Day 19 Last day in Edinburgh

I am amazed that we have been traveling for 19 days so far and are still talking to each other! It is wonderful to have a mate that loves traveling and exploring as much as I do. 19 days gone--that means sadly only 10 more days to go. But let's just enjoy where we are for now. This is our last day in Edinburgh and we are going back to Old Town for one more look. It is Saturday and a Bank Holiday Weekend in Scotland. That means a 3 day weekend and lots of people walking around. We discovered that it is also European Rugby Cup aka Heineken World Cup Finals day and the game is to be played in Edinburgh! Wow, if we had known ANYTHING about rugby we could have gotten tickets for the 5 pm game! All over town were fans of either the Leicester Tigers or Leinster. We had to ask around for who was who--Leincester Tigers "club" was started in 1880 and is the UK's biggest and most successful club. The Leinster "club" was started in 1879 and is from Dublin, Ireland. Leinster won the day 19 to 16. More than 66,500 fans attended. The stadium was a couple miles from our hotel and we could hear the winning fans still singing and celebrating at midnight.



Our final walk went all the way down the Royal Mile to the Palace of Holyroodhouse where the Queen stays when visiting Edinburgh. The Palace was closed to visitors today. Maybe the Queen came for the big game?




The newly reopened Scottish Parliament Building faced the Palace so we peaked in the windows. "Scotland's Parliament originated in 1293 but was dissolved by England in 1707, and was formally re-opened by the Queen in 1999" says Rick Steves' Great Britain guidebook. This building (opened in 2004) is very modern in complete contrast to the rest of Old Town. Lots of controversy about it here!!!





We stopped in at the National Museum of Scotland with its huge collection organized from prehistory Scotland to 20th century. Then a quick look at the National Gallery of Scotland with lots of European masterpieces. After all that "culture" it was time to find a pub.

It was early but we found a lively pub with these fellows having a grand time. It was an ALL DAY "bachelor party". We had a great time with them--just "bantering", as they say here!

I loved this artist's vision of Edinburgh as a reminder of all we have seen.

This is Don's favorite memory--very, very, very expensive Scotch whisky

Edinburgh is a beautiful and historic city and we both enjoyed it very much. We walked slowly back to our hotel to pack up. We had walked 7.5 miles today. Maybe next time we can stay at this Radisson Hotel ON the Royal Mile--