The Bizarre and the Glamourous of Edinburgh

On our last day in Edinburgh it was another gloriously sunny day! I got my hair done at long last (by this lovely gay guy who spoke with a Scottish accent with a lisp so hard to understand!) and then we went underground to a place called Mary King's Close.
This is a place under the streets of the High Street/Royal Mile. As Ed. grew in the 1600's, it grew from the Castle outwards, down each side of the hill in small little alley ways called closes. Then in the 1800's, the council decided to chop the tops off the buildings of this section of closes, and use the buildings as supports for the new Council buildings, which they built on top of them. Therefore there is a whole maze of ancient buildings underneath the present day buildings and streets! This company decided to open them up (with Council permission) and investigate the lives of the people who used to live there over the centuries. The result is you can go underground on a tour, and they will tell you all about it in ghostly light and torches! Fascinating history tho, cause it covers the plague and murders and dastardly going-ons! Couldn't take photos sorry, but we took photos of some typical closes nearby just for you.

After that we sort out the glamourous side of the city - what better than a visit to Holyrood Palace, which is situated at the end of the Royal Mile (Castle at one end at the top of the hill, Palace at the other at the bottom).
So yes, we walked. going down hill was fine.
Here are some sights along the way.

Holyrood Palace
This is the official residence of the Queen when she comes to Edinburgh, usually in July on her way to Balmoral for a holiday. She has garden parties here, and also does her knighting and honours medals etc here for the Scottish people.
It is open for parts of the palace, and the gardens are open too. We couldn't take photos of the inside but did of the outside. Inside is really special because it is about someone who is still alive, and you know a little history of. So the large portraits made some sense to the poor girl from down under. You get to go into Queen Mary of Scots bedchamber where her nasty husband stabbed and murdered her secretary because he was jealous! (Did I say this was the glamourous part?)

Outside in the garden  there is a ruin of the abbey which stood there.

Once outside we went to the Queen's Gallery next door, because the darling Queen, with great kindness, has allowed some of the Royal Art collection to go on display for the first time to the public since it's her jubilee. How generous of her - esp. as she was charging the earth! However I do have to admit there was some amazing stuff there - Di Vinci's, Reuben's, plus british artists that the royal family have collected over the years. Our Queen is quite frugal in her purchases, but previous Kings and Queen Victoria went overboard! Some lovely Indian jewels presented to Qn. V from those in charge of her Indian empire.