Edinburgh Military Tattoo

Paul, Stevie & myself took eighteen cadets to Edinburgh at the beginning of August. We stayed in cadet accommodation at HMS Caledonia in Rosyth which was great as lots of the participants from the Tattoo were staying too. We kind of got a little bit of a sneak preview of what we were to see, and it was exciting.

Paul at the Warrant Officer's Bar in the Royal Yacht!

We made a weekend of it and did lots of other things during our stay. The visit to the Royal Yacht Britannia was much more interesting than I anticpated. In fact, it was facinating and the way they have set up the tour is really good. You are given a device, kind of like a big mobile phone, when you board the ship. As you move around the ship there are numbered points which, when you press the appropriate buttons on the device, you get a chunk of information about. To cap it off, they had a fabulous sweetie shop on board. I had strawberries & cream fudge, rum & raisin fudge and pecan & maple syrup fudge!

The original plan was to spend the afternoon in Ocean Terminal, but the kids weren't all that keen on shopping so we took an open top bus tour which allowed us to get on and off the bus at different stops. We made for the Royal Mile where the cadets were able to enjoy the street performers and atmosphere of the Edinburgh Festival. This was the first time I had been in Edinburgh during the festival and it was great - kind of exciting and certainly entertaining. They all made it back to the meeting point at the designated time which was a relief (my biggest nightmare - losing a cadet!)

Then came the highlight of the trip - the Edinburgh Military Tattoo. Driving the buses to the parking was interesting and the queues of people were unbelieveable. Talk about being worried about losing cadets. Scary!!! We all made it safely to the Castle and took our seats. The atmosphere was electric and everyone was really excited. Then the show began!

Fantastic is the only word I need to use. It was awesome from start to finish. I love pipe music anyway so the the Massed Pipes & Drums were great. The Taipei First Girls' Senior High School Honour Guard and Drum Corps were amazing. They were throwing rifles around like they had been doing it since they were in their cots. I have to say though, it was a man that designed their uniforms - short skirts and long White Boots!

The Mounted Band of the Royals & Blues were fab. The horses are amazing and so placid - nothing seemed to phase them. The Imps motorcycle display team were ... scary! Some of them were tiny and they were zooming around like mad things on wheels. They did jumps and cross overs which much have taken so much practise and I bet lots of crashes. There were highland dancers, the Trinidad and Tobago Limbo Dancers and the Middlesex County Volunteers who were in period costume. Of course, there was a lone piper on the castle. Very moving, I definately had a tear in my eye.

But the highlight of the show was the Band of The Moscow Military Conservatoire, whose combination of drill, music and humour was spectacular. They came on and I thought, oh this is going to just be a drill demo... oh how wrong can you be. Their timing was immaculate, they kept doing little quirky moves which made everyone laugh but in reality the training and dedication must have been huge. Fantastic, my absolute favourite of the show. This video doesn't really do it justice but at least it will give you the idea. You can view all of the BBC Edinburgh Tattoo Videos at on the BBC website.

We all went to the Edinburgh Dungeons on Sunday morning. It was quite good, and their was a fair bit of history in it. Jamie, who had been the year before and should have known what to expect, just kept screaming but he kept everyone else amused. We went back to Caledonia for lunch then headed for the Fordel Firs activity centre where the cadets had a go at climbing, archery and a challenge course. The weather was really wet which made the challenge course interesting (and the bus journey back to Barracks).

Sunday evening we opted to go Ten Pin Bowling which was fun. The Warrant Officer couldn't get a ball big enough for his fat fingers, or at least that was his excuse! When we got back to the billet, the Cadet's invited us to a 'party' which we decided we would go to but we were all so shattered we just sat around chatting and then it was to late.

Monday morning we packed up and headed north again. We stopped at Killicrankie and walked down to view the soldier's leap. Pretty awsome that a human could have made that jump, but I am often amazed at what people can do when under pressure. The scenery was spectacular and I have promised myself to stop there again when I have more time to have a proper look around.

It was a long journey home but it was worth it for a great weekend.