Round Britain for Xmas - Edinburgh Page

Saturday 31st December 2016 - Hogmanay

Dinner was early at 17:45 in the self-service & at last, I had the opportunity to get a decent number of vegetables down my neck. However, the time set to take us into town was set ridiculously early. We were in to the drop-off point at Charlotte Square West by 19:30 or so. We had wrist-bands to show we were eligible to go into the fenced-off area & walked up Princes Street but found, to our disgust, that the plentiful benches all along the railings had been fenced off to, we were told, protect the wiring of the many screens with loud, low-quality pop-type music from, presumably, terrorist attack or some such similar notion. We walked up The Mound to an Italian café for hot chocolates & a chat to a Catalan mother & daughter, which gave us a sit-down for a while, then went onto the Royal Mile but it had a cold wind ripping down it.

St. Giles' Cathedral

Up the Royal Mile

Across Princes Street from The Mound

We went back to Princes Street & sat in a tram shelter in the middle of the road (all the tram & bus shelters at the sides had been barriered off), then went West in search of better seating. None was to be found & the stewards were spectacularly unhelpful & we were supposed to stand around for three hours. We went back to the one tram shelter & sat there for about 2 1/2 hours. Fireworks were let off every hour, which relieved the boredom a bit & we chatted to a family who had driven up on a whim from Derby, starting at 5 in the morning & going back tomorrow! We left the shelter at 23:40 & moved to near Castle Street, where the bus was supposed, so we supposed, to pick us up. There was a count-down to midnight...then a magnificent firework display below in front of the castle. We were expecting the coach in Castle Street but this had to be wrong, so we went to Charlotte Square & there it was. We were only too glad to get to bed.