Edinburgh Royal Military Tattoo

Before we had our plans ironed out we got some sound advice from LouSmith. He said if we need to check and see what special things go on so that we can be in the right place at the right time for the festivals, celebrations, etc. The Edinburgh Royal Military Tattoo was the perfect example. After watching Youtube videos, we figured we had to get there for that. We got tickets in April for the August performance with no regret. It is the National Celebration Show that includes military entertainment from around the world. The United States Marines, Mexico, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia and more. It was an international event. There were plenty of bagpipes, drums, instruments of every type, fireworks and more.

The entryway to the castle is lined with seating and the show spills out from inside the castle. It was the highlight of our summer. Our video didn’t come out as well as this old one on Youtube, so you’ll get the idea. There was the Lone Piper on the wall that just silenced the crowd. As a world community we sang God Save the Queen (Americans sang My Country ‘Tis of Thee) and Auld Lang Syne and Amazing Grace. It was beautiful.

Highland Dancers were subject of Jerome’s postcard painting to Marley.

In June I posted something about our travels and another friend called me straight away to tell me about Edinburgh’s Fringe Festival. We were in for a bigger party than we planned. We wanted to enjoy Edinburgh; her architecture, art museums, history, music and food.

The Fringe Festival is 21 days of celebration 22 hours a day. The whole city participates. The whole city is full of art and performances of every kind. Storage rooms in pubs are converted to comedy clubs, alley ways are transformed into food courts, open areas are stages for street performers, cards, flyers, invitations are passed all around with showtimes and locations, everything from free to high-priced. There is something for everyone; many family shows, magic, comedy, dramatizations, and I’m sure there was trash too, but I was impressed that there was so much good entertainment. We only walked out of one; not because it was raunchy, just not our taste, we chose it by mistake. The food stalls, restaurants and vendors were a great adventure. We walked between six and ten miles every day.