Edinburgh (day 2), Scotland 2018 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Date: 5th July 2018

Travelled: 87 kilometres from Newcraighall (Edinburgh) to Jedburgh, both in Scotland.

Visited: Edinburgh (by rail) and Dryburgh Abbey

Stayed: Jedburgh, car-park adjacent tourist office, free + toilet. N55.47707, W02.55305

We have another quiet evening in the car-park at Newcraighall although I did hear some load music at some stage during the night. After yesterday’s big day in Edinburgh, we are planning an easier second day .

As we walk across the car-park to the station, we note another couple of motorhomes have arrived. The train arrives and we are soon at Edinburgh/Waverley railway station. Our first stop today is the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the Royal families official residence in Scotland. It’s at the far end of the Royal Mile, so we walk, to find a #6 bus to Holyrood. £1.40pp later we are dropped of outside Holyroodhouse only to find ourselves surrounded by police.

Edinburgh EH8 8DX, UK

This is as close to the Palace of Holyroodhouse as we will get today. The Queen is in residence this week and it’s closed to the public. Mind you there is a garden party for the Duke of Edinburgh Award this morning, but our invites must be in the mail.

Our friends Joe and Ian were at another gate about this time and captured this picture of the Black Watch during a practice run.

It seems our loose planning strategy has let us down on this occasion. We don’t search every attractions website as we travel, just rely on our guide books in general. Anyway the Queen’s visit has saved us £12pp.

Just across the way stands Arthur’s Seat the hill that overlooks Edinburgh, so we head off to walk it.

As we start walking up Arthur’s Seat we can see the morning tea underway in the palace.

A little higher up, that’s Beacon Hill, with it’s tower and its imitation greek ruin.

Pam hits her stride nicely here, but it gets a lot steeper. Arthur’s Seat is a 250 metre climb.

A view across the new town to Edinburgh Castle on the hill.

Finally near the top it’s taken about 45 minutes.

We sit and recover for 5 minutes and take in the view. A lovely young lady from Ballarat takes this photo for us.

Michael and Pam's Photo Sphere (Arthur’s Seat Pano.)

The Queen’s ride. As we walk back to the bus stop we are stopped by a policeman, two motorcycles escorting Range Rover swing around the drive. ‘That’s the Queen’ says the young policeman. ‘She doesn’t always wave you know’.

We take the bus, then train back to Newcraighall a couple of hours earlier than planned, but that’s OK. We get the Hymer ready to go, before driving up to the Tesco for a shop, fuel the Hymer and start the drive south.

Heading south we have one place on our hit list of places to visit, Dryburgh Abbey.

Melrose TD6 0RQ, UK

Said to be one of the most evocative and romantic ruins in Scotland. Dryburgh Abbey lives up to it’s reputation. Added to that, a wedding has just been held and a piper is wandering the ground playing during our visit.

Pam sits and enjoys the sound of the bagpipes echoing through the ruins.

Douglas Haig (not one of my favourites) and the writer and poet Sir Walter Scott are buried here. Other than the wedding party and a couple of photographers we are on our own.

Michael and Pam's Photo Sphere (Dryburgh Abbey Cloisters Pano)

So our visit to Dryburgh complete, we drive on for another 45 minutes. Our data base shows a stop at Jedburgh. It’s a large friendly car-park outside the tourist office. We already have 3 other motorhome in situ, so we slide politely close by for the night.

Michael and Pam

Edited with BlogPad Pro