Gardens and a Palace

Today, we managed to get to the Royal Botanic Garden just a few minutes after it opened at 10. That worked out well because once again, it was a sunny, beautiful day so it started to get more crowded around noon.

The 70 acre garden is a scientific garden where researchers are attempting to preserve many species of plants from all over the world. It was created in 1670 to grow medicinal plants and moved to its current location in 1820. There are 3 branches in other cities. The grounds are immaculate and there are 10 glass houses with  tropical plants including lots of orchids and the tallest palm house in the world with a 200 year old palm . They have reproduced mountain conditions to grow plants from the major mountain ranges in the world including an entire section called China Hill.  More of their accomplishments can be seen in the pictures below.

The beginning ot the first trail

This hedge is over 100 years old. It's made from beech trees

Blue poppy; there are fields of these which are indigenous to Scotland (who knew?)

Lily pad glass house with dragonfly sculpture

Blue Poppy; there are many fields of blue poppies which are indigenous to Scotland (who knew?)

After walking around the 70 acres (!), we caught a bus that took us within a few miles of Holyrood Palace, the official residence of the Queen in Scotland. The bus stop really wasn't miles away; it just seemed so, especially because we took one wrong turn which caused us to go up and down and up again. . The audio tour guy says the palace is over 500 years old and has been the residence of many famous rulers, including Mary, Queen of Scots and Bonnie  Prince Charlie. Each year, the queen has a garden party for 8000 Scottish guests but we're guessing she doesn't stay in residence more than a week or two. She does meet with people inside the palace, bestowing honors to people like Sean Connery. Most of the decorations within the palace, including lots of tapestries, were added by Mary, Queen of Scots. Unfortunately, she didn't get to stay amidst her decorations for too long.

Holyrood Castle

Remains of the Abbey which was the first structure on this site
It was destroyed in the 18th century

After visiting the castle, we walked around the Queen's garden which is nicely manicured like all the gardens in Scotland. From there, we got a cab back home, went to an Indian restaurant for dinner and are now waiting for the small load of laundry to wash and dry. We're expecting that will take about 5 hours.