Bye bye

Goodbye bonnie Scotland.

We chose Edinburgh for our final Scottish day and she turned on typical Scottish weather, not cold but damp and dull.

We cheered ourselves up by visiting the old Royal Yacht Britannia, where the Queen said she could relax better than anywhere else as she could achieve more privacy on board the ship than anywhere else. It is moored beside a huge shopping mall (ugh) that you have to find your way through to board the ship.

The Queen's bedroom. I like her understated style.

 Wombat tennis - no kidding! This is an odd looking wombat that the officers used instead of a ball to play a form of tennis in their mess room. Poor thing usually ended up stuck in the fan.

Later in the afternoon the rain actually stopped. Went for a walk into the centre of Edinburgh. This view is from the top of Calton Hill.

There is a collection of odd monuments on top of the hill, including an incomplete copy of the Parthenon. It was built to commemorate the soldiers who fought in the Napoleonic War, but they ran out of money in 1829 and it was never completed.

Edinburgh is not my favourite city- I think it is cramped and dirty looking, but I have to give it some credit for erecting this huge and elaborate monument in the park in the middle of the city, to a writer, Sir Walter Scott.

As we were driving out of the Edinburgh area the next morning we made a spur of the moment stop at Rosslyn Chapel. (Remember the best selling book and movie - The Davinci Code?)

It is an unusual building, built in 1446 for the family of the earl of Rosslyn, it has survived while the castle has not. It covered inside and outside with the most ornate and varied carvings. It is hard to describe, and I was not permitted to take photos inside. Go to www.rosslynchapel.com and you should find some photos of the interior. Apart from carvings of Biblical messages, there are dragons and flowers etc but also a number of plants such as aloe vera and a type of corn that were not known in Europe at that time, ie they are from the Americas which were not discovered until aftee the chapel was built. There are numerous stories about the carvings and their symbolic meanings. Fascinating place.

Another interesting feature is William, a black and white cat who lives in the village, and comes to sleep on the chapel pews every day. He has been coming for about 12 years. Needless to say he gets hundreds of pats every day.