While on the tour, I somehow realized that I had forgotten my International drivers licence in the room, in my knapsack, so to avoid any problems, we returned to pick it up. Fortunately, at this point, we weren't too far away. We then decided to check out the Royal Yacht Britannia, that has been decommissioned as the official royal yacht, and which is moored at Edinburgh harbour as a tourist attraction. WOW! What a plush boat this was, at least those portions assigned to the royals, anyway. It took us three decks down before we saw anything resembling what I expected a ship to look like.
On February 25th 1994, the Brittania reached 1,000,000 miles, and by 1997 when she was de-commissioned, she had logged enough miles to take her around the world once every year for all her years of service. I've no idea what, if anything, they are going to replace her with, as there has been a royal sailing vessel in the English monarchy since 1660. It was some ship to see. There is an actual shopping mall at the dock where she is moored, with shops and restaurants, all very expensive to cater to the tourist trade. We had a small lunch there at Starbuck's before we headed off to our third destination of the day.
Our next stop was Edinburgh castle. We were able to get a ride through a newly dug (1980's) underground tunnel, so Jan wouldn't have to climb all the way to the top. ( We also got a ride back down at the end of our tour). It was very windy at the top of the mountain, and the display of Scottish honors (their objects of power), and their "Stone of Destiny", was very well done, and interesting. It amazes me how these hilltop fortresses were built so long ago, without modern building machinery. Some of the walls were 3 meters thick!!!
Tomorrow we turn south and head back to England and hopefully, less windy conditions.
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