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As we drove north from England and into Scotland the scenery became more rugged, the buildings greyer, and castle sightings more frequent. The landscape seemed less populated too - large empty tracts of land with only a few black-faced sheep. Occasionally we passed through a village with a few unadorned grey stone houses clustered around a pub. The traffic increased as we neared Edinburgh, as did the height of the grey buildings we saw. Four and five storey housing blocks lined outlying Edinburgh streets. It being the midst of the Edinburgh festival AND a Friday afternoon, the inner city was crowded. Fortunately our accommodation was in a quieter suburb with relatives of mine - Peter and Siggi.
Peter is a semi-retired chemistry lecturer and his German wife Siggi used to work as a nurse. Both are grandparents to three year old May - who was waiting, with big blue eyes and long blonde plaits, to meet us! Barely had we put down our bags and received welcoming cuddles from her, than this bundle of energy had us playing hide and seek, running up and down the stairs, and talking to her dolls! Siggi tried to distract her with a few jobs - setting placemats on the table and offering around a bowl of crisps - but the child retained the place of centre-of-attention. As interested as she was in the new guests, it was clear that she utterly adores her grandparents. Chatting animatedly with grandpa and teasing granny, May barely noticed when her parents arrived - hugging them distractedly as she continued her latest story.
We all sat down to dinner - so much food, I didn't know where to begin! A plate of smoked salmon and prawns with mayonnaise, a smoked-haddock salad with greens, cherry tomatoes and orange, new potatoes, a cheese platter, bread, and a salmon loaf (it looked like a terrine and had been sliced generously). Afterwards there was dessert of strawberries and cream in chocolate cups as well as rhubarb and strawberry crumble - it was a feast!
Dale and I had tickets to the Edinburgh Tattoo, so Peter kindly dropped us in the old town near the castle. We joined the crowds walking up the Royal Mile to the large open area outside the castle entrance where huge temporary stands of tiered seating had been set up. Despite the Tattoo's reputation for often taking place in torrential rain, the skies were clear and the wind calm. We found our places high up in the stands with a good view over the courtyard created in the centre. It began with school children dressed as ragged blue-faced picts running about the arena. Then came the massed pipes and drums, the kilted figures emerging from the castle gates in neat formations. The sound of bagpipes filled the night air, accompanied by the rattle of the smaller drums and the deep rhythmic thuds of the large drums.
The programme included not only Scottish army bands, but a range of guest performances from military bands from other nations - Australia, USA, Norway and Switzerland. The Australians were accompanied by three vocalists singing a medley which included Waltzing Matilda, ACDC and Kylie Minogue (typical!), and the Americans chose superhero theme songs (?!?!?). During each performance the castle backdrop was lit up with coloured lights, sometimes with pictures projected onto the stone structure as well (for example, flying superheroes during the US number). It was the Swiss and Norwegians who impressed us most though. The Norwegian group included a squad of young soldiers who are completing their national service, and who did a drill routine in time to the music. Every step was meticulously synchronised as they moved in and out of different formations, flipping their rifles, and at one stage moving in slow motion. Dale (with his territorial army background) couldn't understand why anyone would drill for fun but had enormous respect for the polished performance being delivered by the young Norwegians - declaring it his favourite of the night.
However, my pick of the night was the Swiss. The Swiss group were dressed in traditional black guard uniforms with big white feathers in their caps. They consisted only of drummers and if their were Olympic medals for synchronised drumming, then the Swiss would win gold! Every movement was as precise as the inner workings of a Swiss watch. Heads, hands, feet all perfectly coordinated. The tempo increased to the point when their hands were just pale blurs. From time to time they would also beat their neighbour's drum, but never did a drumstick get tangled. They separated into groups and had sword fights with their drum sticks and never skipped a beat of the crisp staccato rhythm they were belting out, and they even threw their drumsticks between each other - still perfect synchronisation!
Towards the end of the evening we got more pipes and bands with traditional Scottish favourites 'Auld Lang Syne' and 'Scotland the Brave', followed by fireworks above the castle. It was an incredible evening of entertainment - much more varied and attention grabbing than I had expected.
After breakfasting with the family (another amazing spread of fresh grapefruit, French yoghurt, cereal, toast, and brioche), Ellen and Neale (and May) dropped us into town to soak up some of the Fringe festival. We couldn't walk five paces up the Royal Mine without being thrust another pamphlet advertising a show. (The Festival programme is about as thick as a phone book!). As well as ticketed performances there is a huge selection of free festival events, including buskers. We saw a male barbershop group from Oxford university singing 'Fat bottomed girls' in perfect harmony, as well as an Aussie comedian with a 9 foot unicycle and flaming torches to juggle. It was a little further down the street that we bumped into Dale's dental assistant Elle, who has left her job in NZ and is performing in one of the festival theatre events! She was dressed in old fashioned blouse and skirts and carrying a puppet that bore a striking resemblance to her! We agreed to go along and see her in action, so at midday we found ourselves at a backstreet bar called The Three Sisters trying to find out which of the rooms was venue to Elle's play.
We walked into a dimly lit room with an audience numbering about 10 and a hooded performer holding hand puppets on stage...it looked promising...or so we thought!! After the first two orgasm 'jokes' we were pretty sure this wasn't the kids show Elle had described. Paralysed with indecision we remained while this one woman show changed into a horse costume and began trying to get the audience singing along with her about horses - cringe!! Next she had an audience member lie down and act as a 'jump' for her to leap over. Thoroughly weirded out by the bizarre mix of crude stand up comedy and child's play we joined 5 other escaping audience members when she went backstage to change for 'the story of the badger and the missing vag' ....oh dear! Next door we found Elle's play, now well under way and with an audience much larger than 10, so we slipped in the back to watch. It was a lovely story accompanied by puppets and a fair amount of references to New Zealand, which we enjoyed far more than the disastrous performance next door!
We stayed behind at the end to invite Elle for lunch. She took us to a nearby pizza place with tables which you could play video games on. After a couple of pizzas and some rounds of spacies, Dale and I said goodbye to Elle and walked back through the Fringe crowds up to the Castle. We bought tickets and made our way to the battlements to admire the view, so absorbed in listening to the audio guide and checking the map I stepped into a gutter and fell flat on my face! Dale had the decency not to laugh and helped me to my feet. Wincing at the stinging in my hands and knees, I followed Dale to the crown jewels exhibition.
That evening we went to another free festival event, this time a German comedian, Paco Erhard. It was a completely full house with people sitting in the aisle and standing around the walls. We weren't disappointed. Erhard's show poked fun not only at Germans (apparently it's OK for Germans to make jokes about losing the war) but also teased the British about their foibles - for instance the British tendency to get drunk and sunburnt whenever they go on holiday in Europe. We laughed for an hour!
Siggi drove us out to North Berwick the following day. A pretty seaside down but even in the middle of summer we were wearing jeans and jackets! Braving the chilly breeze we sat at an outdoor cafe (under an outdoor heater) and ate fish and chips, before walking up the beach, crossing a golf course (naturally they are everywhere), and walking back through the pretty main street lined with homeware and gift stores. From there we visited a couple of nearby ruined castles where Dale and I were able to run up and down the stone staircases and through a maze of passageways, passing through the medieval kitchens, Lord's chambers, private chapels, privies and dungeons. History geek heaven!
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