Scotland Adventure 2023 - Days 11 - 12
Le Champlain cruised up the Forth river to port Rosyth. We tied up on the industrial docks. The Forth rivers runs past Edinburgh. This was our last morning on the ship. No room service breakfast. We will survive on the ship’s buffett breakfast. We put our luggage out in the hallway last night. Remember to keep the clothes you need to wear tomorrow. There are legends about passengers disembarking in their pajamas. Our group was loaded on our coach and we were off for our city tour of Edinburgh. At the end of the day we will be dropped off at our hotel the Intercontinental George and our luggage will be in our room. We will be at the George for two nights and then fly back to Chicago on Friday.
The view from our balcony. Not quite as picturesque as some of our other ports of call. We are disembarking soon so no worries.
Our first stop on the tour was the Royal Botanical Garden. The garden maintains a laboratory with over 3 million types of plants from around the world. The plants are studied to find medical uses.
The hedge row is 24 feet high and they trim it once per year.
We had lunch on our own. We walked the length of Rose Street. Rose Street boasts 36 pubs. It is a favorite venue for hen and stag parties. Hen and stag parties are batchelor and batcherlorette parties. The goal is to have a drink in each pub. We enjoyed a fish and chips at the Element restaurant.
There are 35 more pubs like this one one on Rose Street.
Our afternoon was spent touring Edinburgh Castle. Edinburgh Castle was home to kings and queens including Queen Margaret who was made a Saint. A Jacobite force failed to capture the castle during the uprising of 1715 due to poor planning. The ladder they brought to scale the ramparts was too short. Over the centuries the Scots and the English traded control of Edinburgh Castle. The original Crown Jewels are on display.
Edinburgh Castle sits on a volcanic hill.
On Thursday morning we took a coach ride to Holyrood and the Royal Palace. Holyrood seems like a take off on Hollywood but Holyrood came first. The meaning of Holy Rood is Holy Cross. Rood means cross in Gaelic. Holyrood was foundered by King David I in 1128. King David was hunting nearby when he was knocked off his horse by a giant white stag. He thought the stag would surely kill him. As the stag charged at King William he saw the glow of the cross in the stags antlers was was spared. King David built Holyrood to commemorate the miracle he had witnessed. A royal palace was built next to Holyrood and is used by the royal family to this day. The Edinburgh Royal palace was the home of Mary Queen of Scots and Bonnie Prince Charlie as well as a favorite of Queen Elizabeth II,
The cross can be seen between the stags horns. This ornament is part of the entrance gate to Holyrood.
The entrance to Holyrood cathedral and a wall of the royal palace on the right hand side.
I am ready to stand guard duty for King and country.
The tomb of Euphemia Stewart and two of her three sons is inside Holyrood cathedral. She died suddenly at the age of 67 in 1817. Her sons died much younger in the service of the crown. Her oldest son William died in Santo Domingo at age 24 in 1796. He was with the Royal engineers. The second son John was captain of the HMS Sea-horse and died at age 36 in 1811. He is buried in Westminster Abbey. The youngest son Kenneth was with the Royal artillery and died in St. Vincent at age 19 in 1795. Euphemia outlived all three of her sons. Her oldest and youngest sons died within one year of each other.
Priscilla is checking the trajectory of the cannon.
This is the coat of arms for King James the fifth. The unicorn is Scotland’s national animal.
At 5:00 pm we boarded our coach to travel to our farewell cocktail party on His Majesties Yacht Britannia. Britannia was last of 83 Royal Yachts reaching back to 1660. She was only the second royal Yacht not to be powered at all by sail. Britannia was ordered by the Queen’s father King Henry VI in 1952. The king died two days after ordering the Royal Yacht. The design was completed Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. She was launched on April 16, 1953. The Yacht’s name was a closely guarded secret until the day of her launch. The Queen revealed the name at the christening - I name this ship Britannia. I wish success to her and and all who sail her. The ship was designed to have a secondary function as a hospital ship during wartime.
Some of the notable guests on the Royal Yacht included - Noel Coward, Winston Churchill, Ronald Reagan, Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton, and Boris Yeltsin.
Britannia sailed with a compliment of 21 officers and 220 enlisted men. She was decommissioned in 1997 and became a museum ship at that time.
Our farewell cocktail party was onboard His Majesties Yacht Britannia.
Standing on the fantail of HMY Britannia with the ships bell.
After the cocktail party we returned to the Intercontinental for our farewell dinner. We said goodbye to our 148 close friends. We will take a car from Edinburgh to the Glasgow airport. Turns out Iceland Air does not fly out of Edinburgh on Fridays.
Our limo driver picked us up at the Intercontinental George hotel at 8:30 for our 1.5 hour drive to the Glasgow airport. The main roads are two lanes wide but are not interstates. The road winds though various towns and has lots of round-a-bouts (rotaries). The airport was not crowded. We looked for the Icelandair check-counter. We had arrived 45 minutes before the counter opened. At the announced time we stood in line for the check-in counter. One couple checked in and then the baggage belt broke down. According to the Iceland Air agent it was a daily occurrence. We stood in line for forty minutes until the baggage belt started moving. We had plenty of time to kill so why not not stand in the check- in line.
Next we went shopping in Duty-Free. Somehow during the transfer of our luggage from the ship to the hotel in Edinburgh the luggage was exposed to extreme heat and all of Priscilla’s make-up melted. Not just the make-up but all the plastic cases as well. A bizarre occurance.
The evidence of the melted make-up. Nothing else melted in our luggage.
We boarded our flight in Glasgow and connected through Reykjavik to our flight to Chicago. It was a lovely cruise and land tour of Scotland. Finis.
