Edinburgh ... but first a word from Dover

After leaving Copenhagen, we arrived in Dover to let off our passengers and pick up a whole bunch of new ones.  We spent the day wandering around the town of Dover.  Yes, there are really are white cliffs .... unfortunately we had English weather ... wet, cloudy, misty, and rainy.  Otherwise, the weather was perfect.  Dover, a major port for England, was bombed unmercifully during the war.  Much of the industrial part of the city was rebuilt, but it has not returned to its position as a vacation paradise as it had once been.

 

After we left Dover, we had a sea day and an art class on our way to Edinburgh.  We arrived at Edinburgh early in the morning on the 27^th.  What an incredibly beautify city.  My brother says that Edinburgh is as beautiful as, if not more so, than Prague.  We’ve never been to Prague, so we’ll take his word for it.  On the first day, John escorted a cruise to the Malt Whiskey Society ... how appropriate.  This Society is a group of, 24,000 individuals some of whom who go about Scotland tasting specific barrels of scotch whiskey at different distilleries.  When they find a cask they like, they buy the whole cask, bring it back to their headquarters and bottle it.  Their bottles have only the number of the distillery and the number of the cask.  We had a tasting of three different whiskeys and a nice lunch there. John was impressed by the third whiskey tasted, quite peaty with great body and a cask strength of 64.9% (about 125 proof or more) so he bought a bottle for his bar.  

Edinburgh street

Typical Georgian Style Home

 

Gail escorted a tour of the Royal Mile, the road from Edinburgh Castle to Holyroodhouse Castle where the queen and her family spend their summers. Unfortunately, while the walk was scenic, the guide was quite incompetent and upset most of the guests on the tour.  This guide won’t be hired again.  

On the second day, John escorted a tour to the Edinburgh castle, an incredible structure that dominates the skyline of the city.  Getting to the castle is a very steep climb, as is the walk through the place.  One of the guests wanted to know why they built these castles so far from the parking lots.   Anyway, walking through the place is a challenge, especially when one of the guests kept having breathing problems so John would have to go up with the group then head down again to help this one man catch up.  Running up and down this mountain at John’s age is not much fun, especially the next day.   The castle is very impressive, especially St. Margret’s chapel, which is the oldest standing building in Edinburgh, dating back to the early 1100’s.  Edinburgh castle is the place where Mary Queen of Scots gave birth to James IV, the future king of England and Scotland.  We also learned that Mary was a good 6 feet in height, especially important since Henry VIII was about 6 feet 4 inches, and that William Wallace, played by the 5 foot 10 inch Mel Gibson in Braveheart,  was actually 6 feet 9 inches tall ... a huge man. The rest of the tour involved looking at the architecture of “old town” and “new town”, built in the early 1800’s.

Edinburgh Castle

11th century St. Margret's Chapel

View of city from the cstle

Some serious swords in the castle

Gail escorted a tour to Scone Palace, home of the Earl and Countess of Mansfield.  This is a sumptuous neo-Gothic palatial mansion with wonderful gardens.  The site is where the Stone of Destiny was housed and where Scottish kings were crowned.  The tour also went to the ruins of Dunfermline Abbey, the remains of the Benedictine abbey founded by Queen Margaret in the 11^th century and the place of birth of Charles 1^st. These ruins resonate with the souls of those who walked through the halls eons ago.

Gail with Scottish guide

Scone Palace

Dunfermline abbey

 

 

Scottish Countryside

 

 

 

 

Some local colour

Later in the day, after the tours,  we went by shuttle-bus back to Edinburgh to walk around.  We found a modern shopping area underground that had a number of unique stores.  One of great interest to John was a whiskey store that sold scotch whiskey out of barrels.  He bought a 500 mL bottle of a very tasty 12 year old poured from a barrel and bottled on the spot.  One more for the bar, to go along with a 16 year old Mortlach that he bought at Edinburgh Castle. That`s it for duty free until our next trip.

Typical Gothic Architecture

 

An example of a public school

One last view from the castle

 

That evening, the ship left for Belfast for another day at sea and another successful art class.  Unfortunately, the seas have been more than a little ``interesting`, as they are wont to be in the North sea.