Scotland, Here We Come! (Part 6)

Friday morning of Day 7 was spent exploring Edinburgh Castle.  Sir Walter Scott called Edinburgh Castle a "Castle in the Clouds" and described it below:

Every year they have the "Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo" at Edinburgh Castle (see this link) and bagpipe bands, singers, and dancers from all over the country and world come to participate.  They set up bleachers all around the courtyard for the audience to sit in.  The Tattoo was held the end of August, so we missed it, and they were just starting to take the bleachers down when we were there.  Roger had the opportunity to go to the "Tattoo" while he was on his mission, and he said that it was really spectacular.

One of the royal crests over the entrance.

I'm not sure who these gentleman are, but they were rather impressive as they stood guard at either side of the entrance.

Within the castle grounds is a miniature city with streets and buildings on several levels.

We never did experience a "downpour" while we were in Scotland. But, as you'll notice in the pictures, there were frequent mists that brought out the umbrellas. Friday morning was definitely a "misty" day in Scotland.  To get from one level to another, you are either walking up and down "ramps" or climbing up and down stairs.  It seems like most of the castles of Scotland are built on rock, and we saw evidence of it as we walked around.

There are cannon all around the walls of the castle.

A view of the City of Edinburgh as seen through the eyes of those on duty at the wall.

While we were there, we saw the "crown jewels of Scotland".  The jewels are hundreds of years old.  They were inside of a special vault in one of the buildings.  However, we weren't allowed to take any pictures.   There were two or three buildings that we weren't allowed to take any pictures inside. 

There was a 12th Century chapel called Saint Margaret's Chapel that had beautiful stained glass windows.

Below are pictures from what was called "The Great Hall".  The decorations all around the wall were swords and spears and other weapons.  We were told that when it was built, the fashion was to decorate with weapons -- which makes one wonder if it wasn't something of a show of strength when they were entertaining possible enemies.

A true Scotsman, and he was nice enough to let us take his picture.

There were two or three military museums that were really interesting.  One had books listing the names of individuals from Scotland who served in each war.  The picture below is a display from one of the museums.

More stairs!

Every day right before 1 p.m., a bagpiper plays and then at exactly 1 p.m. they fire the gun.

I was actually taking a picture when they fired the gun,

but I "jumped" and the picture blurred

After spending the morning at the castle, we walked down the hill and spent the rest of the day on our own in Edinburgh.