Spent a few days in Edinburgh, Scotland after visiting with Steve and Lotta in Sweden. Checked in at the Holiday Inn Express after taking a city bus to the city center and walking a few blocks with our bags. (“Blanche” got us on the right bus at the airport and headed in the right direction after stopping at the Info Center.) Lots of building going on, huge cranes hovering high over the city with its ancient churches, memorials, castles. Took a double decker bus tour (as we usually do) to get a layout of the city sights. Lots to see here but I’ll just offer a brief snapshot.
Edinburgh Castle is a must see. It looms over the city of 500.000 people. It’s also the home of the Crown Jewels of Scotland. I know but I can’t show you a photo. “No photography allowed.” So you’ll just have to take my word for it that they are there in one of the castle towers.
Down the street from the castle was a distillery tour and who could resist that? Had a ride in a barrel and tasted 5 different scotches. I now know that Scotch whiskey can only come from Scotland, sounds logical, yes? Also Scotch is either single malt, single grain, or a blend of both. Now you know everything I know (or remember) about Scotch after only 5 tastings. Thank goodness our hotel was downhill from there.
Also toured a close as part of underground Edinburgh. It seems much of the current buildings were built on top of those dating back 500 or more years. Some of these have been excavated. You can now visit these old homes and rooms. A guide will tell you about what life was like back in the day: Black Plague, cholera, syphilis, a bath once a year, pooping in a bucket in the corner of the room while everyone else in the family is going about their business, then twice a day throwing it out the window and yelling, “Look out below” in Gaelic. Kinda makes you yearn for the good old days. We drank lots of whiskey, beer, wine, and anything else containing alcohol, to ward off any possibility of latent germs. (C says, he is exaggerating about our alcohol consumption, not about the past. However, becasue the water was so contaminated everyone drank beer even the children. The children’s beer was about 6% volume of alcohol. All adults, pretty much were buzzed all day long. It was not an easy life.)
We also took a day long bus ride into the Scottish highlands and they were beautiful. I’m sure Cindy will stick in a photo or two.
The bus ride included entertainment this time, a first for us. there was a family of four on the tour who happened to have lunch at the same restaurant we did. It was in a small town on the shore of a loch. The mom, stepdad, and two sisters around 25 years old were seated near us. During lunch an argument broke out with lots of yelling, screaming, swearing, and finally sister #1 reaching across the table to grab sister #2 by the hair, attempting to face plant her in her soup. Dad jumped up to intervene and the waiter rushed over to tell sister #1 this was not acceptable behavior in his restaurant. She was asked to release Sis’s hair, told the soup is not a finger bowl, and please leave before Officer MacTavish was called. We thought, “What a great lunch. This never happens at home.” BTW, the family was from the good old USA. Makes ya proud, no? (C says, he’s exaggerating a bit though not about any part of the fight, there was a promise that the police would be called. And they were American. I know he tells a good story but let’s not perpetuate “fake news.”)
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| Haggis, tatties, & neeps |
With this, I’ll sign off. Scotland is really a beautiful country and the Scots couldn’t have been nicer. I’ll meet you in Bath, England, our next stop. I understand they speak pretty good English there. ;-) DMS
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