After a staying a week at Knowle Bed & Breakfast, we felt like we had become friends and were sad to say good-bye. Mirjam had been so good to us - doing laundry, lending us towels to take to the pool, answering all our questions and making us feel so welcome in their home. I highly recommend staying here to anyone who finds themselves in the area.
It was our first day of HEAVY RAIN, which was fine for traveling. We marveled at all the water falling down the countless streams everywhere you looked and at the near to over-flowing river in which they drained. It had just stopped raining when we made a pit stop in Pitlochry for lunch and a little more souvenir shopping, specifically we wanted to see the Heather Gems Factory. Some bright, industrious person came up with the idea of harvesting the heather, drying the stems, blasting the bark off, dying and compressing them and then cutting them into shapes, polishing them up and placing them in settings to make unique jewlry. Janet got a beautiful green pendant and matching earings & I found a broach for Aidan's tam.
We piled back in the van and continued our journey, arriving in Edinburgh about 4pm - rush hour. After a week of successful driving we were about 2 blocks away from our destination when we had a very near miss in a round about with a delivery van. Not sure how Dave did steered clear, but thankfully he did. With adrenaline pumping we returned the van and were happy to hop in a cab to our hotel. The West End Hotel was on the opposite side of the Royal Mile and Edinburgh Castle from where we stayed earlier and was a beautifully renovated historic building. Our dorm style room (4 sets of squeaky bunk beds) was on the 3rd floor - we were all puffing as after dragging our luggage up the stairs - as it's an historical building they were not allowed to install an elevator (lift as they call it). Once we caught our breath we donned our warmest waterproof clothes (it just started raining again) and headed out for supper and the Military Tatoo. The Military Tatoo has been running for 150 years and has never been cancelled regardless of weather and tonight was no exception. It POURED rain through the entire show - we were pleasantly surprised when we discovered that our seats (2nd last row from the very top) were underneath the overhang for the spotlights - it was great - except for my seat which had a drip from above directly on to my head. It felt like water torture, but was better than the downpour that most people were sitting in and Dave graciously traded seats with me after about 1/2 hour. The one plus of this seat was that the man sitting next to me was a retired Piper from Belfast and had performed in the Tatoo 3 times with the Royal Irish Piping Band (he'd also performed at Spruce Meadows near Calgary) and shared some interesting stories and info about the Tatoo. He said that depending on which bands were performing, the corresponding Royal would be in attendance in the best indoor seating area. Prior to the start of the show, the announcer listed off all the countries of the world that were represented in the audience. It was amazing as there were people there from every continent. The performance itself was spectacular - military bands from around the world including a band that performed while riding on vintage bicycles. The 3 bands that stood out for me were one that did an amazing synchronized drumstick routine on the snare drums, the lone piper at the top of the castle and, my favorite, the mass piping band - there's just something about that sound that just stirs you. We wondered how they would ever get all that wool and fur dry before the next night's show - none of the bands skipped a beat in the downpour. By the time we walked back to the hotel, we were all dripping wet. We hung stuff up anywhere we could and hit the hay at 12:15 with the sound of rain and bagpipes ringing in our ears.
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