Slept well, the body clocks have adjusted perfectly. 

First tour, 10am, was a freebie, pay gratuities on finishing. We lasted about 45mins, he was far too detailed and full of history so we slunk away - and then when exploring on our own had to rapidly about turn when we rounded a corner and almost ran into the group again!!! 

St Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland) is enormous and very decorative, but not 100yds up from it, along the Royal Mile is this magnificent looking spired Cathedral now called “the Hub”. We found out it’s not a Cathedral nor even a church - never been either, it was the Assembly for the Church of Scotland. “Curiously the building was never consecrated as a Church. In 1929 the Church of Scotland ceased to use the building and it became a temporary home for a variety of congregations. It was named the Highland Tolbooth St John’s Church in 1956, before falling into disuse in the 1980s. In 1999, the building underwent a transformation to create offices and a performance space for the Edinburgh International Festival. The building is a stunning combination of award winning contemporary design and classic Victorian architecture”

The fringe street artists are everywhere, we stopped to watch one who was setting up, he was amazingly brilliant and entertaining with it. See the photos.  We then realised it was 12.25pm and we were to met at Hollywood for our 1pm Ranger guided tour of the Park. As we walked right past our apt, we stopped for a coffee and an exceptionally quick bite to eat then walked across to the Holyrood Park, 5mins walk away. 

Only,  I could not find where the meet up point was. I tried phoning - leave a message, asking a park worker - go that way. Eventually we happened to stumble across it, about 1.15pm, “He's just leaving now, he had 8 signed up but no one arrived”, as you can imagine, I told them why, put a map on your website, have a phone which can be answered! So we ended up with a private guide, until a family of 4 joined us 15mins into our tour. It was hugely refreshing to be in the wilds after the rat race of the streets. It was a beautiful sunny day, tho chilly when the sun cloudy over, which was only occasionally.

After the tour, we had a beer & cider in a pub along from us - there are lots to choose from.

SMOKING! Almost as bad as IRELAND, and that was 4 yrs ago. All ages, but the younger generation in particular, Kevin’s, one in six - terrible, and a lot of roll your owns, we didn’t think it weed.

3.30pm we were back at the apt for a coffee & at 4.30 we actually had a 2hr sleep!!! Well, we had to leave to walk the mile for the tattoo at 7.15pm.

Kevin has a story: “I couldn’t believe my luck, when I saw in Tescos, a 1/2doz of Becks beers for £3.50. Real cheap! Opened it up when we got back, thought was a little different from our Becks, so I read the label - ALCOHOL FREE!!!”