The official tour starts today and we planned to be there right when they set up at 10. Packing up our suitcases took a little longer than expected and we didn’t get over to the new hotel until closer to 11. Our first hotel was ready close so we were just going to walk our luggage over. To make it easy we made two trips. We took the big suitcases over checked in and they headed back for our second set. Our room wasn’t ready and nothing was really planned until 2 so we went out to get lunch and wander around a bit. We ended up in the high end shopping district with Gucci, Burberry and others of that caliber so basically just window shopping. I did find a new rain coat at the cheaper stores on the edge of the area so not a total window shopping event.

We grabbed a quick burger and headed back to hear the first talk of the tour. Nicola spoke on Mary Queen of Scots jewels. Not many remain but we are going to see a few tonight when we tour the Hollywood Palace so it was nice to hear about them and what made them special. We also got quick talks from Alison on Edinburgh and Julian on Scottish history (which he was able to boil down to just 27 dates) before having a buffet dinner and drinks.

Several people we met on previous tours are here again so we got reacquainted with old friends and met a few new ones. Surprisingly there are more guys on this one than the other two we have done combined. we also had a chance to talk to all the authors and got to pick a new book from one. I picked Alison’s new novel since it isn’t out until later in the states. I will try to buy the others so that I can get them signed while I am here.

After dinner we headed out for a private tour of Holyroodhouse Palace. Holyrood is the royal resident in Scotland. Unlike Balmoral which is their private property, Holyrood is owned by the crown and is where they stay when they are conducting royal business. Portions of the castle date back to MQS days and it is where her private secretary was killed by her husband and the Protestant members of her council. On the tour we got to see the tiny room where they hauled him away from Mary and then where he was killed. The floor is marked with red paint to pay homage to earlier tours where having what guest thought was the actual blood increased the tips.

The palace in and of itself is beautiful. There are several rooms with these very elaborate plaster ceilings and wood paneling. Some of the rooms are set for modern day use and can be closed off from the tours if any of the family is in residence while others are the historical rooms and set up to look like they did in the 15/17 century. We got to visit the late queens private drawing room which had been decorated by her earlier in her reign. It was where she would have private meetings with other heads of state.

There was also quite a bit about Prince Charles or Bonnie Prince Charlie to prevent confusion with the new king. He stayed at Holyrood Palace during the Jacobite rebellion before his defeat at Culloden. in an ironic note after the Jacobites left Edinburgh the British moved in and Lord Cumberland stayed in the same room and slept on the same bed that BPC did just weeks earlier.

Again not a lot of photos for the day. Sadly no pictures inside so I could not take any photos of the jewels or the private sitting room.