Today we arrived in South Queensferry, the gateway to Edinburgh. We chose the train over the shuttle bus — trains are, by far, Nana and Papa’s favorite way to travel.

We took the tender from the ship to Hawes Pier, walked to Dalmeny rail station, and caught a ScotRail train into Edinburgh Waverley, which drops you right in the heart of the city.

As we exited off the tender we were greeted by Scottish bag pipes. Nana couldn’t resist Irish dancing to the music.

Then we found these 3 boys playing the bagpipes. Nana was all excited and wanted to buy some bagpipes for any grand child that wanted to learn how to play.

St. Andrew Square and the Fringe
We wandered into the city center and found ourselves at St. Andrew Square, right in the middle of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe — the world’s largest arts festival, running throughout August. When Nana booked our theatre tickets, we hadn’t quite grasped just how big a deal the Fringe is until we were standing in it.

We arrived early for our main show and Nana spotted an interesting warm-up act: Cricket & The Freebugs, a funky, Pixar-style musical comedy about a band of bug musicians chasing their big break in the 1970s. It was staged in a small, intimate tent, and we snagged front-row seats. We both loved it — I could easily picture some of our grandkids up on a stage just like that one someday.

Just before the show wrapped up, we were asked to evacuate the tent due to a police emergency. Everyone — audience, actors, crew — was escorted out of the square. About five minutes later we were allowed back in. We later learned that a man had fallen from height at a building in the St. Andrew Square area; emergency services responded, but he was pronounced dead a short time later. We had no idea any of this was happening while we were inside, and only found out afterward.

Midsummer!
Our main event was the Fringe production of Midsummer!, a modern verse take on A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Tony Award winner Jeff Whitty, performed by students from Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama. We caught it on its final Edinburgh performance. One of the nine cast members was Suri Noelle — Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’s daughter, now performing under her mother’s middle name. The whole cast was excellent, and it was a genuinely fun, inventive production.

We had a relaxing train ride back to the port and tendered back to the ship.

An Evening of Scottish Music
Our treat for the night was a local show, The Music of Scotland — a cast of top traditional performers in full Highland dress presenting the music, songs, and dances of Scotland. Pipers played the true sound of the country, a ceilidh duo brought accordion and piano into lively reels, and a guest fiddler added haunting melodies of their own. Three champion dancers performed the Highland Fling, the Sword Dance, and more, building to a finale that was as visually striking as it was musical.

Tomorrow is a sea day, followed by our last port stop in Dover before we disembark in Rotterdam on Saturday.