The crowds are growing as it gets closer to The Fringe in August.The Castle. It is great that they only allow a certain number of folks in per hour.More of the CastleAmazing that anyone was ever able to invade this castle but they did.Professional photo of the Castle. Right now there are viewing stands erected in the courtyard in preparation for the Royal Edinburgh MiliaryTattoo.which brings together the best of British Military with international performances from a global case. Fountain inside Holyroodhouse. If the Royals are in residence then they turn on the fountain.Inside courtyard of the Palace.The gardens at the Palace.More of the gardensPart of Holyrood – I took this as it shows how they mow the areas in order to preserve flowers for the bees. I found this in all of the open field areas. Pretty cool.A fountain in the Royal Botanic Gardens, which are free to enter. More of the gardensThis location of the World’s End is where Old Town Edinburgh ended. There was a gate at this location and it cost money to enter the old town. So most people who were very poor didn’t ever leave because they couldn’t afford to come back in. This made the Old Town Edinburgh very crowded and certainly not very sanitary. There was no plumbing then and so people just waited until a certain time in the night and then emptied their chamber pots out their windows. Ick. This still part of the Royal Mile now but back in the day. this was called the Canongate area. Picked up where the World’s End finished as people expanded out of the Old Town area.I took a tour that went to Dunkirk, Hermitage Park, Pitlochry and Dewars Distilary. This is The Hermitage, a park that was created in the 18th century. This is in Perthshire forest and was a pleasure ground for the Dukes of Atholl. Giant fir trees as we walked to the roaring Black Linn waterfall. Part of PItlochry town.The mountain in the background on the left is Schiehallion and is used in the opening shot of Oullander. This view is part of the Glencoe Mountains. Ended with a tour of Dewars whisky distillery I am probably the only person who didn’t notice that ‘whisky’ in Scotland is spelled without an ‘e’. We did a tasting and I found one that I could kind of enjoy – Aberfeldy, 12 year old Single Malt Whisky. The 16 yr old was pretty good too.
