We hope that the 100 Year Anzac Commemorative Services held at home were poignant and well attended despite the rain (if our sources are feeding us the right information).
We attended a service outside Edinburgh Castle on the esplanade where they had a large screen showing the formalities happening inside The Scottish War Memorial where we had toured only yesterday as part of our Castle tour.
Yesterday we saw up close all the wreaths that had been delivered for the service including the stand out large, red, blue and white poppy-wreath from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II & Prince Phillip.
The presentation started with a video of Eric Bogle introducing and explaining the inspiration for his song 'And the band played Waltzing Matilda' which he then went on to sing. The service finished with Eric again introducing and singing 'the Gift of Years'.
It was extremely well attended including lots of young adults. Of course it rained, our first real experience of rain in Scotland (or the whole trip in fact) so that made us feel connected with home. On the way out of the Esplanade a cafe from the Royal Mile were handing out cups of hot Porridge which I would have loved to dip my toes into to try and regain feeling, but eating it was good too and more appropriate.
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DeleteDawn service here for us was at Hahndorf, extremely well attended and followed by a full breakfast at a local cafe'. Cold but no rain during the service. Then home to watch the march through the city. The Dawn Service at the War Memorial was very, very well attended and I can not say I have seen a bigger crowd. Less and less Ex Service personnel every year with no WW1 members anymore, very few WW2 and even the Vietnam Vets are getting old and fewer! Edinburgh Castle would have been a Bucket List place for a Dawn Service, how special a place to have one amongst all those memorials that are sited there. A very special place and hope the rest of Scotland is as good. Stay safe.
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