Day 17 - House of Parliment and the Dungeon Show...Fun!

This morning we had three things on our list.  The cathedral ended up being closed.  The Scottish House of Parliament is pretty darn awesome.  Designed by the famous Spanish Architect, Miguel Fisac Serna.  e have a private guide and got to see pretty much to whole facility.  The main debate hall was being worked on so we only got to see those pictures on line.  We were not allowed to take any photos on the tour so enjoy these that I stole from Google images.  The building was very modernistic and also VERY GREEN.  Beautiful sustainable woods, metals and polished cement.

Afterward we wandered the streets looking for that cathedral and found ourselves mired in the Fringe Festival crowd...and of course miffed that we had not planned enough time to see all of the 9000 venues over the next month...most for free...we discovered this silly little sidetrack.  The Edinburgh Dungeons Tour.  Costumed and scripted actors (albeit a bit young and with little makeup) within spectacular sets in an underground labyrinth of performance venues.  It started raining of course as soon as we got in and stopped as soon as we got out.  The best part of the dungeons were the special effects...rats rolling around under our feet, rumbling floors, a DROP ride simulating a hanging, and leeches crawling up our butts.  Lots of laughs and a great diversion.

And here's a shot of the cathedral we didn't get into.