Tues June 3, 2025
Hi All! We made it to Scotland! Today we were anchored at South Queensferry which is the port town for Edinburgh. Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and has a population of over 500,000 people. It is the seat of the Scottish Government, the Scottish Parliament, and the Palace of Holyroodhouse which is the official residence of the British Monarch when in Scotland.
Both Edinburgh’s Old Town, with its medieval street plan and infamous Royal Mile, as well as the New Town, with it’s Neo-classical and Georgian period architecture, are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. We started our day bright and early at 7 AM and got thru UK Passport/Border Control fairly quickly. We then had a 10 minute tender boat trip to shore then a 20 minute drive to Edinburgh. Whew!
Our tour guide took us on a stroll down the Royal Mile pointing out various different historical sites. We started at St Giles Cathedral and walked from there. Some of the history from St Giles was: in 1745, Edinburgh surrendered to Bonnie Prince Charlie; in 2022, Queen Elizabeth II’s body lay in state here; and in 2022, King Charles was presented with the Honours of Scotland.
At the end of the Royal Mile we toured the Palace of Holyroodhouse. The history of all the kings thru the ages that lived there is incredible. It was cool to see all the various rooms and paintings inside but cameras weren’t allowed so sorry, no pics!
We also walked outside around the garden and the ruins of the abbey. After that we took the bus back to the ship. We grabbed lunch and chilled in the late afternoon. I’ll do another update tonight after dinner. Happy Tuesday to all!
The Wandering Italian 