June 20, 2016 - Edinburgh Castle & Holyroodhouse Palace.

Today we took the Hop-on Hop off bus as close to the Edinburgh Castle as we could and then walked the rest of the way up.

This is the area that the Military Tatoo is held.  It takes them 3 months to put the stands up and 3 months to take them down.  

The nice thing about having the tickets ahead of time is that you get to skip the line and walk right in.

Nice views of the city below the castle.

The back side of the Scottish National War Memorial.

You could not take pictures inside of the Scottish National War Memorial but they had a lot of different wars that they had monuments

The 16th century Great Hall has been updated since the mid Victorian period onwards.

Every time the Queen comes to Edinburgh she is given a key to the city.

This room was designed specifically designed for Mary to give birth in.  I guess back in the day when a Royal was getting close to the time to give birth they were confined to their rooms. 

I have to admit that I was more interested in Mary Queen of Scots because of the show Reign.

The old barracks where you first come in now has a cafe.

We saw the areas that they kept the prisoners in.

We decided to have a little snack since we wanted to wait for 1:00 when they would fire off the cannon.

This little seagull has a very evil eye.  He was really watching all the tables where people were eating lunch.  He finally found an unsuspecting young girl that took a step away from the table to take a picture and he swooped in and stole some of her cake.

Everyday at 1:00 they fire off the cannon so that the ships in the harbor could set there time.  It was fun to watch the production he has to go through to fire off the cannon and even though you know it is going to happen when the cannon finally fires you still jump.  There was still smoke coming out of the shell when he brought it over to show the crowd.

We had met back up with Dave & Cheryl and walked the Royal Mile to the Palace of Holyroodhouse .

As we would dart into a few of the shops along the way the guys would find something else to do.

Dave took some time to get his stretches in.

Holyroodhouse Palace is where the Queen stays when she comes to Edinburgh.

The Holyrood Abbey was founded in 1128 by King David I.

We took a nice stroll through the gardens.

They are getting ready for a garden party that the Queen  puts on every year for a mere 7.000 people.

We jumped back on the bus after we finished the tour.

We went back to the food court area by the train station so that Dave could get a potato.  He hadn't realized the day before when he saw the potato restaurant that it didn't have the traditional toppings he was hoping for.  Believe it or not there is a smashed potato under the lettuce.  I don't think we will be eating here again.