Thursday, 23 June
Up really bright and early for our speed date with Scotland ... “Don’t talk to me for an hour” says Bobbie. J She loves waking up! We touched down in Bonnie Scotland and as the slight drizzle fell, Bobbie noted the weather wasn’t that crash hot and lucky we had bought one of our many umbrellas (I think we’re collecting them now!). All I had to say in reply was ‘Welcome to Scotland’. Grabbed our hire car ... no pressure here ... it only had 11 miles on it so, it was brand spanking new. As we exit the airport my trusty navigator reminds me to remain on the right side of the road. This does not bode well especially since in the UK you drive on the left!! Hmmmm. Together with our mud map we found our way to a parking garage in the Old Town part of Edinburgh. Typically, the sun came out ... and went away, then came back, it drizzled and the sun was back again as we trudged our way up and down the Royal Mile. The original plan was to go straight to Edinburgh Castle for the firing of the one o’clock cannon we were pretty hungry so stopped at The World’s End pub for a bite ... and a pint. We ordered the haggis which we both agree was very nice (it really is! Don’t think about what is in it ... just try it sometime!)
We put our tourist hats aside for a short while and visited the relis ... Mum’s cousin Billy & his wife Helen. I use to live with them for a time when I was in Scotland. It was very nice to see them and amusing to watch Helen struggle to understand Bobbie’s accent. It was only easier to understand me as she knew the cadence of my voice. We had a lovely afternoon tea with them and then went off to meet up with Keith (the family tree connection is there but not sure how to describe it – perhaps the crazy squirrel?). Keith took us out for dinner and after stuffing ourselves we went for a very brisk walk in the very crisp cool air. Oh look Princes Street Gardens ... quick, let’s get back to the bar where’s it warm! We crashed at Keith’s place for the night which was great. Bobbie said her thanks and goodbyes before retiring and I got up in the morning to say Cheerio! It was great catching up with Keith again ... just a real shame I didn’t get to see all my other squirrely relatives! Missed you guys!
Tourist hats back on and we went back to the city and stopped first at Mary King’s Close .... the part of Edinburgh that is still underground. Parts of the close date back to ............ and it was fascinating to hear the stories of how people lived. Our guide ‘Agnes’ (aka Karen) was just brilliant and charmed everyone with her portrayal of a 17th century maid/guide. Back on the surface we hot-footed it up to the Castle for the one o’clock cannon. Made it in time and thankfully this time the sun was just perfect (the last time I was here it was freezing and windy and miserable). An older couple sidled up to us and the man tried lifting his wife so she could see over the castle wall, she wasn’t real comfortable with that and we joked around that he was really trying to toss her over the edge like in the days of old when everything was tossed into the Nor Loch .... now drained and beautified as Princes St Gardens. Went to take Bobbie up to St Margaret’s Chapel – the oldest building in Edinburgh but there was a wedding scheduled so that put that off. Down to the Prisoners of War Exhibition then ... very interesting. Did you know that Napolean tried to put his brother on the throne of Spain? By this time Bobbie was suffering from a case of ABC ... “Another Bloody Castle” and as I had seen much of it before ... we made our way back to the High Street and did some last minute tourist shopping. Had a spot of bother driving back to the airport. Got stuck at a confusing intersection (Lothian Road & Princes St) ... and ended up back two attempts to get on the right road because we succeeded the third time .... only to find we had been on the right road both the previous 2 times. Perhaps a GPS purchase would have been a good idea? It was all good though, we only panicked running to our gate for about a minute .... and I ran past the queue. Stopped and walked back to the end of the line. All good. Safe.
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