The Royal Highland Show, on the other hand, is a gem of a festival that many tourists don’t know about; moreover it’s one that actively encourages public participation! At the Royal Highland show, from June 23-26th, you’ll get the chance to celebrate all the best Scotland has to offer in food, farming and rural life through the festival’s many zany games, workshops, concerts and animal displays. From falconry demonstrations to ceilidh dancing to cooking classes, this 171-year-old festival is an utterly fun educational experience, perfect for families with young kids. So get off your seats and get ready to get your hands dirty at Scotland’s largest outdoor festival!

The Royal Highland Show: A breath of country life

For hands-on entertainment, visit the country sports and rural skills stands, where you can try your luck at fly fishing, falcon taming, coracle building and wood turning. Get trained in the art of wildlife photography, or for a more odd-ball experience, why not take  a class in bagpipe making?

If you’d rather laugh until your sides split, head to the Quack Commandos showcase, where a highly-trained border collie will shepherd adorable ducklings over an obstacle course!

Lots of games to join: jump in for a spot of tug of war!

The Royal Highland Show is a haven for foodies; every year the festival offers cooking classes and demonstrations from some of Scotland’s most celebrated chefs. This year the show welcomes, among others, Lady Claire Macdonald, an award-winning chef and author of several bestselling cookbooks.

From haggis to souffles, who knows what you’ll learn to make, but the results are guaranteed to be delicious. If you’d rather not spend the day in front of a hot stove, stroll by the drink and food stands instead for special tastings and samples. Bring a grocery bag – the country’s main supermarkets will be there to give away food produced by local farmers.

Channel your inner chef

As for the kiddies, they will be blown away by the Highland Hall – the mecca of all petting zoos. It will feature some 1500 sheep, 1000 cattle, nearly 3000 horses, 100 or so goats, and more than 500 kinds of birds. And at the Discovery Zone, your tots can milk a cow and learn how to make their own ice cream.

If you’d rather see them break a sweat, watch the daredevil antics of the Scottish cycling stunt team as they perform magnificent feats of balance. They’ll even let your kids have a go – if you can muster the courage to let them try!

For something truly out of the ordinary, let your kids “walk on water” – they can climb into a giant hamster ball and walk across a nearby loch. As you can imagine, this is one of the more popular activities of the day, so stop by it first.

You know you were always jealous of your hamster!

But wait, there’s more! Throughout the festival’s four short days there will be live music (including a performance by Super Trooper, Scotland’s best Abba tribute band), Celtic dancing, and lots and lots of shopping (from food to clothing and even highland art). So buy your tickets now, this is an event not to be missed. You’ll never feel more Scottish in your life!

Earlybird tickets cost £22. Children 15 or under get in free! For more information, visit The Royal Highland Show website.

[Image Credits: All courtesy of The Royal Highland Show]

Newly refurbished interior of the Royal Palace

Even more exciting, Stirling Castle’s James V’s Palace will finally be unveiled to the public this Saturday, June 4 and Sunday, June 5, after having been closed to the public for nearly a decade for refurbishment. Historic Scotland spent £12 million pounds to restore the palace, including several intricate tapestries made for Mary Queen of Scots. They’ve apparently done such a remarkable job that officials say if the Royal Palace’s medieval residents were to see it today, they would immediately feel at home!

Get a sneak peak of the restoration at BBC News. Better yet, see it for yourself at the castle’s special reopening event this weekend called, “A Palace Fit for a Queen.” It will feature actors in period costume, as well jugglers, games, military displays and medieval cooking. There will even be a parade on Saturday at 11:45 a.m. It’s a great way to treat your kids to some ancient fun.

Costumed tour guides will be on hand to talk about the palace

From 12 p.m. – 4 p.m. on both days. Tickets are limited and cost £13 for adults and £6.50 for kids. So book now!

[All images courtesy of BBC News]

One of the baby zebras at Edinburgh Zoo

The young zebras will live in the Plains of Africa area of the zoo. Edinburgh Zoo has had a quite a few additions to its furry residents this year. Earlier this month, baby Penguins began hatching, the zoo welcomed two Nyala antelopes in February and March, and soon two pandas from China will be arriving.

There are so many cool things to do at the zoo. The most popular event is the Penguin Parade, when zookeepers open the gates of the penguin enclosure and visitors stand on the sidelines to watch the penguins take a leisurely stroll around the penguin lawn. It happens every day at 2:15 p.m. and is really the highlight of any zoo trip. Watch a preview of the parade:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJBLolYhDkw&feature=related[/youtube]

Visitors should also head to the zoo’s Budongo Trail and Living Links where you can mingle with chimpanzees and other primates. If you have many kids in tow, give yourself a break and hop on the Hilltop Safari bus for a free ride and guided tour of the zoo. It runs daily from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Other animals on display include cuddly sun bears, leopards and a giant anteater.

The Edinburgh Zoo opens at 9 a.m. and closes at 6 p.m. It is located on Corstorphine Road. Admission costs £15.50 for adults and £11.00 for children (kids under 3 get in for free).

[Image Credit: Horizontal Grevy Zebra by Rainbirder; Vertical zebra by HorseTalk.co.nz]

But that doesn’t mean you can’t rub elbows with Scotland’s upper crust. From now until the end of August, Edinburgh Castle is welcoming “the kings, queens, duchesses and barons” of days of yore. This Saturday and Sunday as well as on Saturday, June 4 and Sunday, June 5, come and meet Lady Euphemia, the countess of Ross and Buchan and a relative of Robert the Bruce.who’ll be happy to tell you all about life as a woman in medieval Scotland. OK, so it’ll just be an actress in period costume, but this is a storytelling event you and your children will certainly enjoy.  Visit the Edinburgh Castle website for information on other events, including a musical tribute to Mary Queen of Scots on June 11th and 12th.

If you are more interested in the life and times of Britain’s modern aristocracy, visit Holyroodhouse Palace, the official residence of the Queen when she is traveling in Scotland. From now until June 5th, the palace is featuring a special exhibition on the royal portraiture of Marcus Adams. Here’s your chance to see images of the Queen as a young girl before the cares of State. There is also an ongoing exhibition on the life of Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh and the Queen’s husband, to mark his 90th birthday on June 10th.

Princess Elizabeth, the future queen. Photo shot by Marcus Adams

[Image of Princess Elizabeth courtesy of Holyroodhouse Palace; Edinburgh Castle by Jordan S. Hatcher]

This is a show worth seeing – Ball is widely considered to be one of Britain’s top entertainers and one of the best actors ever to grace Broadway and the West End. Simply put, his phenomenal, rich voice and unmatched talent will melt you right in your seat.

Tickets cost £36. If you can’t make it to the Friday show, he will also be performing in Glasgow on Saturday at the SECC. Otherwise catch Ball on ITV 1 on his new afternoon chat show, The Michael Ball Show.

Book tickets now.

[Image Credits: All images courtesy of MichaelBall.co.uk]

Tomorrow at 8:30 p.m. the club is hosting a special show called, The Best of Scottish Comedy, which features some of the best contemporary comedians on the Scottish circuit. Tickets are only £6.00.

Maybe you’ll laugh so hard you won’t want to catch your rescheduled flight. If that’s the case, stick around for the famous Saturday Show (book now, it’s sold out every week!). This one features five different acts and some of the top headliners from the UK and abroad. Tickets cost £15.00 and the show starts at 9 p.m.

Is improv your thing? The Whose Lunch Is It Anyway show on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. will leave you in stitches and is completely free!

On Monday May 30th at 8:30 p.m. you can get on the stage yourself for just £2.00. That’s right, it’s open mic night – think you can compete with the seasoned locals?

Andi Osho performs her comedy routine.

Tuesday, May 31 will be a real treat – the award-winning Nigerian-British comedian Andi Osho hilariously explores her cultural heritage and complicated relationship with race in Modern Britain. Show starts at 8:30 p.m.; tickets are £10.00.

Visit the The Stand Comedy Club website for more details.

[Image Credits: Stand Comedy sign courtesy of club website; image of Andi Osho courtesy of Woody's Telly Caps]

Ash from the Volacanic Eruption in Iceland

If you were planning on flying today from Edinburgh Airport, there may be some good news. The Civil Aviation Authority says it expects Edinburgh and Glasgow airports to be clear by this afternoon and other northern Scottish airports by Wednesday morning. Meanwhile, Ryan Air is claiming that one of its planes encountered no problems during a test flight through the supposed “red zone” – an area over Scottish airspace contaminated with “high-density” ash from the volcano. The airline is blaming bureaucratic incompetence for the delay in resuming flights, but the CAA refutes this and the validity of the test flight.

Regardless, it seems that flights will be resumed soon, so don’t panic. If your flight is cancelled for yet another day, it doesn’t mean you have to be stuck at the airport indefinitely. Just treat the experience as a long layover – in other words, seize the opportunity to explore the city some more. Here are our tips on how to entertain yourself during a long layover.

If you absolutely must get out of the city and are desperate for an alternative mode of transportation, head to Edinburgh Waverley Station and catch a train instead. Look up train times here.

Waiting passenger at Edinburgh Airport

Above all stay positive. The impact of the volcanic ash on flights is less than it was last year, when another Icelandic eruption left passengers across Europe stranded for weeks. Just remember to keep calling your airline to find out whether your flight has been cancelled, delayed or is ready to take off again. And don’t let the airlines screw you over – check out this BBC article on your passenger rights.

[All images courtesy of BBC News]

The city’s Royal Botanic Gardens was gifted the giant Amorphophallus titanum, or Titan Arum, by the Netherlands in 2003. Now eight years later, a flower-shaped bud has emerged and staffers are eagerly anticipating the stinkiest blossoming in RBGE’s history.

The Titan Arum in full bloom

The plant, which is indigenous to Sumatra’s rainforests in Indonesia, is set to blossom in 28-46 days. It is known as the corpse flower because of the grotesque odor of – you guessed it – rotting flesh it emits to lure insects. The Gardens is currently in possession of the heaviest Titan Arum ever recorded – the corm of the plant weighs a whopping 153 kgs!

Steve Scott, a horticulturalist at RBGE, warns that once the plant blossoms, visitors to the Gardens won’t be able to avoid the insufferable stench.

“If you put the plant at the west end of Princes Street and you were at the Mound, you would be able to smell it – it is that strong,” he told BBC News.

A shot of the emerging bud from the Royal Botanic Gardens' special time lapse webcam

If the whole thing leaves you feeling queasy, don’t despair. You can watch the blossoming (or at least track its progress) via the Gardens’ plant webcam with a time lapse feed. Whatever you decide to do, just don’t miss this historic event – according to the BBC, there have been less than 140 blooms of the Titan Arum through artificial cultivation.

[All images courtesy of the Royal Botanic Gardens]

The Penguin Parade at Edinburgh Zoo

Edinburgh Zoo is renowned for its penguin colony (the first of its kind in the world in 1914), which apparently has laid more than 100 eggs this year. Unfortunately, as is typical in nature, many of the eggs will not hatch because they are broken or not viable. And some of the chicks will not survive to adulthood.

Still, the mass penguin hatching is an event worth celebrating. Visit the Edinburgh Zoo to see the miracle of life for yourself, where you can also catch the Penguin Parade (at 2:15pm everyday). Or watch the zoo’s livestream Penguin Cam.

[Image by Geograph]

Prince William and his bride Kate Middleton

It will be held tomorrow, April 29 (the same day as the royal wedding) from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The protest was organized only a few days ago via a Facebook event listing titled, Turn the Royal Mile into the Republican Mile.  A press release issued this past weekend and signed by El Pueblo Unido (The People United) says:

“At this time of unrelenting, sycophantic fawning over the Royal Family, we believe that the millions of republicans in Britain should be allowed the opportunity to voice their legitimate opposition to an institution that holds no relevance to the lives of ordinary working people.

The inequality of this society has been thrown into sharp relief by the wave of cuts, and the privatisation and decimation of essential services. The Royal Wedding, and the associated displays of wealth and privilege, demonstrate a nauseating insensitivity to the hardship faced by the overwhelming majority of people in Britain.”

Feeling the Republican sentiment?

The anonymous organizers of the protest are requesting that attendees: “Bring loudhailers, sound systems, royal and political effigies; anything to make enough noise to be heard in the centres of power, whether in London or Edinburgh. If anyone knows how to perform a rain dance, please teach us, and we can endevavour to send some dark clouds to Buckingham Palace. Most importantly, bring a spirit of rebellion!”

If you were hoping to celebrate the so-called wedding of the century instead, here’s a list of pro-royal wedding events happening throughout the city.

[Engagement picture courtesy of Official Royal Wedding Website; British flags courtesy of Republic]