Edinburgh, July4, 2016

 Our final day in Scotland, and the first time (except for a period while serving in the Army for me) that we have been out of the US for the Fourth of July.  Our ship docked in a port called South Queensferry, about a 45 minute drive from Edinburgh.  Because of the tides in this area, there was no dock that would accommodate a ship as large as the one we were on, so this was a tender port.

Above is an amazing railroad bridge near where our ship was anchored.  You can see the bow of the ship in this picture on the far right.  The bridge is the "Forth Bridge" (appropriately named for the Fourth of July)  The Forth Bridge is a cantilever railway bridge over the Firth of Forth . It was built in 1882, and at that time was the longest span in the world.  It is considered an iconic structure and a symbol of Scotland, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  The tide was out when we arrived and the tender dropped us off at the end of the pier.  You can see the tenders in this picture.  When we left the tide was in and the entire pier that is pictured above was covered with water.

This was another town that we did on our own.  A bus from the ship dropped us off in the center of the city, and we spent the rest of the day wandering around until we were picked up.  We spent most of the time walking up the iconic "Royal Mile" pictured above.  This is a street that runs from the Edinburgh Palace up the hill to the Edinburgh Castle.  The queen spends her time in the Palace when she is in Edinburgh, which she happened to be on the day we were here, however we never saw her.

This is St. Giles Cathedral,  An ancient cathedral with a very unusual and modern looking "open" spire.  The cathedral dominates the mid part of the Royal Mile.

Inside St Giles Cathedral.  This selfie is one that turned out of about a hundred tries at this location.

Marlene holding the shiny brass toe of a statue of David Hume a Scottish philosopher, historian, and economist.

We ran across a lot of interesting and entertaining street performers in Edinburgh including this one that Marlene is giving a coin to.  This was quite baffling, and I still don't understand how this is done, especially, because at times you could see his hand leave the staff, and by all appearances, he was floating.

 The Royal mile ends at the Edinburgh Castle, pictured above.  The crowds were very thick on the day we were here, and the lines, long so we opted out of an inside tour.

We did get another one of our famous selfies here.  By the way we managed to break two selfie sticks on this trip....so far the 3rd one is still holding out.

Edinburgh was another great shopping city, and Marlene was tempted by this authentic looking Scottish rain coat, until, we found the label that said "made in China"

On our way out of town, we got another view of the castle, from lower down. 

One of the final things we saw in Edinburgh was this beautiful Celtic cross.