A Free Day Is Not Free: the National Portrait Gallery and the Tattoo!

The Odyssey Traveller Edinburgh fringe tour has quite a bit of flexibility, with free time to explore our own interests, so we decided to spend some time at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery after breakfast. This museum holds the national collection of portraits all of which are but necessarily by Scots. It also holds the Scottish National Photography Collection. Since 1889 it has been housed in its red sandstone Gothic Revival building, which was donated by the owner of the Scotsman newspaper. It is the first building in the world to be built especially as a portrait gallery. We were very impressed with the architecture as well as the holdings.

Catching up in the Great Hall. There are also great views from the balcony, which you will see later. We started at the top floor, with historical figures, before going to the second floor for more modern faces.

This man, formerly known as Prince Charles, is the current head of the country, King Charles III.

A delightfully quirky portrait of actress Tilda Swinton

Second story Splendor

After a nice lunch in the gallery’s cafe—with the world’s best freshly made shortbread—we made our way back to the hotel for a little rest before getting ready for the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo.

The Gathering of the Clan is a joyous celebration of music and dance, designed to show off the cultural aspects of various nations who answer the call. The countries involved this year were the US, UK, Germany, Qtar and New Zealand. Each country provided entertainment to show the best their country had to offer. It is presented at the top of the extinct volcano which became Edinburgh Castle, on the Esplanade. We were extremely lucky to have a ( relatively) warm, rain free evening.

The word “ tattoo” originated in the 17 th century from the Dutch phrase “doe den tap toe”, meaning “turn off the tap” of the ale taps, so soldiers could return to their barracks and go to bed. Ii evolved to mean the last duty call of the day, as well as a ceremonial form of evening entertainment planned by military musicians.

We opted to go to the Cannonball restaurant before the show to experience The Drummer’s Experience, where we were served a light meal, like an afternoon tea, with crafted cocktails. The advantage of this plan was that we were escorted to our seats by staff. There were five of us and three were using canes, so when I booked, I was able to get accessible seats in the row above the wheelchairs, with just a few steps.

We were the last to arrive because we walked up the hill to the castle and didn’t realize the number of people crowding the street and we had to walk slowly because of the uneven pavement and cobblestones. We did make it and were greeted warmly by the proprietor of the restaurant.

The menu: a savory platter with homemade sausage roll with apricot purée, venison bonbonswith mushrooms catsup, haggis bonbons with whiskey gel, cheddar scone with whipped Crowdie with onion jam and a cheddar crisp on top,trout pate with Sicilian lemon purée on toast, five kinds of cheeses. There was also s selection of DELICIOUS petits fours. Coctails: Mandarin spritz, Cloudy Sky ( pictured) and nonalcoholic hot mulled apple and spice, served throughout the meal.

There was also entertainment at the end of the meal, and Ann and I ran into the drummer at the ladies’ restroom.

Had to show you these fantastic desserts—a plate for two.

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It was almost one of those “ You’ve got to be there” type of events, but if you google “ Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo “ + videos, there are many videos online. The performance started promptly at 9:30, ended at 11, and was narrated by Roger Rankin, of “ Outlander “ fame in his thick Scottish accent.

We found the facilities before tromping down the hill, slowly, slowly, and were helped by the young eager volunteers who managed to get a taxi for us. It was a long day but well worth it.

Today we saw a one man show in the theater catagory, doing a dramatic interpretation about the first man who swam the English Channel. It was held in the dissection room, which reminded some of us of the dissection room we saw in Bologna! Quite a master class in acting. After that, we went to Holyroodhouse Palace, the royal residence of the Royal family. We were lucky enough to be able to tour the private family quarters, which are open for only a short time. It was a very intimate tour, even visiting the late Queen’s dressing room. No photographs were allowed. We also did a self- guided tour of the palace, which had the opulence onewould expect. What we didn’t expect was the tragic history of the murder of Mary, Queen of Scots, as we were even allowed in the room where it happened. We had a sumptuous repast there before the tours, and got rained out just as we headed to the gardens. We had dessert instead of dinner, since we had a hearty lunch, and are playing catch up tonight.

Beatrice reminded me that the royal family’s private rooms have never been opened until now. They are only open for 100 days to celebrate what would have been the 100th birthday of the late Queen. Perfect timing for us!

As the clouds roll in, and the rain falls, I will leave you with the original ruins of the palace, the abbey. More coming. Stay tuned.