Fountain Court Harris Edinburgh

We are visiting the UK and Norway at the end of May and first part of June in 2010. I have never been to Europe and am very excited about it.

Our daughter has been attending Kingston University this past year so we are going to see her, travel and pack her up to come home. We have family in Stavanger so we don't need hotels and ...

312 miles - set off at some un-Godly hour to drive from Chesterfield to Fife, Scotland to watch football! Trish likes the journeys but thinks the idea is crazy. Anyway, we are here now! Prior to the match we walked around the town - NOT Scotland's biggest attraction. Anyway, 2:30pm and I arrive at the ground ready for the match. One stand is fairly ...

FINALLY, a real trip!

So randomly decided on Friday to accompany my friends on their Edinburgh day trip. Not for anything touristy, just to check out the place. Heard it was gorgeous, so why not?

After crawling out of bed at 5.30am, we got to the bus terminal for 7 and hopped onto the Megabus down to Edinburgh. Nice, quiet ride, nice little nap.. until they tell us that we have to change in Dundee. Ugh.

Out ...

... sent to key Scottish towns to destroy the Scottish spirit. This was the story made famous by Mel Gibson in Braveheart.

However within a year, Robert the Bruce, son of the man who betrayed Wallace, had himself crowned King of Scotland at Scone and became a legend in Scottish history when outnumbered 2 to 1 he defeated Edward II 20,000 strong army at Bannackburn in 1314. This eventually resulted in England recognising the Scottish ...

... the train was just pulling away from the station. Apparently, Mussolini was alive and well. I was frustrated, but enterprising, and I hopped on the next train to Edinburgh, which was fortuitously about to leave in five minutes.

I should mention at this point that my loo break had some surprisingly far-reaching consequences. On Saturday, it meant I had a pretty long amount of time to spend in Edinburgh, which I had planned on visiting on Sunday. Edinburgh ...

... trying to figure out where to eat. We ended up at one of the themed pubs, the Frankenstein pub. This was kind of cool, and as you can see from my pictures, the burger I ordered was HUGE!!! I couldn't even fit my mouth around one slice of the bun! After Frankenstein's we headed back to Glasgow, ready for the next day. The whole city of Edinburgh is really, really neat because it just feels sooo SCOTTISH! Kilts everywhere, pubs galore (including an abundance of fun ...

... Right? I'm confused. Must be because I'm writing in the Present. So let's just start at yesterday morning. I left the B&B for a short drive to Edinburgh (Ed-in-bor-row). I once spelt that Edinborough and was told I was wrong. That IS the way it sounds. Why is language so confusing? It's like Loch Katrine is spoken Cath-her-in by the locals, and not Ka-trin as in latrine (la-trin). Any ways, enough about language. I arrived at ...

TUESDAY, 21st November The Roslyn Chapel was not far from us so today we took the ring road again and turned off towards Penicuik. Shortly after there was a signpost to Roslin village. They had a brand new paved car park and we were the only ones there to start with. [We were informed later that if we had arrived on the weekend we could hardly have moved for the crowds ] No fee in the car park!...until we entered ...

... providing us with accommodations, food and even a few beverages (though the Mcewans and Laphroic were great, the Kicking horse coffee especially stood out!). Beyond the B+B treatment, Craig also took me out for a morning of skiing... Now, when one thinks of Scotland, one does not immediately associate skiing, especially in August, with it. Well, let me tell you ladies and gentlemen, it can be done, and thanks to Craig, I did it. How it works: You strap on ...

... she knows. Definitely a cool group of kids to hang out with. It was me, Lindsay, Rick from Amsterdam, Monty from Finland, Tyler from Washington state, and Peter from Austria (who btw, looks JUST like Ryan Cabrera!) We were kicking it at the tavern for awhile and then after it closed at 1am, went back to Tyler's place where we processed to hang out and play some card games and stuff. good times! those boys were freakin cool- esp the Ryan Cabrera look alike ...