22 May 2012 EDINBURGH Tuesday

On the advice of our tourist guide, we got the Hermiston Park n Ride bus into Edinburgh and walked past the pretty Princes Street Gardens, up the hill to Edinburgh Castle atop the craggy rock;  stopping halfway to enjoy the wailing bagpipe music of a Scottish busker - now that's a sight not often seen or heard.
At the Castle we went on a brief 20 minute tour, stopping to gain a brilliant vantage point to watch the 1 o' clock gun which has been going since the 1800's.  The exact timing is ensured with a canon ball rising in the distance in Nelson's Column and dropping at the time of firing the canon from the castle.

Lunch was a brave affair for me as I opted to sample haggis pie!!  For those of you who don't want to know what it is, don't read the following sentence - it contains the heart, lungs and liver of sheep, along with turnip and potato.  It was quite nice, but once done, no need to repeat.
On to the Royal Apartments where Mary, Queen of Scots gave birth to James IV who was responsible for uniting England and Scotland.  Keith went into the War Memorial to look up descendants from a bygone era and so we left Edinburgh castle through it's 8 undefeated gates.