Today is MBM birthday! She booked a tour of Holyrood Palace in the afternoon. So we got up and headed on the town to do some shopping. B and T had money to spend, and Lola wanted to get a few things.
We walked down the Royal Mile, Lola and MBM purchasing some scarves, and headed down to the train station we had been before so B could get back to the Anime Store she eyed up the first time we were there (when Lola needed to go to the bathroom). Unfortunately, B was a little misleading and she made it sound like she knew what she wanted, that as incorrect. MBM and Lola spent the next 20 minutes trying to help B on deciding what she was going to buy. She was so overwhelmed and we couldn't believe how hard her decision was.... Finally she made some decisions and spent half her money on anime buttons, and figures. Everyone was very patient with her.
We walked back to our place to drop off our rain jackets and purchases, and headed for lunch at Bertie's Proper Fish and Chips. 4 orders of Fish and Chips for AA, MBM, DD and B, while Lola had baked Cajun fish, and T with Steak pie (maybe his 8th of the trip... not sure i lost count).
Everyone but Lola really enjoyed their meals. DD and Lola also enjoyed the mushy peas.
After lunch, we headed back out to get T his Highland Coo Sweater... he knew exactly what he was looking for and glad it was easy to find.
We walked down the entire royal mile to the bottom to make it to Holyrood Palace, the royal residence of of the monarch. Tuesdays and Wednesdays they only do private tours rather than wondering around reading.
Our tour guide Jorge was very knowledgable, and worked previously at Buckingham palace, and now at Holyrood palace. The weather was so nice outside, that it was so nice to wait outside for the tour to start. We started at the front, and then toured inside. Once inside the gate, there was square in the middle with beautiful grass and pillars and arches.
Once we got into the building we were not allowed to take photos anymore. We sent through many rooms, where the guide told us stories about previous residence of the palace including Mary, Queen of Scot. The day before we saw where she was born and then today we saw where she lived.
We saw the dining room, drawing room (to withdrawal), the "fake" apartments, where people would watch the king wake up and go to bed, but not really where they would spend the entire night. We saw the great hall, where there were over 90 paintings of all the previous kings, and one queen... but later found out that this was mostly for show, and not sure if all of them even looked like what they really looked like, but the artist made sure they all had the same nose to make them look related.
We also walked up a very tiny spiral staircase to get to the next floor, where there was more apartments, as well as the national treasures.
The tour guide told us where royalty stood, and famous people. You could tell our tour guide was sad when he talked about Queen Elizabeth II and her death. We sat in the room right where her casket was for 24 hours for those to pay their respect. It was very neat. There was even a room with a fake blood stain, as there is a story of someone being murdered in the palace.
We got outside, and saw the Abbey that was behind the palace (that was burned long time ago), then toured the grounds to see where the Queen and King would have their garden parties.
Once we finished, they gave us a souviner book, and we made our way out of the grounds. Everyone really enjoyed the tour.
After the tour, we were going to head to hard rock cafe for a drink, but after walking up the royal mile, the sign said it was at a different location, so we walked by our AirBnB and found a place for a drink.
Once we had our birthday drinks, we headed to our Airbnb to relax a little. We played some TowerFall, and then freshened up for supper.
We didn't have a reservation for supper, but wanted some scottish food, so we walked round and found a pub call the Fiddler's Arms. AA got the pie of the month, which was pork and tomato which was very different than the steak pies they have previously had. T and MBM had Bangers and Mash, DD had Haggis and Mash and Cullen Skink, B had a bowl of Cullen Skink soup, and Lola had a burger. The food was alright, not the best of the trip. MBM didn't like the dessert options, so we stopped at a place to get her Chocolate cake, and headed back to the airbnb.
B had issues with her ipad, so DD tried to solve those issues, and AA, Lola and T played some towerfall before bed.
Once the kids were asleep the adults played some monopoly Deal and cribbage then went to bed.
We are sad to be leaving tomorrow.
