We joined 8,500 people for a beautiful evening. We watched the sunset (surprise it wasn't raining). Hooray! The Master of Cermonies called for applause as he named countries. The largest responses were from the United States and Scotland, another surprise. The Tattoo celebrated several themes this year; the friendship between countries from East and West, anniversaries of WWI and the Battle of Britian. The program began with a C-130 flyover.
The first to emerge from the Edinburgh Castle into the stadium were bagpipers and drummers of eight different military organizations, flashing their kilts of different colors, but all in full regalia. They had the crowd eating out of their hands. You would have thought it was a soccer match and everyone's home team was winning.
Interspersed with bag pipe music were military bands that included precision drum and rifle corps. China's was represented for the first time at the Tattoo with a military band that was mostly brass and drums. As they exited they were clever enough to play "Scotland, the Brave"! Later in the program Chinese performers danced a story that featured beautifully colored costumes and several paper dragons.
The Shetland Fiddlers played Irish and Scottish standards while a huge number of Scottish dancers had the stadium bursting with energy.
The Country of India sent dancers and musicians who performed a Balliwood style love story with both the man in a kilt and the woman in a sari. Again it was very well received. We were thrilled that we brought binoculars so that Peg was able to see the details.
Next were celebrated the landmark events of WWI and WWII music from those periods and a fantastic fireworks display. Nearing the end of the two hour performance all of bands and performers assembled and led the stadium in singing the Scottish National Anthem, God Save the Queen, and Auld Lang Syne. More fireworks as the bands and performers exited the stadium. All of this to backdrop of beautiful lighting displays on the walls of the Edinburgh Castle. Included are some pictures but they don't due the beauty of it all much justice.
Today we had breakfast at the hotel and then when went on a guided walk called the Potter Trail. Virtually all of the Harry Potter books were written in Edinburgh and we visited several places that were used as themes in the series. We also visited the Coffee House where J. K. Rowling did a lot of her writing. The tour was very informative and very worthwhile.
We then had lunch and again visited the National Museum of Scotland. We could spend several days there.
We took a very different route back to the hotel so we could see more of the city. We are packed up and are ready to head home.
The Beav and Sweathog had an unbelievable five week journey.
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