“The angels have the phone box.”
Sorry. Just had to start with reference to my favorite Dr Who episode. Blink. Amazing how many people know that reference. But it is just the situation I wanted to relive in this note…
In the spring of 2012, we visited Scotland. Edinburgh to be exact since we spent the entirety of our trip there with the exception of 1 day, when we traveled to Berwick Upon Tweed.. but Berwick is fodder for another time. This was a time when I was rather a purist about pictures. My camera was always in single shot mode. No bursts for me. If I could not get it in one, I didn’t deserve it. Remember that was back in 2012. I was a lot more innocent back then.
We are generally very lucky in terms of weather when we travel. It was no exception with Edinburgh for the first 4 days. The temperature was in the 60s, and the skies brilliant blue with no sign of clouds. As with every day there, we had started walking about 9am, ending at about 8pm. We logged a lot of miles, and on this day, it led us to Edinburgh Castle.
We arrived there about 11 on this particular day, and were able to wander around till we heard that he canon would be fired at 1:00. Exactly at 1:00:
As stated: 1300 GDT .. exactly
We asked a guard, why the canon? Why 1:00?
Edinburgh is very far North. 55 Degrees North Latitude. The Bay of Fundy, which is know for it’s spectacular tides is at 45 Degrees North. The bottom of Hudson Bay is at 55 Degrees North. The further North you go, the more tidal action there is. So Edinburgh, being a Seafaring village, needed a way to let Captains on their ships know the exact time so that they could synchronize watches and know the tides for the following day. The Edinburgh Castle canon was the audio queue, and a giant ball dropping from Nelson’s Tower was the visual cue. If you couldn’t see, you heard. If you couldn’t hear, you saw. If you didn’t hear and didn’t see, you were so drunk, you probably weren’t sailing the next day anyway.
Why 1:00? The guard we asked paused for a moment, then said: You know Scots.. frugal. Why pay for 12 shells when you could pay for 1?
Don’t BLINK, or you’ll miss a bit of life…
