The Mighty Gareth

Meet The Mighty Gareth!

In between exploring the castle and watching the Tattoo, Sam and I wandered along Princes Street Gardens to see what was happening with The Fringe.  And we found this chap starting his comedy/magic/dangerous juggling show.  He was really funny and Sam loved the show.

We hung around when it finished and had a chat with the man himself.  What an absolute gentleman!  He kindly signed a photo for Sam, which Sam couldn't stop looking at for the rest of the day.

Needless to say Sam is now a fan of the Edinburgh Fringe, and wants to return to watch more street acts next year.  We'll see....

Thank you, The Mighty Gareth, and enjoy a well-earned rest when you get back home up the mountain in Switzerland.

Edinburgh Military Tattoo

I'd never attended the Edinburgh Military Tattoo before.  Nor had Sam, of course.  So I booked the tickets well in advance for this year's show....and went.

 

Tickets are quite expensive!  They were, in fact, the biggest expense of the whole trip.  But they turned out to be worth the money.

 

Our seats were two rows from the top of the "new for 2011" arena.  It's a completely temporary structure that will be dismantled at the start of September and mothballed until next summer.  Very impressive, no roof supports to spoil the view and a steep rake providing every seat with a fantastic panorama.

I am not a fan of bagpipes.  Well, not in a "piper standing on a street corner filling a town centre with doleful whining" way.  When they form part of a military band it's a different story - the massed pipes and drums band was enormous.  We tried counting them but it was impossible.  We think there were almost 200 musicians.

 

 

The highlight for us both was the Dutch Bicycle Band.  What utter lunatic came up with this idea?  Serving members of the Dutch army pedal precariously around the arena, in loose formation, playing military marches.  And Tulips From Amsterdam.  They are 75% band, 25% comedy act, with slapstick falls, collisions and various attempts to run over the band leader.  Marvellously unhinged.

 

Another highlight was the naval gun race.  Except, it's not a race any more.  Health & Safety have rulad that it was too dangerous in its original form, so now the two teams are only allowed to "show examples of parts of the original contest".  They still go for it at full tilt though, and judging by the losing team's body language it still holds as much kudos as it ever did.

 

 

The Tattoo's theme this year was The Sea.  The Navy performed a display showing how they deal with ships that have been hijacked by pirates.

 

The guys with rifles made their entrance from the back of the stands, so Sam was delighted to be within touching distance.

 

 

The Royal Marines were superb, naturally.  The drummers did all that stick waving and choreography thing, and their performance was brilliant.

We loved the Military Tattoo so much that we wanted to go again the next night.  Highly recommended!

Loch Leven Castle

After visiting Scotland's Secret Bunker in the morning we slipped back a few centuries for the afternoon's fun....Loch Leven Castle.

 

Located on an island in the middle of lowland Scotland's largest loch, the only way to reach the castle is by ferry.  Fabulous!  An extra bonus for your visit.  In the picture the castle is above and to the right of the boat's windscreen.

 

This is a small but fascinating castle.  If you want somewhere for children to spend hours exploring, go to Stirling.  For history go to Edinburgh.  For an air of romance, peace and quiet, Loch Leven's the place to go.

 

In the distance of this picture is the Glassin Tower, a round-built later addition to the original structure, added for extra defence and as a fashionable feature.  It was where Mary, Queen of Scots was first taken on her arrival as a prisoner - she didn't like it and was moved to the main tower building.

 

This is Sam in the window of the kitchens, on the first floor of the tower house.

 

Two floors up is where Mary spent most of her year in captivity.  Sir William Douglas modified one window for use as an oratory for the queen to pray at.

 

Sam liked Loch Leven castle, but found it too small, with not enough nookage and crannyage.  However, I loved it and it would make a perfect destination to woo a young lady!

The entrance is guarded by two small cannons.  They are not originally from the castle's history though, being made in around 1800, and the castle was not occupied after the 1500s.  The gate was only secured with a wooden door with a slide-bar, hinting that there may have been a further enclosure on this side with stouter defences.

 

The cannons were probably brought here to enhance the military appearance of the castle.

 

What's that tiny room in the corner of Mary's chamber?  It's the toilet of course!  There's a stone shaft leading straight out the side of the tower.  Sam just had to have a go, and never has "sitting on the throne" been more relevant.

 

Mary complained of boredom during her time in Loch Leven castle.  I'd be happy to wake up with a view like this every day.

 

His Highness chilled out on the grass near the jetty while we waited for our return journey.

Loch Leven castle's great for adults, maybe just good for children.  Recommended!

Edinburgh Castle

What young man's first visit to Scotland could not include an exploration of Edinburgh Castle?  This pic was taken on our way OUT, when we were full of beans and larking around.  Several other youngsters gathered round and watched us having fun.  Shame their own parents couldn't provide it.

We arrived on the train just in time to walk out onto Princes Street and listen for the One O'clock Gun.  It's Festival time, and we happened to be standing next to some Nepalese-ish drumming group, which made it harder, but we still heard it.  What a great tradition.  We sought out the gun later and agreed to watch from close quarters next time we're in Old Reekie.

So, Edinburgh Castle.  I visited several times when I was a youngster.  It was big and impressive.  But I preferred Stirling.  What would Sam think?  This is what you can see from the Low Defences looking back towards the Esplanade.  "Low Defences" is rather a relative name, as they are still many, many metres above ground level.

The Low Defences house two cannon.  And there's an alomost hidden stairway to reach them.

There are great views in all directions from the castle.  This is looking towards Princes Street over the gardens.

Just to the left of this imposing facade is a staircase called the "Land Stairs".  In English that means the long stairs, and before the sloping roadway that runs around the right side of these buildings was built it was the only access to the upper ("summit") level of the castle.  And when you stand on the Lang Stairs you can understand why they built an easier way to move heavy cannon like Mons Meg up to the higher levels....

Talking of Mons Meg, here is Sam standing beside it/her.  I could not believe that guns this size were used in battle, they are enormously cumbersome and heavy and need one hundred men to drag around.  They fire stone cannonballs weighing 150kg up to two miles.  Devastating for siege warfare I think.  Mons Meg last fired in 1681 for a birthday salute for the Duke of Albany - the barrel burst and it/she was "retired".  The stoneball from this final firing was found two miles away.

Sam found a very comfortable spot in the corber of Mons Meg's platform.  He wouldn't move!  "I love this place, I love it here!" he said.  He seemed to be enjoying the castle.  Great views over the west of Edinburgh too.

This is the almost unique dog cemetery.  Regimental mascots and notable officers' dogs are buried here.  A very British little place.

Nobody under the age of 18 can visit Edinburgh Castle without posing atop a cannon!  Here's Sam on top of one of the cannon on the Forewall Battery, built in the 1540s.

Just along from the Forewall Battery is the Half Moon Battery, which we snapped from below.  It was built over David's Tower which was smashed to pieces during a siege, and armed with seven brass cannon known as the Seven Sisters.

On our way out we tried to spot our seats for that evening's Tattoo performance....if you look along the top of the stands for the number 3, we were two rows in front of the number.

Before we went to the castle we had some fun along Princes Street (look out for our review of The Mighty Gareth!).  Here's Sam gooning in front of a nice view.

This was taken towards the top of The Mound as we headed towards the castle.

Sam took this rather excellent, moody, tempting picture while we were still on the train to Edinburgh.

For me, this day was a first.  Actually, for Sam too, thinking about it.  First time either of us have travelled over the Forth Rail Bridge.

And just as we hopped off the train, Sam snapped this monument to.....to.....can't remember!

Scotland's Secret Bunker

Who knew that Scotland's eastern nuclear bunker was beneath farmland just south of St Andrews?  No, me neither.  We found an advertising leaflet and decided to go.

In its Secret days the bunker was hidden under an apparently unremarkable farmhouse, built in the Fifeshire way.  Of course there were no roads then, nor flags, or any of the other recent touristy additions.

As a museum it is slightly lacking rival attractions.  It seems to have been put together in something of a hurry, which is a shame.  There's a wealth of potential here.  Above is the BBC studio from where all post-nuclear messages would have been broadcast.

A good example of the lack of imagination is the mannequins.  Terrible.  They do seem to be shop dummies with a ridiculous array of badly fitted wigs.  Which they are.  See the bloke above, supposedly the Local Authorities Chief.  Despite the nuclear holocaust he's still managed to smuggle plenty of hair dye into the bunker.

The raw material they have here is fantastic, but poorly presented.  The rooms without figures seem to have a more eerie feel to them - here's the Telex room.

"Tuck your shirt in, That Woman!  And tie your bloody hair up!"  Another set of bad dummies inhabit the RAF Operations room.

The entry price for the bunker is, in my opinion, too high for the exhibits on show.  It could be greatly improved with the addition of two or three actors in period costume wandering the concrete corridors offering verbal accounts of life underground.

There's a 150m inclined tunnel to access and exit the bunker itself - here's Sam making a sharp exit (he's no fan of the dummies).  This is a fascinating place, and worth a visit if you are ex-military or have an interest in the Cold War period.  But I wouldn't recommend it for children.

An SS20 missile, hopefully de-commissioned, reminds visitors why the bunker is here at all.