Peggy, Jack and I walked down to Holyrood Palace at the bottom of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, just so that Peggy could see what it looked like, if you want to see more photos of it have a look here.
Somehow when you’re on the other side of a big fancy set of gates and railings peering inside you just can’t help but feel like one of the underlings, the suppressed masses! Anyway, I admit it, I was a wee bit excited when I saw that the palace was flying the Royal Standard from its flagpole. That usually means that the Queen is in residence, I did think it a bit early in the year for her to be visiting mind you, but there was a posh black car parked just out of the photo and it had NO number plate.
Then when a whole load of kilted soldiers came out of an adjacent building and marched towards us and the gate I felt sure they must be some sort of escort but after a lot of shouting, stamping and bugling, they turned around and marched off in the direction they had come from. I think they must put on a performance like that every night at 6 o’clock, how disappointing. I thought that Peggy would be getting a glimpse of royalty but the standard was apparently flying because the Church of Scotland were having their annual General Assembly in Edinburgh that week and the Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland was there representing the Queen.
Anyway, it turns out that Peggy was more thrilled with the Scottish soldiers than she would have been of royalty. I think she managed to get a video of them performing but you’ll have to wait until she gets back to the US before she can blog about that.
I’m sure that would have been a fascinating bit of pageantry! I hope the rest of your friend’s stay goes pleasantly.
Valerie,
Tomorrow she leaves for home after a month here. I have lots of blogposts backing up of the places we have been. I hope you find it interesting when I get around to writing them up.
I was more interested in the soldiers! Their uniforms, precision, just fantastic. But then your talking about someone who’s day was made when she saw that herd of cows galloping together full speed down that hill! Doesn’t take much to tickle me!
Peggy Ann,
I must admit that those cows stampeding down that hill for no obvious reason is memorable, even for me.
We tried on three separate visits before we were able to get into Holyrood, shut out by various and sundry dignitaries. Never felt surpressed, though. Just disappointed, then frustrated…
It became something of a Holy Grail after a bit! We did finally make it inside when we were there for V’s wedding. It was lovely.
Pearl,
I’ve never been inside Holyrood, there are always so many other places to visit in Edinburgh and we run out of time. I intend to do one of those open top bus tours some day too.