Around Edinburgh Part 1

There are several Hop On Hop Off bus tours around Edinburgh offered online through Viator. I booked one of them that was going to the places I wanted to go (I actually think it was the same one I had done several years earlier with my mom). They all depart from the Waverly Bridge near the Scott Memorial. I planned to spend the day hopping on and off to explore different locations along the way, so I was at the starting location at 9:00am.

I was met by a woman who was checking our online receipts and giving us the appropriate tickets for the tour we had selected. When she saw my receipt, she suggested another tour that had a live commentator instead of a recording. There was no further exchange of money needed. She just printed out a new receipt for me, gave me the ticket and route map, and I was all set. I thought that was great. A live commentator is definitely better than a recording. Not only can you ask them questions, but they tend to add a certain amount of humor as well as extra information to their commentary.

The route was different from the other tour, but went to all of the same locations. I hopped on the bus and went upstairs to the open air seating.  The first place I hopped off was near the Scottish Parliament building to visit Holyrood Palace. Although I tend to visit this palace (which is the Queen’s official residence when in Edinburgh) most times I am in Edinburgh, this time I didn’t have any time limits. I could take as long as I wanted.

I know that palace almost as well as I know my own house. There is a portion of it that dates back to Mary Queen of Scots — basically one tower with her suite of rooms, her husband’s rooms, and the turnpike staircase that linked them.

The rest of the State Rooms were created when Charles II refurbished the palace after Cromwell’s troops had burned down part of it and abused most of the rest of it. So, for most of Holyrood, you feel you are in the late 1600s and then step into the late 1500s when entering Mary’s rooms. The original palace had been built by David I of Scotland in the 1100s. But most of that was gone.

I have my certain favorite rooms. Mary’s rooms of course. Then the Throne Room with the portraits of the Stuart kings, the King’s Bedchamber with the huge red curtained bed, and the Gallery with what are supposed to be portraits of every Scottish king. I get a kick of the portraits because they mostly look alike and tend to have fairly prominent noses, like Charles II had. Should you visit and burst into laughter when you see the portraits, you can always blame it on me.

Because of Queen Elizabeth II’s 90th birthday, they had an exhibit of the Queen’s gowns and suits plus a tartan gown that had belonged to Queen Victoria. If I hadn’t already known that Victoria had been tiny, the gown might have been a surprise. She was super tiny at only 5’0”. She was also petite with a very small waist at the time she wore that gown, which was 1835 to 1837 (she became queen in 1837 at the age of eighteen).

In Mary Queen of Scots’ bedroom, there was a place where I could actually sit down. I sat for a while looking all around the room. It was pretty much empty at the time and I could really take it all in. I explored the side room that was used as a dining room for very intimate groups (it’s a tiny room). This was the room from which her secretary, David Rizzio, was dragged and then stabbed to death in front of a very pregnant Mary by her husband, Lord Darnley, and his pals.

After that, Mary fled to Edinburgh Castle to give birth to her son, James, who became James VI of Scotland and succeeded Elizabeth I as James I of England. James was taken to Stirling Castle after his birth to be raised Protestant (his mother was Catholic). This was just the start of Mary’s troubles.

Darnley ended up getting murdered a few months after James was born. Lord Bothwell kidnapped Mary and took her to Dunbar Castle. For some reason, Bothwell and Mary got married. Then Mary ended up being imprisoned at Loch Leven Castle, where she miscarried twins. She was then forced to abdicate the throne of Scotland in favor of her one-year-old son.

She escaped from Loch Leven, raised an army, was defeated, and taken to Carlisle Castle. She spent the rest of her life imprisoned in various locations, involved in various plots (both to regain her own throne and to take Elizabeth’s) until she finally stood trial for one of the plots to take the throne of England. She was found guilty and eventually executed. She was buried at Westminster Abbey by her son, James, (who had her moved from Peterborough Cathedral) on one side of the Henry VII Chapel while her cousin, Elizabeth I, is buried on the other side of that same chapel.

I find the whole Mary Queen of Scots story to be quite fascinating. But she didn’t seem to be the brightest bulb in the fixture. So many of her life choices were doomed to failure.

Since I had all of the time that I wanted to see what I wanted, after spending time in the palace and then in the ruins of the abbey next door (also built by David I), I took a garden path from the abbey through the grounds. I had never had the time to do that before.

It was a lovely walk in a beautiful garden which circled around to the rear of the abbey where the foundations of the rest of the abbey had been recently discovered. It was once about double its current size. I could also see the back side of the palace, which consisted of the private royal quarters. I could see the private stairs to the royal apartments. There was also a parade ground back there.

Coming around to the other side of the palace provided a really great view of Arthur’s Seat. This is another extinct volcano. There are the remains of an Iron Age hill fort at the top and some miniature coffins containing wooden figures were found in a cave. Nobody is really sure where it got its name. Some association to King Arthur perhaps? There was a prince of Dalriada (prior to Scotland becoming Scotland) back in the 500s named Arthur.

As I was heading out of the palace grounds to have lunch at the palace café, I was offered some champagne and a cupcake by palace staff in honor of the Queen’s 90^th birthday. I had my dessert first and then some lunch.

Between the Palace and the place where I needed to catch the hop on hop off bus was a place called White Horse Close. This is a little group of buildings off of the Royal Mile through what looks like an alley. I found out a long time ago that things that look like alleys are often very old streets and have some great places hidden in them. White Horse Close dates to the 17^th century and used to be a little residential area behind the White Horse Inn. The lovely buildings in the Close were turned into housing for the working class in 1889 when the neighborhood was somewhat run down. Currently these buildings would cost a very pretty penny to live in.

I stayed on the tour bus for several stops until reaching Edinburgh Castle. A relatively new Radisson Blu hotel on the Royal Mile was built to resemble a row of medieval townhouses. I love that. It fits in with the existing architecture.

The National Museum of Scotland consists of a modern building and a Victorian building, combining a museum with collections of Scottish antiquities and another focusing on natural history and science. These museums are right by Greyfriars Bobby, the pub made famous by the little dog who stayed by his human’s grave for years after his owner’s death. The entrance to the cemetery is next to the pub. Mom and I visited both Bobby’s and his owner’s graves during a previous visit.

Next time – Around Edinburgh Part 2

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