Edinburgh - Day 6

After a lovely breakfast, we walked to the Botanical Gardens to pick up the bus tour. We rode on many open-top double decker buses these two days because they were all free and then we didn't have to walk as much (Edinburgh is VERY hilly - they had the first skyscrapers, because buildings that are only 3 stories on one side, might be like 10 stories from the back!). Our first bus took us to the Royal Britannia down on the water. This is the official boat that Queen Elizabeth and the Royal Family took everywhere from the 50s till the 90s (they don't have a royal boat anymore). It was 4 floors and really nice. I wouldn't have minded honeymooning like the royals on that boat. Andrew really liked the boat, though got fussy by the end of the audio tour (of course).







We took the bus tour back to the station and then walked down the Royal Mile to the Holyrood Palace. We decided to hit all the main attractions this day - thankfully, the bus ticket covered the major 3. That is why we bought it - the pass was 30ish pounds each I think (YIKES!), but just visiting all the attractions would have been about 30 pounds. Can you believes it costs $20 each to visit a castle or palace! WOW! Thankfully, all the museums are free.

The Holyrood Palace is the official palace of the Royal Family in Scotland (they are coming there this week, in fact). It includes the famous rooms of Mary Queen of Scots where her friend was killed. Lots of murder in that place. It also has the very picturesque ruins of the Abbey behind which we enjoyed until it started raining. The grounds and park are lovely and look like a little bit of the Highlands - we went hiking on them on Day 7. The "mini-mountain" is the remains of an extinct volcano.







After some lunch, we took a couple more buses on the way to see the Edinburgh castle. Although Andrew often got antsy on the bus and screamed, it was a fun way to see the city and we got some great views!





Next stop was touring the castle. There was quite a crowd around what we can only guess was a movie star touring the castle (it was during the Edinburgh film festival). The castle was pretty large and included the Crown Jewels (with a lovely exhibit there) and a nice prisoner/jail exhibit. We took turns seeing them while the other one walked around with Andrew.








After a very busy day, we walked around the New Town and then took the Bus back to our apartment, did some more grocery shopping (I guess you really do need salt to cook!) and relaxed at home.