It is 1.17am and I’ve just made it home from the Edinburgh Tattoo. This will be short on words and heavy in pics. Drove up through Northumberland’s splendid hills and valleys and at the top of a long ascent suddenly found this:

I was thrilled! Then I continued through a few pretty towns and before you know it was in the Edinburgh suburb of Leith. I found my guesthouse and by a series of phone calls and codes found my humble room for the next three days. It’s basic. To my dismay the bathroom/toilet is up another flight of stairs, I can’t open my window, and the slats on my bed are broken or in the process of.

On the plus side I’m in Edinburgh! It seems clean, and there’s a small sink in my room.

I also saw two familiar figures busking by the railway station:

Then I remembered it’s the Fringe festival too! I napped for a bit and then set out for the Royal Mile and Cockburn St where I settled in for chicken nuggets and chips and good Scottish ale:

The streets are teeming with tourists! I was even able to make use of my rain poncho:

I had 6 hours to kill and each one of them seemed to drag. I found an interesting play to go to which took care of an hour, made plans to see more, and sat chatting to an Irish couple there to see the 10.30pm Tattoo as well. There were two shows tonight.

Anyhoo, eventually 10 came around and I wound my way in crowd up to my seat:

I was wearing long sleeves and my polar fleece but I tell you now, it was not enough!! I froze! Still, the show was good and our kiwi contingent were excellent.

I was carried along by the crowd afterwards and found myself by the railway station where I used Uber for the first time. Had to pay 2.5 x the usual payment but right now it feels very worth it.

I’m for bed!