Day 8 Continue, Edinburgh Military Tattoo

Before the start of the Tattoo, people milling about.  Quests trying to find their seats and performers finding where they que up.  The Tattoo is an annual series of military Tattos, performed by The British Armed Forces, Common Wealth, and International military bands.  It's held once a year in August with nightly shows come rain or shine.

We're close to starting time here, as you see the stands filling up and darkness is falling.  The show starts at 9:30.

We're seated on section 2, the right side of photo.  There's a small section just as the performers come out of the castle, then our section.  We had excellent seats just a few rows from the bottom, so very good visibility as the bands marched passed us and performed in front of us.

The show is magnificent, with cutting edge lighting, sound and military precision. 

See, right in front of us.  The pipes.........oh how I love the pipes.

This was The US NAVY Band, or a portion of them.

The tickets range in price from 42.50 to 970.00 Euro's and many seats are already sold for the next season, August of 2024.  The prices vary by physically where you're located and what night you go.  Our section 2 is currently listed at 88 Euro's, and was a part of our tour.  This is the only video I took short enough to download.

So much pageantry.  Truly a wonderful evening of fabulous performances.  Nearly 220,000 people attend the Tattoo annually in August at Edinburgh Castle.

Everything was so moving.  The evening ended in darkness at the Castle with a single bag piper atop the Castle Wall, immediately following the last band.  Then lights came on so we could all make our way back to the our coaches.  We walked the full royal mile and then some to get the long que of coaches awaiting all those in attendance.

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Day 8 Edinburgh, Military Tattoo, Part I

Our itinerary reads: Edinburgh Castle/City Tour.  Explore central Edinburgh starting in the 200 year old "New Town" with planned streets and elegant Georgian houses where many famous writers and inventors lived.  See the "Royal Mile" with its narrow medieval houses, then tour Edinburgh Castle to see the Crown Jewels of Scotland and the Stone of Destiny.  The rest of the day is free for you to explore.  On July 31 - August 14th departures, attend the world famous Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo.  **Our dates fell within that time frame and so we will be attending the Tattoo tonight.

As we toured the city via our coach, this was the first glimpse of The Castle.  To the left you can see the back of stands erected for the Tattoo.  

We're inside the area where the Tattoo will be held and we were able to find out seats.  Nice to be able to do that during the day.  We were in section 2 about 3 rows from the bottom.  So...excellent seats.  We'll be able to find our seats easier this evening since we got to locate them during daylight.  The Tattoo begins at 9 pm.  So this promises to be a long day.

Our tour group is making our way through the gates following our local tour guide.

Hope you can get a feel for how high up we are over looking the city below.

The Chapel.  Many in our group got in the que to see the Crown Jewels.  Jane and I had been there before when we toured Scotland and Ireland and so passed that by, and spent out time exploring the grounds and all the other buildings.  

Inside the Great Hall.  The details in the wood carvings around the room are breathtaking.

Explanations of some of the special things to see.

Back outside, look at that view of the city well beneath us.  See the people in the left center...look how small they look.  

Special resting place for mascots and regimental officers dogs in use since Queen Victoria's Reign 1837-1901.

Looking down into garden cemetery area.

Views abound.

After touring about, we elected to have a refreshment, before tackling all the shopping that exists on The Royal Mile.

Indeed they were refreshing.  It was also nice and quiet in the bar after being with the masses in the Castle and surrounding areas.

Our old fashions were made with GlenCadam Reserva.  We enjoyed our drinks so much we searched on the Royal Mile and were able to purchase a bottle to take bake to our hotel.  I've since looked for it here unsuccessfully.

Our shopping complete we're threading our way through the crowds to get back to where our coach is parked in order to get a ride back to the hotel and rest up a bit before grabbing some dinner and heading out again to the Castle for The Tattoo.

You just never know what you're going to see in your travels.

PLEASE leave me a comment when you come visit, so I know you were here. Your visits and comments are very special to me. AND remember, leave your name and url and not your profile link. Name and url takes me right to your blog post so I can reciprocate the visit.