23: Edinburgh

A few housekeeping things to attend to this morning - checked email at an internet cafe and packed up some unwanted stuff and posted it back to save lugging to Paris, then walked to Edinburgh Castle.  It's set on a cliff above the city, quite like Stirling Castle was, where it would be impossible for anyone to mount a surprise attack.  We decided to take a guided tour - worth the 15 minute wait till it started as it gave a good overview and some recommendations of what else to look at without being long and boring. 

Edinburgh Castle is still a working castle, used as the barracks for part of the Scottish military, houses their war memorial, and includes a chapel still popular for weddings - they need to be small though as it only seats 23!  We stopped for a coffee, which turned out to be possibly the best we have had in the UK (though in reality it wouldn't have had to be much to be the best as coffee standards are not high here) while we waited for the 1pm gun.  Got distracted by the yummy scone and nearly had our daylights scared out of us when the canon went off!  Our tour guide had given us an explanation of why Edinburgh has a 1 pm canon instead of the midday canon other ports often use - those canny Scots - why use 12 shots when 1 will do the same job?

The 1pm gun

No, the 1pm gun doesn't fire these....

Joe was very impressed by the temporary (yes temporary) seating used for the military tatoo each year...  They were in the process of dismantling it after the tattoo in July - this year was the first time this new seating had been used and there were signs around listing how much more cost effective it was because it was quicker to put up and take down and could seat more people.

Headed back into town via the Royal Mile (castle at one end, Palace at the other), the Royal Terrace where we saw this very cute car, and the city where I may have sampled a couple of rather good whisky's...