Touring Scotland

Carole and I already spent a few days in London and a week based out of Manchester. We traveled to Stoke-on-Trent first for a poke around the china factory in Stoke, the Spode factory and some shopping. From there we headed to Glasgow where we would eventually pick up our tour. We shall start with our departure from Stoke.

We went across to the station after checking out. Our bags seem to be getting much heavier! We discovered we had to cross the tracks to the platform required though an underground subway. Stairs!! Not normally a problem except the luggage is so heavy! We asked a station conductor if there was a lift and he took us to a cargo elevator that went up to an overhead walkway, bless him! We found the right car and settled in. We were comfortable and we able to spread out on either side of a four seater with table in between us. It's an overcast, dreary day and the journey was 4.5 to Glasgow.

We got a cab to the hotel, the Jurys in Glasgow's west end. Our room overlooks a pond with dozens of white swans swimming there! I've never seen so many in one place! The room is modern, with one double bed and one single. There is a sport center in the hotel, with a pool and jacuzzi, a small bar and a restaurant. We had a burger in the bar once we got settled in, our papers and passports in the hotel safe since we'll be here until Saturday morning. Found out the handiest route into town is a nearby commuter train. The bus on the main road takes longer. Looks like the hotel is used by a lot of tour groups as we saw several buses out in the car park. It's raining hard and though we're excited to be in Scotland, It had rained a lot already and we'd been in the U.K. about 10 days. Tomorrow we plan to take a city tour of Glasgow. Thursday will probably be our day trip over to Edinburgh. Friday night is a "meet and greet" for the tour members. We spent the rest of the evening relaxing in our room, watching telly and sorting postcards.

Wednesday

We saw the blue sky for about 10 minutes when we got up. Sort of like the sunrise or sunset, a few minutes and then the show's over for the day! We walked past the hospital behind the hotel to the train station, just a small platform and ticket office. It cost £1.40 for a return ticket, pretty cheap, and goes right into Central or Queen Street Station, depending on which train comes first.

We want to find George Square and get a hop on hop off bus. But first a wander through a pedestrian shopping street, Buchanan Street. We saw a Warner brothers store and the sign out front had Bugs bunny and the Tazmanian Devil wearing kilts and playing bagpipes!!! We walked through Royal Exchange Square by the large building that was, for awhile, the Royal Exchange and now houses a modern art gallery.

We found George Square, the main center of Glasgow where the lovely municipal buildings are. There are statues in the red-tiled square, large granite buildings and a mural type billboard along one side with a tourist information center in one building. The tour buses line up opposite the square from the municipal buildings and you can buy a ticket right from the driver. It was £7 for the 24 hour ticket (in 2000) and takes two routes, one through the older part of Glasgow and then one through the newer west end. The oldest part of Glasgow is east, around St. Mungo's cathedral, St. Mungo being the monk that more or less founded Glasgow. There is the Strathclyde University in this section of the city as well as Glasgow Green where the scaffold used to stand. In the Georgian west end is Glasgow University.

We did both routes first to get the lay of the land and see what we wanted to go back to later then went to find someplace for lunch, someplace warm!

We wandered back by the Modern Art museum and found a small café in the square there and were served a nice hot drink and a bun by a very cheeky Glaswegian who brightened up the dull rainy day by making us smile. That's something I have noticed, the Glaswegians seem to be so cheerful and fun loving, amazing considering the amount of rain here! After, we walked a few blocks to the St. Enoch's shopping center, a large glass topped shopping mall. Carole dropped off her films for developing. I bought my film with the processing already included so since it was already paid for, I wasn't going to pay for it again.

Back to the tour bus stop and we decided to explore the cathedral first. It's starting to shower now and by the time we get there, it's raining and too windy for umbrellas. We walked around the area for a few pictures then into the 13th century cathedral. I really loved this cathedral - it's so grim looking on the outside with centuries of smoke seeped into it's stone exterior and it's dark on the inside (or probably that was because it was so dark outside). But it has wonderful stained glass windows and benches circling the pillars and old, old pews and a high altar with a soaring window behind it. One of the windows' design was a Celtic design in white, greens and turquoise blues. The cathedral isn't huge and cavernous like some I've seen and it isn't elaborately decorated but it's peaceful and beautiful with the front part at a bit of a lower level than the main nave and altar. The ceiling is oak and wood beamed and vaulted and exquisite!

We left there and headed for the bus stop though were only going one or two more stops away, to Glasgow Green where there is a Victorian building with a greenhouse on the back called the Winter Garden. This houses the People's Palace, a social history museum about the people of Glasgow (see review in this journal) After our visit, we decided to cross the green (in the rain) for the bus. We had to run for it but the driver saw us coming and waited. We picked up the photos at St. Enoch's and I bought more film.

Hungry now, it's past 5 and we go out into St. Enoch's square. There's a bar across the square called Times Square where we had a pint and a nice piece of breaded haddock. It restored our energy. Next stop was a post office for stamps and we wanted to buy a box to mail some stuff home to lighten our load! After that we wanted to get a little time in at the cyber "café" which is across from Central station.

We found the right platform for the train back to Hyndland but didn't fancy walking up the path to the hospital as it seemed like it might be a bit deserted so we took the other exit from the tunnel. Mistake! We walked up a long curving street lined with lovely red sandstone terraced houses but it seemed to take forever and we still had to walk quite a few blocks once we finally got back up to the main Road. It was dark by the time we got to the hotel, but we stopped in the petrol station to get some snacks and drinks and a newspaper. Carole's photos were great, excellent photos of our trip so far! Tomorrow, Edinburgh. The tour bus driver told us just to get a cheap day return ticket from Queen Street station after 9:30.

In the east end of Glasgow across Glasgow Green is the People's Palace and Winter Garden, a social history museum about the people of Glasgow, supposed to be from the 12th to 20th centuries but it seemed like it focused mainly on the 19th and 20th from the exhibits we saw. It had exhibits on life in the tenements, the temperance movement, civic politics, life during the world wars, marriage, family life, the language ("patter") etc. There are paintings, prints, maps and interactive exhibits. It was quite entertaining and not a large museum so wasn't overwhelming. We didn't spend much time in the green house as the weather wasn't great anyway.

Best thing about the museum, though is that it's free! There's a lift in case you have mobility problems as well as a cafe and gift shop.

Breakfast is included with the room and is a buffet of hot or cold so we stocked up with a big breakfast before heading to the train station. This time we were lucky and the train went to Queen Street instead of Central so we were where we needed to be right away! The day return ticket to Edinburgh was £7.50 and leaves every 15 minutes or so from either end of the line.

Less than an hour and we're pulling into Waverly station. Wouldn't you know, it's starting to spit rain already. There are city tour buses on Waverly bridge just as you come out of the train station so that's what we did, another hop on hop off tour. Once around the circuit and then decide where to get off. We had to sit inside the bus instead of up on the upper deck and the guide came inside as well. The bus was loud and noisy and drowned him out a bit so we didn't catch everything he said.

By the time we started on the second circuit, the rain had almost stopped. We got off at the stop for the castle though we weren't going inside because we knew the Globus tour included that next week. We did go up to the Esplanade for a look out over the Prince's Street Garden but then decided to go into Gladstone's Land. It's a National Trust house right on the Royal Mile, not far from the castle. It's a 16th to 18th century tenement house with a half a dozen rooms furnished with guides in each room to tell you what all the antiques are and how the merchant who owned the house would have lived there. It was very interesting and well worth a look.

We also found out about a traditional Edinburgh "symbol". There was a double heart design inlaid into one of the cabinets and we asked the guide about it. It's a "Luckenbooth" she said, a double (sometimes you see a triple) heart with a crown on top. These designs were sold mainly as pins out of booths in the market, locked up at night so that they could be left on the market area. Locked booths. . . Luckenbooth. The pins were sometimes attached to babies' blankets for luck and they also symbolize love and friendship, basically the Scottish equivalent of the Claddagh I think. I have to have one but I want a ring, not a pin!

Lunch next and we ended up in the Deacon Brodie's café on the Royal Mile. Brodie was a well respected Edinburgher by day and a thief by night. The café is lined with murals depicting his life and trials and tribulations. He was caught eventually and hanged in 1788 by a scaffold of his own design. The food was ok, the server at the counter rushed and brusque.

We walked around the Royal mile, poking into shops along the way. We explored into the catherdral, the High Kirk of Edinburgh, St. Giles where John Knox preached in his day. This cathedral is smaller than the one in Glasgow, more square in shape but a bit more decorated on the outside with a coronet style spire. It dates from 14th century after an earlier church burned. The crown spire was erected in 1495 and Charles I granted it cathedral status in 1633. Again, more lovely stained glass, including one designed by William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones. Interesting to see the different styles from the different periods. In one side tomb the sun was actually shining in through the window and throwing a multi coloured reflection on the wall above the memorial. Yes indeed, when we emerged, there was blue sky by God!

We walked across the North Bridge (Edinburgh has 6 bridges, none of them go over water!) Down into Prince's street gardens to have a bit of a look. The floral clock this year is a Millenium pattern. There's also a sweet little cottage on one end probably for the park caretaker. We walked and sat for awhile. Then decided that since the sun was out, we might take the city tour again to see some of the sights under blue sky for some photos. What a difference! It was interesting too, we have been on board for three different guides, each of them told us the same basic info but also each of them had a few different stories to add or a few different details!

We walked down Rose Street, squinting into the now lowering sun, and trying to decide on a pub or restaurant for dinner. Most of the ones we looked into were a bit too smoky but we came to a cross street and found a place that had a pub on one side and a restaurant on the other, slightly below street level, called the Victoria and Albert! We really enjoyed the food! Just sausage and mash but it was piping hot, with savoury onion gravy. The décor was nice with tapestry covered both benches, burgundy walls and a low ceiling.

We caught the 7:30 train back to Glasgow and a taxi back from the train station. Tomorrow, more Glasgow and meeting the tour members tomorrow night!

Friday
We took the bus downtown this time and tried to get off near the post office but traffic got so bad we ended up a few stops away. Decided to walk along the pedestrian section of Sauchiehall Street . Window shopped, poked into a few jewelry and book stores and decided to have lunch in the Willow Tea Rooms, designed by Art deco architect Charles Rennie MacIntosh. Every aspect of the tea room was designed by him right down to the dishes and cutlery. High ladder backed chairs and stylized roses and decorations. The afternoon tea with four quarters of a sandwich each with different fillings, a currant scone and dessert with tea or coffee for £7.95. They served it on a three tier chrome caddy with doilies on each plate and white dinnerware.

We walked up short very steep Douglas Street to see the Glasgow School of Art, also a MacIntosh building. It's very sleek and has his trademark windows containing many small panes. We peeked in the front entrance hall but there was a fee for a tour round the building and we decided just to browse in the gift shop where we each ended up buying a few prints.

Down to Sauchiehall and Buchanan streets more shopping. We meandered along to George Square under the ever darkening cloudy sky, bought a few postcards and these canny little popup maps of Glasgow and Edinburgh in the tourist information center and decided to head back to the hotel. Our evening meal is included with the tour as the tour officially starts today as people arrive. The meet and greet is at 6, dinner at 6:30. We leave tomorrow morning on the bus at 8.

The meet and greet didn't go exactly as planned. We were supposed to have a separate room for the half hour but a wedding party arrived at the hotel early so that was scuppered and we crowded into the hotel bar. We met a few fellow tourists fairly quickly, a lovely newlywed couple in their 40's and a senior couple from Ontario traveling with their daughter and son-in-law. Our guide is Peter, a nice man late 30s or early 40s, a Londoner and our coach driver is Alec, who appears to be in his 50's and a Scot. Our prayers to the travel Gods appear to have worked, The crowd isn't *all* seniors and so far those we have met aren't "weird" That's a reference to something a tour guide told me once years ago, he prays to the travel Gods before each of his tours . . . "Please let them be normal!"

Dinner was pretty good and we got to see the bridal party on their way through the dining room to the private rooms, most of the males of all ages, including a little one in his stroller in kilts! I do so love full dress kilts! One man had a plaid over his shoulder and a lot of silver medalions and pins. The Clan Laird perhaps? :)

Back to our room to pack. Nice that someone else gets to lug the bags for a week! So the tour proper begins tomorrow.....

So begins the routine of touring, up early, bags out, breakfast and on the coach. After all the kilts last night we were "treated" to the presence of a Welsh rugby team in the dining room at breakfast this morning.

Weather started out dark and cloudy with rain definitely threatening. First stop once out of Glasgow was Loch Lomond. There was a pretty Victorian stone hotel nearby. Really there wasn't much to look at, just the lake. The clouds were dark and low and actually, the photo that Carole took came out quite interesting, as a friend said, "typical scottish weather". Back in the bus, down the narrow back roads up through Rannoch Moor and Glencoe, where the famous massacre of 1692 took place and another photo stop. This part of the country is the beginnings of the highlands and the scenery is really rugged. Weather is getting better and by the time we get to Fort William with a lunch break at a woolen mill shop, the sun is out. Peter, our guide, seems quite knowledgeable and has a dry sense of humour and I think he's going to be a winner.

Had a quick sandwich and a browse through the shops before setting out on the narrow winding road, The "Road to the Isles" past the Glenfinnan monument where Bonnie Prince Charlie returned to Scotland and raised his standard. Very pretty drive along here, with lochs and mountains, small cottages and sunshine. We are catching the ferry at Mallaig to the Isle of Skye. I love the little cottages and houses, whitewashed with a chimney at either end of the house.

The ferry ride to Skye only takes about 20 minutes and the scenery of the mountains on Skye from across the water was heart stopping! I never realized Skye was mountainous and though the haze over the water the mountains were spectacular!

It was a very short drive to the Clan Donald Center where we are shown a short film on the history of the highland clans but because of the early morning and dark projection room, I'm afraid I nearly nodded off! We glanced through the museum artifacts, just a small room or two, and went out into the gardens. There are acres of gardens on the property with a nice little visitor center and tea room and the ruins of Armadale Castle overlooking the water. We walked through a bit of the gardens and were astonished to see bushes that were alive with hundreds of butterflies! It was an amazing thing to see! We parted ways for a bit, Carole heading up into the gardens more and I down to the castle ruins to take some photos and we met back up at the car park to go for tea.

The tea room is round and looks like a chapter house in a cathedral with high narrow pointed windows and a vaulted ceiling. All bamboo and wicker furniture and the chairs even had peaked backs. It was really pretty!

The drive to Broadford along the coast was about a half an hour, over hills full of peat bogs. We were hoping to be able to see the Eileen Donan Castle over on the mainland but guess we weren't in the right spot. Lots of sheep, crofters houses and the weather is now clouding over again.

The hotel, Dunollie, is a smallish hotel, just a few floors, no lift, no phones in the rooms. It's right on the water though, a very pretty spot. There are a few gift shops nearby but they were just closing when we got there. The rooms are each "named" with a plate with a brand of Scotch whiskey on it and are very pretty, decorated in seafoam greens and peaches and white painted furniture. Beds are comfy too! :) We had a bit of a walk up the road before dinner and caught the sun starting to go down, yes it's shown it's face again for the evening display! Had a drink in the lounge with some people and then went to dinner. Dinner was very good, the dining room looks over the bay as well. It's a nice peaceful little spot here.

Tomorrow we go to Inverewe Gardens and on to Inverness with a stop at Loch Ness I think.

Sunday
6 a.m. came early today! And dark! Breakfast was ok, had porridge but my eggs were runny even though I asked for them to be well cooked. We went outside the back of the hotel after breakfast just as the sun was coming up over the mountains on the mainland. What a spectacular sunrise!!!

On the bus, there was the usual morning confusion over the changing of the seats. We drove across the new bridge to the mainland then we turned off that road and started climbing. We had a photo stop at a spot overlooking Loch Carron and that was beautiful! The sun was coming out and it was still only about 9 and the mountains, starting to be coloured in autumn colours were reflecting in the loch!

Most of the morning was driving north through Wester Ross on narrow twisty single track roads along lochs and coastline. We must be fairly high up because the puffy clouds look incredibly low, sitting on the mountain tops! Other than sheep the population is getting sparser and sparser. Loch Maree was even more barren and rugged with even less and less living things on the hillsides other than bracken, heather and sheep. These mountains are all volcanic remains and very unspoiled.

We come to Inverewe Gardens, on Loch Ewe. The gardens were started in Victorian times by Osgood MacKenzie. The latitude here is 57.8 degrees north, farther north than Moscow yet some plants that thrive here have to be grown under glass in the south of England! The Gulf Stream keeps this area of Scotland temperate and many exotic plants are grown here. The gardens are extensive, and the site is run by the National Trust. We had lunch first then looked through the gardens.

The real star of the gardens is the sunken Walled Garden, flowers and vegetables. It's just so beautiful, walking through the paths with a stone wall along the perimeter and the Loch beyond shimmering in the sun. There are a lot of paths and places to explore and you could be there for hours. But, as usual with a coach tour, you have limited time.

A bit further north along the coast which is even more bleak if possible. This really is wilderness, God forsaken country and probably pretty diabolical in winter but yet so majestic! A photo and loo stop at Corrieshalloch gorge, where there is a look off stop and little bridge over a gorge about 300 feet deep! By mid afternoon we are losing the blue sky and entering the Cairngorms as we loop back towards the Great Glen and Loch Ness.

The mountains turn into rolling hills, more farms, villages, vegetation and tourists. A photo stop at one end of Loch Ness where there was a requisite piper playing for tips. I only got off the bus to stretch my legs and try out my new 200 mm zoom telephoto lens for a shot down towards Urquhart Castle on the shores of the loch. When you've seen Loch Ness once, there's not much else to see.

Short drive to Inverness. Our hotel is a Jurys right on the river Ness downtown. Good view from our window over the river. The bags were delayed in coming to the room. We had wanted to go out and walk but didn't want to leave the cases out in the hall so we waited. By the time we got out it was past 5 and getting darker. We are only a few blocks from Inverness Castle which is just a Victorian heap of pink stones. It's used for government offices but has a lovely statue of Flora MacDonald who aided and abetted Prince Charlie after Cullodden. We went up on the castle grounds and then down to the bridge across the river.

Back up through the pedestrian shopping street and we found a pub and had a drink and a sit down. Back to the hotel to watch corrie before dinner at 8. It was quite good, service was very prompt and we had enjoyable dinner companions with the Ontario couples. Cullodden tomorrow, the Glenlivet factory and on to Braemar.

Weather is chilly and looks overcast. We stopped at the James Pringle woolen mill that had a bit of an exhibit and someone to tell you about tartan making which I didn't stay to listen to. This James Pringle factory was very good and the prices seemed very reasonable so I did buy a couple of small things and then went outside to get some air before we had to be back on the bus. The factory is outside the city and sits on the River Ness, a very pretty view. Across on the other side of the river was a man fly fishing in the cool morning air.

By the time everyone got done we were about 15 minutes late leaving, thus arriving at Cullodden 15 minutes later than expected. The weather is clearing up and by the time we got to Cullodden the sky was blue and it was gorgeous. I had been here before so I decided to have a look into a small stone thatched roof cottage, called Leanoch cottage. It was a reproduction of one that might have been there and used as a first aid station for wounded British soldiers after the battle. Wounded Jacobites were killed.

On my first visit here in 1993, the weather was overcast and gloomy and lent an eerie air to the battlefield and the clan graves but today the sun was shining. Just the same, I find this place a bit spooky. I went down by the graves to pay my respects and walking back I thought I heard a scream, twice. Now it was probably a tourist or a bird but your imagination takes flight in a place like this after hearing about the doomed crusade and the slaughter. I'm sure the wee ghosties still walk here.

On to the Glenlivet whiskey factory where we got to see whiskey being made in the huge vats and storage barns. We had our wee dram after the tour and grabbed a bite in the lunch room. Carole and I walked down the driveway to get a closer look at the highland cattle penned across the road. They are shaggy and horned and so unusual looking from what we are all used to. They are specially bred for the cold north of Scotland.

No sooner did we get back on the bus to leave then the clouds gathered in for a shower. It rained for the next hour or so as we drove through the Grampians, up and down narrow roads through the mist and rain along the pretty Spey Valley. There was a windy photo stop on the hill above Corgarf Castle and a brief visit to Crathie church near Balmoral. It's a nice little stone church, a couple hundred years old and quite elaborately decorated, more than usual for a Presbyterian church but Royal family members have donated things to it over the years.

It wasn't far to the hotel from there, in Braemar. What a lovely hotel! It's a large turreted Victorian heap and looks like a castle from the outside! There are large lounges and several bars and a big dining room with fireplaces and soaring ceilings. The rooms are tucked away in all sorts of corners and warren-like hallways and ours was really pretty, with inlay wood on the closet doors and desk and fabric covered padded headboards with pretty sprigged wall paper and matching chair covers. The little window looks out across a field and you can just see Braemar Castle in the distance.

Our bags were delivered to our room in record speed and we decided to go into the village for a browse before our evening tour. Braemar is a pretty village with the River Dee running through it , lots of stone houses which all seem to have such lovely flower gardens around them. We looked in a couple of the stores still open.

Braemar castle has a long history and belongs to the Erskine family, the Earls of Mar. We heard all about the history by the caretaker and then were allowed to wander through the areas open to the public. The castle is tall and not very big, with a star shaped wall around it. There are turrets in the corners and a narrow spiral staircase up the middle with only a few rooms on each level. There were about a dozen rooms to see including a photo display in the lower level. There were so many wonderful antiques and the rooms were a delight to see.

We drove to Ballater to see the Royal Warrants, which are coats of arms of various Royals who patronize the shops or services. This town has the highest concentration of warrants anywhere. Not particularly interesting to me, but there was a pretty little church there that I would have liked to have seen more of. We walked round the corner and all had free drinks and snacks and sat and had a lovely chat and a few laughs with our new friends.

Back to the hotel for dinner in the elegant dining room. We retired to the lounge for our coffee and teawith some tour members. Tomorrow is a later start then a tour of Glamis Castle. On to St. Andrews and ending in Edinburgh.

Tuesday
We didn't have to be to breakfast until 8 and we left at 9 for Glamis castle which didn't open until I think 10 or 10:30. Weather is as usual, light rain and heavy mist and fog on the hills.

Glamis is quite old though some was rebuilt after a fire in the 1800s. It's the ancestral home of the Earls of Strathmore and Kinghorne, today the Bowes-Lyon family. The oldest part of the castle is from 1427 and the castle is still lived in by the family.

We had a guided tour of the public rooms which spanned various eras, the grand dining room with a table that can seat 35 and a huge silver ship as center piece, given to the Queen Mother's grandparents by the estate workers. There was an old stone walled room filled with armour (Victorian replicas) and stag heads and game antlers. Some of the rooms had fireplaces so large you could move in! There was a nice private chapel with the walls and ceiling full of painted panels and is said to be haunted. The private apartments built for Elizabeth and George, Duke of York was really nice, very warm and cozy and very live-in-able! All the rooms were filled with paintings, mostly portraits and lovely old wood furniture.

We had lunch in the café which is in the old kitchens. The big wall oven was still there and there were copper pans hanging and buzzers/lights on the wall that would summon a servant to one of the rooms.

Off again, the rain has stopped but it's still not looking too promising but there was finally a patch of blue here and there by the time we reached St. Andrews. It didn't last! Not being interested in golf, for which St. Andrews is famous, Carole and I walked down the street that parallels the cliff along the harbour, through the ancient university campus to the ruins of St. Andrews castle. We paid to go into the castle grounds and climbed around the ruins for a bit. The castle has been in ruins for about 400 years and seems to have been several hundred years old by the time it was dispatched. There are explanatory signs around and diagrams and it was kind of interesting. We thought it was kind of odd that, though university was in session, there weren't many students around the campus buildings. Some of the old buildings were really lovely, one had little square instead of round turrets and was being used as the Moral Philosophy department. Kind of appropriate for a building that had little flights of fancy in its architecture like that!

The drive through Fife and Dundee was not all that interesting. We arrived in Edinburgh in good time and are staying at a Jury's which is right off the Royal Mile. Can't get much more central! The room is a good size and the hotel is quite new. The bathroom is small with a corner shower stall but at least it has glass doors, not a flighty curtain! Tonight's "excursion" I think was the Scottish night out with highland dancing and haggis. We declined to join so had to find a place for dinner ourselves. Up the Royal mile we went, checking out menus and decided on a small narrow Italian restaurant after passing by a number of pubs and places that were either too crowded or too smoky. This one was called Gordon's Trattoria and had really good wood fired pizza , we had the veggie version. The Royal Mile at night is very quiet, quite a contrast to the daytime when it's busy with traffic and tourists.

Another sunny morning! Breakfast was, as warned, somewhat controlled but utter chaos. It was crowded and noisy and there must have been 4 tour busses of people there. Not the way I like to start my day. The extremely long line up did at least move smoothly but you felt really rushed. We later decided we'd find someplace to buy some rolls and stuff and have breakfast in our room tomorrow morning.

The morning had a rather unusual start. As we were crossing the road to the bus, our local guide, Tom, was trying to hold up traffic so we could cross safely. But one guy had no intention of stopping and came through anyway, running over Tom's toe so he kicked the car and a piece of the chrome trim fell off! Next thing we knew, the driver of the car was out, brandishing the fallen piece like a weapon and the two men were hollering at each other and we really did think blood was going to fly! Peter and Alec managed to keep the peace in the end so nobody got thumped. Tom apologized profusely for the incident several times even though the driver was initially at fault for not stopping. Tom shouldn't have kicked the car and he knew it.

Anyway we were finally off, driving from the new town to the old and back and forth. We stopped in the Grassmarket area to take a photo of the South face of Edinburgh castle where the Royal Palace is, not the view you normally see of it. The grassmarket was the market area though it grew unused and unsavory for quite awhile. It's been redone with shops and pubs now. Eventually we got to the castle and to the top up the inclines. Of course we are on a schedule so rather than go through the exhibition to the Crown Jewels which, I remembered, takes a fair bit of time, I went to see the things I didn't have time to see last time. I wanted to see the Royal Apartments and the Great Hall and St. Margaret's chapel. The apartments are nicely decorated but unfurnished. The plaster ceiling was really nice. The Great Hall dates from the early 16th century though there are new decorations and artifacts in it. There's also a painting of a man named Ewart who captured the French Standard at Waterloo.

I went to the tiny St. Margaret's chapel, dating from 1093. It's very plain inside, with a few benches parallel to the walls and a tiny stained glass window behind the altar which has fresh flowers on it. The light inside is very warm and yellow and it's very peaceful. The chapel is still used by the regiment that lives at the castle and can be booked for weddings for anyone associated with the castle, even the guides! I went down the "Lang" stairs in to the shop and then to the loo. I was first one back at the bus on the Esplanade where the workers are still dismantling the scaffolding that held the bleacher seats for the Edinburgh Tattoo in August every year. A spectacle not to be missed if you're there! I saw it last time and was impressed.

Down at Holyrood, we walked through the public rooms into the old part where Mary Queen of Scots had her private apartments and saw a little exhibition of artifacts, mostly from her era, pistols, letters, miniature paintings, lace, needlework, medals and a christening robe.

Back to the hotel at lunchtime. We had a cuppa in our room and rested for a bit. This afternoon and evening is free time and we are not doing the evening outing to see the Royal Yacht Britannia, so again, will find somewhere for dinner on our own.

We wandered in and out of shops from the Royal Mile and along Prince's street, including the lovely department store, Jenners. I found a gold Luckenbooth ring for 60 pounds which I am quite pleased with. Jenners is a privately owned store and the older part is several floors around a large center open "court". There is a small food hall as well so we were able to buy some rolls, jam for breakfast tomorrow. We had a scone and tea in one of the tea rooms there as well.

It was sunny when we went into Jenners but starting to spit rain when we came out. We looked around some more shops on Prince's street, working our way back up toward the North Bridge and went into the underground Waverly shopping center by the train station. Went back to our room for another tea break and to sort out more photos. We decided to watch Corrie and then just eat in the hotel dining room, too tired to walk any further. Dinner was ok, but the service was very slow. At least the entrée was a buffet at the carvery.Tomorrow is the last day of the tour and then back to London.

Thursday
The day starts out sunny though there are clouds in the distance. It took awhile to get out of the city but then it got green and hilly with lots of farms as we crossed the center of Scotland. Our first stop was supposed to be at the base of Stirling Castle after hearing all about Robert the Bruce and William Wallace. Except we drove into a heavy Scottish mist that laid fairly thick on the ground and couldn’t see a thing. Peter assured us there really was a castle there! Bit of a disappointment but that's Scottish weather for you.

Our next stop was the Scottish Wool Center in Aberfoyle where we are scheduled to see some sort of presentation on sheep. I was skeptical, expecting a boring lecture and a sales pitch and of course the whole center is a big shop. Pleasantly surprised in the end though, the presentation was interesting and amusing, all about the history of sheep in the British Isles. It doesn’t sound brilliant does it but they also had live sheep, representing the various evolutions of the sheep and several of them were actually the same as the sheep bred 2000 years ago! One little fellow had four horns on his head. These sheep had been isolated over the centuries and not cross bred with bigger or newer species. Later on outside in the paddock, they brought out a sheep dog, a border collie, for a demo on how they train them to round up sheep with of course, actual sheep to be rounded up by the dog, commanded by specific words. They also train them to whistles as well for up in the hills where they will often be too far away to hear a man call.

We had a browse in the shop and a quick sandwich. The weather has cleared up. It wasn't a long drive into Glasgow from Aberfoyle, our destination being the Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum. We went to the Art Gallery to look at the paintings but there was an exhibition of armour that was interesting and there is a natural history section as well that we saw some of. Particularly liked the rooms that had costumes and artifacts from various cultures around the world, Japanese, Maori, North American Native, India. We had a bit of a drive around Glasgow which was nice. Though Carole and I had done the tour last week, this time we got to see it under blue sky! The photos I took today, when compared to the same buildings I took photos in the rain last week, you would hardly recognize as the same buildings!

The hotel, the Forte Posthouse, is central, only a few blocks from the train stations in Glasgow. The luggage was already in our rooms when we got there. The room is small but comfortable. We are all meeting in the lounge for 7 for a group photo. In the mean time Carole and I walked down by the train station. I had wanted to go to the internet café and she wanted to do a bit of shopping at St. Enoch's centre

We took photos of most of the people we have spent the week with. We chatted and talked to Peter and Alec and later went in to dinner. We gave Peter and Alec their tips in the cards we had bought earlier and a lot of people were doing it at this time, before dinner.

The dinner was a buffet and quite good. The party broke up after dinner with hugs for everyone. Alec and Peter had disappeared before dinner and we didn’t see them again. Tomorrow we need to be at the train station by 9:30 for the 4 1/2 hour journey to London.