Edinburgh Military Tattoo

With a 700 year old castle as the backdrop, the Edinburgh Tattoo takes place each year in the Scottish capital. This year, we were lucky enough to score some tickets from a friend and enjoy the Saturday evening performance. It's called the 'Tattoo' because the word derives from from 'tap toe', a signal that the drum corps would play to close the ale taps and send the soldiers home...i.e. last call for alcohol.


The Tattoo is the second largest festival in Edinburgh, second only to the Fringe festival, and attracts nearly 8000 each night throughout the month of August. In 2009, we saw various Highland performances (pipes, drums, and dance) as well as the UK 1st Royal Tank Regiment, the Tongan Royal Corps of Musicians (immediately above), the Chinese She Huo Dance Troupe (immediately below), and the Swiss Top Secret Drum Corps.


A light show played concurrently with the performers, lighting up the Edinburgh Castle in all kinds of colors and designs. The grand finale brings out all the performers, nearly 1000 of them, for some classic Scottish songs and the lowering of the flags. Right before the fireworks start, the Lone Piper plays one last mournful song.


The fireworks show at the end was spectacular. All of my favorite types shot across the sky and twinkled as they came down. Since this is the U.K. a drizzle of rain helped to finish off the end of the night. However, it was well-worth it for such an entertaining show.

Edinburgh and Festivals

On Saturday morning in Edinburgh, we woke to another brilliant blue sky. To improve further on the day, our friends from London met us in the breakfast room so that we could all start the day together!

When we booked our tickets for Edinburgh, the only thing we'd planned on was attending the Military Tattoo. We soon found out that August was basically the season of festivals in the Scottish city. Everywhere we walked, we ran into another event - festivals for books, politics, foods, the arts....even a festival for stone-carving (ok, that was just an exhibit at the arts college).

The Fringe Festival was the most obvious and popular of them all. Created in 1947 when eight theater groups showed up uninvited to the arts festival and took to performing in the streets, today's Fringe is organized enough to close down part of the Royal Mile and play host to hundreds of groups from all over the world. Nearly 250 Edinburgh venues play host to 2000 theater and musical performances. Performers spend their days in the streets of the Royal Mile, handing out advertisements for their show and re-enacting scenes in the street.

Also along the Royal Mile (and beyond) were scores of shops, selling Scottish cashmere, kilts, shortbread...just about anything you can think of - including tartan formal ware!

We were able to attend the Foodies at the Festival event twice during our trip - the first time on Friday when we popped in, soaking wet, for a chef's demonstration and some hot soup. On Saturday, we sampled Scottish whisky and cheeses while one of our friends hunted down local oysters.

Popping into the Parliament building (with its contemporary architecture, pictured above), we viewed the media photography exhibit while the Politics Festival went on. It wasn't all festivals and food though. We went into Holyrood Palace (photo at top), the Queen's Gallery and the Camera Obscura museum and enjoyed not only the illusions inside but the amazing views of Edinburgh from the roof.

Arthur's Seat, hiking in the center of Edinburgh

After weeks of 90+ degree temperature here in Milan, we were looking forward to the cool climate of the United Kingdom. We were not disappointed as a nice breeze greeted us immediately after stepping off our EasyJet flight. Despite the warnings we'd received of the terrible Scottish rain, we were so lucky (as our taxi driver told us, over and over) to have bright blue skys straight away!

While our friends from London would be meeting us that evening to explore the city for the weekend, we decided to make the most of the weather and after depositing our suitcases at our hotel, we headed straight for Holyrood Park. Our stroll along the Royal Mile was full of interesting sights and sounds since the Fringe Festival was going on right under our noses but more about that later.

Like Rome, Edinburgh is a city built on hills and Arthur's Seat is the highest at a little over 800 feet. It's not a particularly difficult hike though some of the parts on our path were pretty steep. However, the peak provides some spectacular views of the city once you make it up the scraggly rocks. The way up is very highland-esque, a comforting thought since we'd regretting not extending our vacation to allow for a trip to the Highlands.

350 million years ago, Arthur's Seat was an active volcano. Long extinct, it's now the home of lots of native flora and fauna, including some lovely lavender.

From the top, we enjoyed the amazing panorama views but quickly noticed the storm clouds approaching. It was super windy and we had to pull the sweaters out once we reached the top but apparently we dawdled too long.

That strong wind pulled the storm close quickly and we ended up SOAKED as we much more carefully made our way down from the peak. My talented husband managed to negotiate the least muddy path and soon we had a crowd following us down to avoid slipping! A foodie festival taking place at the base of the extinct volcano provided us with whisky and dry tents to warm up - too bad every rainy day doesn't end that way!