Edinburgh 2023

 Long live the No Plan Kids!

We were soon in Edinburgh but parked about 20 miles west of the city near the airport. Luckily that gave us great access to the tram (Trolley) system that goes directly from the airport thru the city center and out to Leith on the Forth River Estuary.

Once settled in the campground we headed into the city. Of course we were here this time last year too with the grandkids. https://banbrv.blogspot.com/2022/08/scotland.html

Last  year with the grand kids

We bought tickets for the “Hop on Hop off” busses and took the circular tour to figure out what we wanted to see while we were here.

Royal Yacht Britannia

Ships Bell

Pretty soon we decided to see the “Royal Yacht Britannia” which was retired from service and made into a tourist attraction. 

Holyrood House (Barb's Picture)

Barbara wanted to see “Holyrood House” which is the Royal Family’s home when they visit Edinburgh.

The worlds first jet airliner and British too.

Soon enough we had those taken care of plus a visit to the “National Aircraft Museum” in East Fortune. A visit to the Jim Clarke Museum was cancelled when we discovered it was closed on the day we wanted to visit (Jim Clarke was a famous Formula 1 Champion in the 1960’s).

Fabulous Edinburgh Castle

So most of this blog will be of the Edinburgh Tattoo which is held in the mighty castle that dominates the whole city.

I had been bragging about how I designed the camera and lighting galleries for the grandstands at the castle but I was dismayed to find out that they had scrapped mine in 2011 and built a new structure! Mine only lasted 40 years, how disappointing.

The grandstand I DIDN'T design!

Pictures tell a better story than I do so here are LOTS of pictures. The marching bands came from UK, USA, Norway, Switzerland and Jamaica plus dance troops from around Scotland.

Ever see a marching band from Switzerland?

With Alpen Horns??

The whole show lasted 90 minutes and was amazing, with light and sound effects and fireworks at the end. Royalty was present with the new Duke of Edinburgh in the Royal Box and taking the salute from the Royal Air Force Band Master.

The Duke of Edinburgh

We eventually got out at about 11.30pm then had to walk down the steep hill from the castle to Prince’s Street for the tram back. By the time we got to bed is was 1.30am. We were tired but entirely satisfied by the experience, so if you ever get the chance go. Be aware that you need to buy tickets a year in advance otherwise you wont get in.

Arizona represented in the light and firework show

Jamaican steel drum marching and dance troops

East coast wandering

 The “No Plan Kids” Had no plan!

Is this the end of the Dynamic Duo?

Will the World spin off it’s axis?

Tune in next time to find out!

Well we are still here so the World didn’t spin off its axis……

So what were we going to do? We still have tickets for the Edinburgh Tattoo at the beginning of August and that is about 450 miles from Portsmouth, so the obvious thing to do was start heading North!

Still a little confused we decided to head for our old stomping ground on the Wirral – Arrowe Brooke Farm. Trevor who runs it has become a good friend now and had no problem fitting us in.

We stayed 3 nights, had dinner with Stewart and Linda (Barb’s brother and sister in law) then breakfast with our daughter Sally at the Marina where she lives on a canal boat.

The Marina and canal boats

In between we though about where we’d been and we realized that we had never been to the North East coast of England.

And the “No Plan Kids” hit the road again with some generally West then North kind of ideas.

Barbara’s cousin Janet lives in a small seaside town, Filey and as that was on the North East coast we found a campground just a 5 minute walk outside of town.

Good Yorkshire summer weather, pouring rain and blowing a gale!

Unfortunately this area is known for it’s bad weather and true to form it rained almost the whole time we were there. We met up with Janet and walked around the sea front then looked for somewhere to eat. Unfortunately it seems everywhere closes at 3pm! Being Monday was even worse as apparently only 2 restaurants are open on Mondays and one was fully booked.

Even the lobsters were turning blue with the cold!

We managed to get a table in the other one and enjoyed fresh seafood there.

Yum fresh fish and chips

This whole coast is famous for holiday resorts and fishing so there are lots of choices for both usually. We headed further North following the Northumberland Coastal Route with glimpses of the cliffs and a gray cold looking North Sea.

Lindisfarne the "Holy Isle" where Christianity first came to Britain

A stop at the “Holy Isle” Lindisfarne was very enjoyable. The island has a causeway to it from the mainland and the tides are posted everywhere because when the tide comes in the causeway is submerged! Even so we saw later that dome foolish people managed to get stranded.

The UK maps always fool us because of the scale. Our Rand McNally maps in The US are about 25 miles to the inch but the UK one which is the same physical size as our US map book is only 5 miles to the inch. As a result places that we thonk should be 50 miles away by road run out to be 10!

Before we worked it out we were on the Scottish Border camping at the “Last Pub in England”!

We met another couple who were touring also and had a few pleasant chats with them. We were both leaving the next morning and gave the usual RV’ers farewell. “See you on the road somewhere”.

We had a little difficulty finding another place to stay between there and Edinburgh, this being the height of the summer season (despite all the rain), plus the Edinburgh Festival is on which attracts people from all over the planet.

We eventually found a little “Ayre” with 4 places in a little fishing village called Eyemouth and fortuitously it was the “Herring Festival” with events like a sand castle competition, rowing race and a Miss Herring Fleet competition. A fun Fair was in town and there were fireworks on Saturday evening. 

Picturesque Eyemouth Harbour

The first people we met were the couple we'd bid farewell to that same morning! They were camped next to us! 

Sand castle competiton!

We had so much fun, found all the little local pubs, ate Lobster salad straight out of the fish mongers shop and met a young couple David and Jenna who were on here first ever RV trip in a rented motor home and struggling to find out how to work all the systems. Naturally we were glad to give them some hints and tips!

Tiny harbour entrance

Quaint back streets

Touching memorial to the victims and family
of the 1881 disaster in which 128 fishermen drowned in a storm.

We only had 60 or so miles to go to Edinburgh and decided to take some backroads. Just a few miles outside Eyemouth we stumbled across another knockout little fishing village called St Ebbs. 

St Ebbs Harbour

Fresh off the boat.

The equal of any we visited in Cornwall I think and seemingly carved out of the side of a rock cliff. Places like these are the reason we don’t plan anything. We would miss them if we had to drive from one place directly to another.

Long live the No Plan Kids!