Today we started by driving from Glasgow, where we are staying, to Edinburgh. We have the whole day to explore this city. Edinburgh is Scotland's capital city, and right from the start I liked this city. It is broken up into two parts, the old Town and the New Town. In the old town the streets are very narrow and are all cobble stone, and in the new part, it looks like any other city. It makes for a fascinating and diverse place. We started by having a local guide hop on the bus and show us around. We drove around for about an hour, and saw sites such as the Royal Mile, Holyroodhouse and of course Edinburgh Castle. This was my first time seeing a castle and it was amazing. It was built on an extinct volcano and is situated high above the city. What a stunning site driving around the corner and it just appears. Unfortunately, we did not have time to tour it, but that just means that I will have to come back.
After the tour, we had time on our own or you could go on one of the optional tours. I went on the optional tour to visit The Royal Yacht Britannia. This is a Yacht that the Royal family has owned from 1953 to 1997. The Royal family has used it to sail all over the world, and most of the family has used it for their honeymoons. It is a self guided audio tour that takes about an hour and a half. It was quite neat to see the yacht up close and personal and walk in the same place that the Queen and Prince William have walked in. We got to walk around all parts and see everything. After the tour, we got about 2 hours back in Edinburgh to shop. We headed right for the souvenir shops and had a lot of fun.
Tonight is the excursion to Braveheart Country were we will be joining the Scots to celebrate and commemorate their hero and national poet Robert Burns. We started by driving about 45 minutes to the village of Sterling. We stopped at the castle for some photos and a little bit of history about William Wallace. We then drove to the King Robert Hotel for the rest of the evenings entertainment. We were greeted by a bagpiper who lead us into the hotel. The host for the night was Brian Gibson (no relation). He was dressed in his traditional kilt and all of it's accessories. We were all just sitting around talking and waiting for the evening to begin, when a gentleman came up to me and said that the piper would like to see me. Right away my heart started to beat fast and I thought "no thank you", but the piper was kinda cute and i thought what the hell. I was lead into the back room with 3 other people and we were told that we had been chosen to participate in the "Ceremony of the Haggis" With a coin toss, I was the lucky one who got to carry the haggis around the room. The piper gave me instructions and the ceremony began. So I pretty much had to follow the piper around the room carrying the haggis on a silver platter. Then we stood up at the front while Brian told the story of the haggis and did the ceremony. It was a lot of fun, and something I won't soon forget. The meal was good and also the haggis was good. We all had a little bit of it and I ate it all. After dinner, the piper came back in along with a Highland dancer and we had some entertainment. Brian then told us all about Robert Burns and read some of his poems. I have to say, I have never been one for poetry, but the way that Brian was acting it out was quite enjoyable. It made me want to read more from Robert Burns. Sadly the evening came to an end and we were back on the bus to Glasgow.
Tomorrow we have any early start because we are taking the ferry to Ireland.
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