Adventures in Scotland

I cannot even begin to express how nice this week has been. Being in a home and with a family has felt like a luxury, especially after almost 6 weeks of hotels and hostels. The Greens have been fantastic and we've enjoyed getting know them! They've also been a huge help in determining what we would do here. The house is in Balerno, so we take the bus into the city most mornings, which is about a 30-45 minute ride, depending on traffic. We've spent quite a bit of time walking the Royal Mile, which is a stretch of road between Edinburgh Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse. Scotch whisky being the national drink of Scotland (much as Guinness is for Ireland), we took the whisky tour and barrel ride to learn more. We took a really fun tour on Mary King's Close, which is an underground tour of what used to be the streets, or closes, of Edinburgh. The streets used to slope downwards from the Royal Mile to the river, but eventually stores were built on top of the old streets on level with the Royal Mile. So some of the old streets and houses are still underneath. Emilio and Valerie had suggested that, so the four of us did that, and enjoyed it quite a bit (for those of you who don't know, Valerie is my cousin who lives in New York and just happened to be in Scotland at the same time as us...Emilio is her boyfriend).




On Monday we took a bus tour into the Highlands, which was amazing. It's beautiful and we actually were fortunate to have lovely weather. It sprinkled a few times, but other than that, it was really nice. We stopped about an hour and a half into the day for a coffee break. Rather than having tea or coffee, Rebecca and I fed Hamish, the Highland Cow. He's awfully cute! Our ultimate destination was the Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle. Rebecca and I explored the castle pretty thoroughly before having a lengthy chat with "Nessie" concerning reality vs. myth. It was a fascinating discussion! On our way back, we stopped in a lovely town called Pitlochry, where we enjoyed a nice stroll.




























































Tuesday we were back into Edinburgh to visit Edinburgh Castle and Camera Obscura. The castle was fun...we had a map and tried to make it to all of the stops. It's fairly intact for an old castle, and we enjoyed exploring its many heights and depths. They also have on display the Honours of Scotland, which include the sceptor, crown, and sword used for coronations in the past. After dessert and tea later on, we went to camera obscura, which Amy had suggested (Amy and Julia are 15 and 12 respectively). It's a very simple concept that was built 150 year ago. A mirror reflects an image onto a white table, and by moving the mirror around, one can get a 360 degree view of the streets of Edinburgh. The rest of the exhibits vary, with things such as optical illusions and the like.

Wednesday was an adventure in and of itself. For those of you reading Rebecca's blog, this will be repetitive, but I feel that I must present my version of events. To begin with, let me explain an important feature of the house. The house we're staying in has a closed in porch, with a door leading inside and another leading out. We usually leave our shoes here when we come inside. Because we have been returning home after everyone else, we don't take keys with us, but typically when leaving you need a key to unlock the door from the inside, which then locks automatically when you shut it behind you. Then you need an additional key to unlock the next door leading out. Alright, so the stage has been set (you can probably see where I'm going). Suzanne had business in London, so she left early that morning (she normally works from home). Andy had left for work and the girls had headed off to school, leaving us to get ready for a day trip into Glasgow. We walked onto the porch where we put on our shoes and I quickly checked to make sure I had everything before closing the door back inside (which automatically locks, remember). As I counted the money in my pocket, Rebecca went to open the outside door, only to find that it had been locked. Our eyes met in horror before quickly turning in desperation to the door we had already closed behind us, finding of course, that it had locked. A moment of panic passed before I pulled out my phone and address book and dialed Andy's number. It didn't work. I hope you can imagine this. We're stuck in a warm, glassed-in room, Rebecca pounding on the glass, shouting, "Help! Someone, help!" while I'm trying not to hyperventilate at the thought of being stuck until 4:00 pm when the girls would get home. After a few minutes, Rebecca was able to get the attention of a neighbor, who looked at us oddly before coming over to see if we were okay. Just as he came near, I was finally able to get through to Andy. He ended up coming back to the house to rescue us and then dropped us off at the train station so that we could continue on to Glasgow. Altogether we were trapped for about an hour. You know, many people manage to lock themselves out of places, but I think it takes real talent to get locked in. And Caitlin, before you say anything, this does not prove your point about us getting into trouble more often than you!!!

Anyway, after this incident, we did enjoy our time in Glasgow. We found a sweet shop we had read about online and ended up chatting with the lady, Julie, for a while, which was lots of fun! We saw St. Mungo's Cathedral and museum, as well as the People's Palace and Winter Gardens. On our way back to the train station, we checked a few shops. Once back in Edinburgh, we did a little shopping and then headed back to the house.

Today is Thursday. We've mostly stayed around the house today, enjoying some relaxation before flying back to Ireland tonight. Valerie is going to be in Ireland at the same time as us, so we're planning some activities with them in the next few days. Stay tuned...