Hop On, Hop Off Bus Tour of Edinburgh (Day 6)

On our 2nd full day in Edinburgh, Scotland, we decided to do a hop on, hop off bus tour. Along with the bus tour, we had tickets to 3 main attractions - Brittania (the queen's retired yacht), Holyrood Palace (where the queen lives when she visits), and the Edinburgh Castle.

Here's a man playing the bagpipes. We saw many people playing instruments for money... and we gave them money. It was really a pleasure to listen to them. We saw this man's shift end and a younger guy took his place.

Here's Alex & I on the top of the double decker bus. Alex was thrilled to be riding these double deckers! And, this is a good time to point out that I didn't have mousse or hair spray during most of our trip. AND, we usually got caught in the rain several times a day! This is early in the day, so I'm not looking too bad yet.

This is a photo I took from the top of the bus. All of the cars were so small! (These are mainly taxis.) Even the "minivan" we rented was itty bitty like these. (I drive an SUV, so these seem really small!)

A photo of Holyrood Palace from the bus.

This is on The Royal Yacht Britannia. Many famous people besides the Queen have stayed aboard this yacht. It was first launched in1953 and retired after 44 years.

The formal dining room on the yacht.

The Holyrood Palace. This is the official royal palace in Scotland and the Queen spends one week here at the beginning of every summer. My favorite part was seeing the rooms that were lived in by Mary, Queen of Scots.

Attached to Holyrood Palace are the ruins of Holyrood Abbey, an Augustine Abbey. The architecture was amazing!

Another photo of Holyrood Abbey.

From the bus, we had to walk several blocks to Edinburgh Castle... in a downpour. We got soaked, but I eventually stopped and bought a couple of umbrellas. (Yes, it took us awhile to learn to ALWAYS have an umbrella or hood available!) That's the corner of one of our Scotish umbrellas.

Alex in front of part of the castle. This castle was HUGE with many buildings.

After the castle, we went into this kilt making store. It had a museum in it showing how they made the tartans. We were so tired, I just barely looked at it. But, they also had an area where you could put on real Scotish clothing and have your photo taken! I was so excited! I thought this might be our favorite memory from Scotland. I went to sign up, though, and we were 5 minutes too late! They'd stopped taking reservations for the day and we would be leaving in the morning. Too bad!

As we walked around looking for dinner, we saw this DOUBLE rainbow! I hadn't realized how many rainbows there would be in Ireland (thus all of the tales about leprechauns and rainbows!) and Scotland!And, for our last evening meal in Edinburgh, we went back to this restaurant we LOVED so much! As you can see, it is called Filling Station. I guess it is more an American restaurant - they played American music and had American memorabilia on the walls. Alex and I had incredible pizza and garlic "bread" (like pizza) both nights. We also had incredible desserts the first night! (We were too full this night.) Alex loved a Scotish "kid's drink" they call a juice (but it's a soda) called Irn Bru. It tastes kind of like Cream Soda.