Early summer day in Edinburgh is a quiet time even during the festival season. The streets were clear and there’s an abundance in parking spaces. We drove to the town center at around 8AM, some shops were just opening up. I really like this part of the Scottish capital. The quirky shops abound and one of them is that Christmas shop full to the brim with Christmas decorations. There were vintage shops, antiques and traditional dress shop. Somehow hubby and M1 wasn’t too keen to try on a kilt.
Our itinerary was to visit Holyrood Palace and Edinburgh Castle. You can see some of our pictures of Holyrood Palace in my previous post.
M1 & M2 monkeying around in front of the Scottish Parliament
Around six festivals were in full swing namely : Edinburgh Art Festival, Festival Fringe, Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, Edinburgh International Festival and Edinburgh International Book Festival. 
Later that day, whichever direction you turn there’s something happening and the crowd was scary.
So we kept our visit simple, Palace, Castle and food.
By the time we finished our visit at the Holyrood Palace and got to Edinburgh castle, there was already a huge crowd queuing to get tickets. The best part of this is we were able to enter for free using our English Heritage membership card. That meant we have some cash to pay for some souvenirs.
Even if we haven’t seen everything to see in the Castle due to the large crowd, we enjoyed our short visit there. I like visiting historical places when there is a small crowd or well organised like those at the palace. 
Edinburgh Castle merits a second and third visit to be thoroughly enjoyed. Unfortunately, we have a tight schedule and other places to see. Thank you for looking!
