Royal Mile

I decided to nip down to the Royal Mile this morning to see what was going on. It was pretty crowded, and may have been like that all night. Certainly, Council workers and police must have been working all night to erect tents, barriers, portaloos to manage the expected crowds today. 

We just walked down as far as St Giles, where a lot of TV cameras were staked out, overlooking the entrance to St Giles. While I was taking this shot of Archie, perched on the crowd barriers, an American woman asked if she could take a photo of him too, and she was enchanted that his name was ‘Archie’.

We walked further up the Mile, towards the Castle, away from the crowds. It was swarming with police. I spoke to several of them as I strolled by. I wondered why they were in this part of the road, as nothing was scheduled to happen here.

‘What’s going on here?’ I asked one policeman (Extra).

He looked at me strangely, and then explained, patiently,
‘Er, the Queen has died, and she’s being brought to St Giles…’

Anyway, there were no crossing places further up the road, so we came back and walked home. We popped in to add our my name to the Book of Condolences. Archie got a treat.

JR and Archie then walked in to have a look, but by mid morning, the access there had been closed - it was just too busy on the Mile. Meanwhile, I have watched the television coverage all afternoon. It’s been marvellous, and very moving. The tissues were always on hand.

I love the Holyrood bodyguards with their bows and arrows! And I have very much enjoyed random people’s wee stories about their personal meetings with the Queen. Also, last night, ‘Countryfile’ was all about the Queen’s animal husbandry at Balmoral, and then ‘Antiques Roadshow’ was set on the Royal Yacht Britannia, and featured items connected with the Queen.

I’m not Nicola Sturgeon’s biggest fan, but she has been gracious in her speeches - in St Giles, and in Parliament.