Thursday, August 13, 2015.
Matt slept in from flying the night before and Morgan was off to work. Royce and I collected all of our things, managed to pack souvenirs and whatnot in our suitcases, and we walked the mile to the train station. It was a nice morning walk through Bury and we were excited for the train ride ahead.
Our first train was very full. Royce and I were not able to sit together until after a couple of callings, or stops. We had many callings along the way, but only had to change trains one time. After our exchange we were in reserved seats. It was still a full car but at least we were together and in comfortable seats. It was a beautiful train ride. We had two hours in the first leg and then a scheduled four hours on the second leg. The drive would have been eight+ hours and the train was scheduled for six hours. We were able to go more direct cross-country and follow the coast line along the route. It was so neat!
We had a long delay at one of our callings... there was actually a death at the train station... so we were all required to stay on the train and wait it out until other trains could get on schedule as well. We were probably delayed about 1.5 hours, but all that aside, it was a very nice and relaxing ride through the countryside and coastline.
Edinburgh, Scotland!
This place was ELECTRIC. On our train ride we found out that the largest arts festival in the world was happening in Edinburgh -- that's right -- the largest arts festival in the world! Edinburgh Festival Fringe is an approx. 25 day time period which showcases more than 3,000 shows with artists from 50+ countries being held in over 300 venues. There were shows, ticket lines, artists, and venues EVERYWHERE. Everyone told us we needed to catch a couple of comedy shows, so we did just that. When else can we say we saw shows at The Fringe?
To say it was intimidating stepping off of the train is an understatement. Wow. This city was just so busy. It was exciting though. We could see the multiple castles on the Royal Mile and were just amazed at all of the architecture again. Just incredible. It took us a while to find our hotel but we found it and got settled in a bit before heading out to explore and see our first Fringe show.
Matt had found out a couple days before we got there that there was a Royal Tattoo happening in Edinburgh as well. How did we miss all of these annual August events in our planning? Now it make sense why the hotel rooms were so expensive!!!! But we were willing to dive right in and enjoy it all. We saw the fireworks from the Tattoo the first night we were there.
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