £9.95 worth out of it!

So cool!

Siamese twins! Eeeek!

Ryan would have LOVED this room!

I have had a wonderful time in Edinburgh, and I would *love* to come back - there is so much to see and do here it is not even funny, I require much more time to explore this place! I am now headed for Glasgow on the 4.30pm coach. Ryan, my nephew, will certainly approve of the coach leaving time. He is always going on about something or rather, and pops '4:30?' into the conversation every now and again.

Cheery bye :)