We anchored off the coast of Edinburgh this morning at the port of Newhaven, and as I opened the curtains I was greeted with a glorious sunshine morning. Thank goodness, as our tour today is "Walking the Royal Mile", and it would not have been fun if it was raining.
After a quick breakfast we went to the Constellation theatre that is the meeting place for all tours. Here, we are allocated a tour number and once our number is called we make our way to the waiting tender boat. This is the first tender we have had on this leg of our cruise and it can be a bit daunting for some folks to get on and off the rocking boats. It is about a twenty minute ride into the port of Newhaven where we are welcomed by a Scottish Piper standing by the lighthouse at the entrance to the harbour.
We don't spend any time here at Newhaven because our tour bus is waiting for us as soon as we disembark the tender, but I read that it was a hub for shipbuilding and fishing as far back as the 1400's. The drive to Edinburgh is not far, around 4 km, and takes us about 20 minutes. Our bus finds a good place to stop at Grassmarket, that is a famous marketplace in the old town of Edinburgh, and a short walk gives us a splendid view of Edinburgh Castle perched high on Castle Rock. Edinburgh Castle always brings to my mind the Edinburgh Tattoo held in August each year. In fact, we see that they are just pulling down the seating from this year's performance. The royal family do not stay in Edinburgh Castle when they come to Edinburgh because it is now a tourist attraction that is open to the public.
The Royal Mile stretches from Edinburgh Castle all the way down the hill to the Palace of Hollyrood House that is the residence of the Royals when they visit Edinburgh. The mile is a series of linked streets, through the old town, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Our tour guide stops at interesting places to give us the history and I particularly loved the story of Mary Dickson's Pub. To cut a long story short, Mary Dickson was hung in the early 18th century. She was hung by strangulation that took half an hour. Her husband took her body to be buried and on the way home he stopped for a "wee tipple". When he returned to the cart with the coffin he heard knocking coming from the coffin. Yes, you guessed it, Maggie was still alive. The judge tried to hang her again, but the law of double jeopardy says you cannot try someone twice for the same crime. Hence she was nicknamed, Mary "half-hang it" Dickson. 
About half way down the Royal Mile we stopped at St. Giles Cathedral. St. Giles is one of three cathedrals in Edinburgh. The Cathedral is in a square with the French Embassy on one side and Parliament House on the other. There is also a statue of Walter Francis Montagu Douglas Scott, 7th Duke of Queensberry 1806-1884. Philips ancestry on his mother's side goes back to the Montagu's. I wonder if it's a relation 😉. Our guide now gives us an hour of free time to wander the Royal Mile on our own and meet back at St. Giles for the remainder of the walk. We decided to walk up the hill to the entrance of Edinburgh Castle. 
Back at our meeting place we continue our walk along the Royal Mile. We come across a Scottish Piper and across from him the red telephone boxes that the UK is so famous for. And then there are the Scotch Whisky stores, so many of them. Almost as many as the Scottish Cashmere stores!
Our guide leads us into an almost hidden courtyard that is just so cute, and almost at the end of our walk we come across a beautiful modern building that is in stark contrast to anything we have seen along the Royal Mile. It is the Scottish Parliament building. Our guide tells us that the original quote for the building was 40 million pounds and it ended up being over 400 million pounds. It was quite the controversy and subjected to a public enquiry. Construction was delayed by four years and a lack of sound project management were contributors to the cost blow-out. However, it is quite a stunning building.
We have now reached the end of our walk along the Royal Mile and in front of us is the Palace of Holyrood House. We can only see the public entrance (Kings Gallery) from where we stand so I found an online photo of the exterior. The palace is open to the public when it is not being used for royal events. In front of us is a large mountain called Arthurs Seat. There is a walk to the top that our guide says would take around half an hour. We don't have half an hour, or the energy, but we see plenty of people walking around at the top.
Edinburgh is a lovely place and is everything I ever imagined it to be. We are now back on board our ship and our next stop is Newcastle in the UK.
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