Exploring Edinburgh and Scottish Entertainment

8/3/07  After we awoke in Edinburgh we rushed to the delicious breakfast buffet. Once packed for the day we began our journey to the historic downtown area of Edinburgh. We got a new local tour guide for today, Dave Torrance, who in addition to being quite a character, showed us all over the city, pointing out the important spots. We got off at Edinburgh Castle, our first destination, which dates back to 1100 and has 7 gated entrances before you get to the true castle. They had a statue of William Wallace, aka, Braveheart and his usurper Robert the Bruce, standing right near him. Harumph! In the castle we were the first group of the day to view the stunning crown jewels, scepters, crowns and swords. These jewels were hidden for over a hundred years and then found again.

Also there was a WWI memorial building that now is the war memorial building. After our perusal of this castle, we headed to Holyrood house, which was right across from the Scottish Parliament, at the foot of a stagnant volcano, also known as Arthur’s Step. After our brief stop we traveled through Edinburgh until we reached the stop for lunch. We had four hours with our small groups to traverse the city and see whatever our group wanted to see. Our group ate at Subway, and then supported street performers. They were American Indians that had a sound to enjoy for hours. Other groups visited the "Camera Obscura" or "Whisky Heritage Museum" sites. Our group then proceeded to shop, where most of us bought kilts. At the rendezvous point we headed back to the Edinburgh Capital Hotel, where we chilled until 6PM.

We then dressed in either slacks or kilts, along with our blue blazer, shirt and tie and headed for dinner and a traditional Scottish show. The dinner show, which had people from many different countries in attendance, consisted of a bagpiper, several dancers, a fiddler, a drummer, a singer, an accordion players and others. Needless to say, we were entertained and we also did some entertaining for the other dinner guests by singing a rendition of "Yankee Doodle Dandy".

 

We had very tasty prime rib and other main entries for dinner and about midway through the show, the Master of Ceremonies introduced us to a traditional food, HAGGIS!! I’m not sure what the hubbub was, because it tasted like roast beef hash, but originally they made it with sheep heart, brain, lungs and other parts. The show ended with everyone holding hands and singing Auld Lang Syne. T’was fun. Fun indeed. We headed back after our group photos with kilts and prepared to go to Liverpool.

 

 

By Bill Boroski

“Indubitably”

Edinburgh, Scotland - Castle and Military Tattoo

8-2-07 We woke up in Scotch-Corner, had a nice breakfast, and boarded the bus for today’s destination – Edinburgh, Scotland. On the way we made a stop in Melrose, where the heart of Richard the Bruce was buried, and then in Jedburg, where we had a nice lunch at the Ships Wheel Pub. In our group some of us had Soup with crusty bread and others had soup and sandwiches and others had BLT’s. We also had some nice pastry items from a local bakery.

After lunch we stopped at what is left of Hadrian’s Wall, a barrier built by the Romans to separate the Scots from the Celts and then we began our journey through the hilly lowlands of Scotland. The pastures were the greenest I have ever seen and we saw many, many sheep and cows too. I would really like to someday buy property and have a house right there in Scotland, that’s how much I liked it.

 

Upon our arrival in Edinburgh we did a quick drive through the town and headed to the Edinburgh Capital Hotel, which is very nice and also has a pool. At night our groups were on our own to get into Edinburgh for dinner, so using the bus we were to go and return.

 

Most of the groups went in and had dinner, went shopping and returned. I was lucky to be part of the group going to see the remarkable Edinburgh Military Tattoo. This annual event sells out in January, but Randy was able to get 12 tickets for the rehearsal show at half price, so since I was part of his chaperone group I got to go along with some of the other scouts and adults. Evan Altamirano and I decided to purchase kilts, which we did and then changed into them somehow while waiting in line to enter the Military Tattoo.

The event takes place at the base of Edinburgh Castle and there are bleachers for 8,500 people. We had great seats looking directly at the castle and saw the many different military bands, bag pipe bands and horse guard bands. There was even an all-girl High School band from Taiwan that had perfect military precision with flags and rifles.

   

The event also honored Scouting’s 100th anniversary and had Scottish Scouts participate in the closing ceremony, which included all of the performers and finally all went dark except for a lone bag piper from the top of the castle. It was very dramatic and will be something I am soon not to forget.

By Alec Hughes

Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of Scouting

8/1 Well, this morning I woke up to a phone call from Randy telling Alec and I we were supposed to be in the restaurant 10 minutes earlier so we missed breakfast. The first thing we did this morning at 8AM was walking nearby to Priory Road in Coventry for the city’s 100^th anniversary of Scouting Celebration ceremony see article here and photos here.

There were about 150 people there including English cubs, scouts, venturers and their leaders. We got out our troop flag and American flag and joined in on the ceremony, which including the recitation of the Scout Oath. The BBC Coventry radio station was also there doing a live broadcast and they interviewed the English scouts and then they came over and interviewed Chuck Stankye IV and our Scoutmaster Randy, who represented Troop 3.

 

Following that ceremony we boarded the bus to head to our second 100^th anniversary ceremony, this one was in Peterborough, England with the scout group we have had an ongoing Exchange Scout Program with See news article here and article with video here. Mr. Martin Hall, a scouting commissioner in Peterborough was in charge of the celebration program, which was held in the Peterborough Council Chamber. They had an earlier ceremony outside with more than 500 people present, but that was too early for us to attend. For this ceremony Mr. Hall recited the English Scout Oath and Troop 3 Senior Patrol Leader Adam Cleri recited the American Scout Oath. We then presented Mr. Hall and the Lord Mayor with Woodbury Pewter eagle bells as friendship gifts on behalf of the troop. We also met Mr. Doug Fare, a long-time Scouting friend of Ed Strang. The Lord Mayor then served us orange juice and cookies and we thanked her for being a great host.

After the ceremony Mr. and Mrs. Hall took us on a tour of Peterborough Cathedral. The cathedral was very large and beautiful. After touring the cathedral we broke into groups and had lunch in the center of Peterborough.

We thanked Mr. Hall for hosting us and then boarded the bus for our drive to the walled city of York.

York was interesting, especially Yorkminster Cathedral, which was unbelievably larger than Peterborough Cathedral. We saw the largest medieval stained glass window in the world there. We also did a Mr. Bill led power hike on a portion of the wall surrounding York We went to the Shambles section of York as well, which is where the old, old buildings lean in towards each other, making the street very narrow. They had a lot of shops there and I wish we had more time to spend in York to see everything. We had to board the bus and head to Scotch-Corner, which is in Northern England, for the night and we had a nice roast beef dinner there and then some of our group went swimming.

      

By Mikey Herde

For early trip blog entries click on the July 2007 archives on the right side of this page.

More diary entries of our trip can be found here: Kevin Henri's blog entries