Tonight I danced in Scotland

Note: I wrote this post Monday night, but I lost the wifi signal before it was done, so it is going up later than it should.

First, jet lag is gone! Thank goodness.

Our day began with birds singing, the city buzzing, me calling Brian a CORNHOLE. Whoops. We're creatures of habit and when our morning doesn't include his coffee in bed and me getting a shower, it tends to breed a wee bit (oooh, see my Scottish turn of phrase) of animosity between us.

So my hair ended up in a ponytail and it only took 10 minutes or so in the bus to get distracted enough to kiss and make up.

First stop if the day: Edinburgh castle. It was a bit rushed, but we got to see Scotland's Honors (the crown, scepter, and sword), the Scottish soldiers memorial and a fantastic view of the city from the top of the hill.

Look, a castle!


And a band in full regalia!

This was our guide for the morning. He was verrrry animated.



Here's Brian at one of the city overlooks. We were cutting it close to get back to the bus on time, and they leave WITHOUT you if you are late, so we didn't get one together at that point.




The street up to the castle was VERY uneven and cobblestone-y. I took a pic of our feet, but my phone was out of battery and I had to switch to my camera, so I'll be posting those later. Also, no pics of Scotland's Honors. They wouldn't allow cameras.

So, after the castle, we got back on the bus and went to Rosslyn Chapel. Any Dan Brown fans out there? Apparently this place was in The Da Vinci code. I never read it. But the chapel was beautiful. And it was out of the city a little bit, so we got to see some very scenery.




Isn't that pic a-mazing? I didn't take it, it's a post card. My pics were crap, and they had scaffolding on one side.

After Rosslyn, most of the group went to see the Royal Britannia. Brian and I decided to skip it and spend some extra time on the Royal Mile. We went in some shops, I bought a scarf with the Anderson tartan, since Grandma told me we have Anderson in our family tree somewhere, ate lunch (okay, so we had chicken wings - not super authentic Scottish food, but it was really good), and did the Scotch Whiskey Experience. We got to see the biggest whiskey collection in the world, as well as taste 5 different whiskies. I had a blended whiskey, Ben Nevis, that I actually really liked. The lowland single malt that I tried was very good also. The one from Islay was so smokey it tasted like eating a smoking log.









We finished the tasting at about 6:02. We were supposed to be at the bus to go to dinner at 6:30. And we reckoned that it took us about 20 minutes to walk to the Royal Mile. So, we walked out the door and it was....raining. So Brian and I ran through Edinburgh in the rain...well, it was really like walking with extreme purpose but we made it back to the hotel in 11 minutes. Which was good because we were SOAKED and had to change for dinner. We made it on the bus at 6:27 or so. Yay, us!!!

Dinner was at The Scottish Experience, which was a dinner show with singers, dancers, and musicians. It was at a little hotel. A little posh hotel that had peacocks roaming around. Yup, peacocks.

We sat across from a nice couple from Dallas named Betty and Bob who have been married for 59 years. Betty reminded me and Pat of Mimi. Something about the way she talks, I guess. (Hi, Mimi!!!)

At one point they did a partner dance and went out to the crowd for volunteers. They asked me, but I said no. Hahah, yeah right - I'm not going to turn down a dance! So tonight I danced in Scotland and it was fantastic. Brian took a video, which I will have to upload later.

After my dance, they got some more volunteers and did the Virginia reel!

It was a really fun show. We got back to the hotel around 10:30. I'm trying to get sleepy, but I'm pretty hyped up from having such a great day.

Tomorrow we head to St. Andrews, Pitlochry, and Laggan in the Highlands. Can't wait to see the countryside. The city is cool, but what I really love to see is the land.

This pic is for Brian and he'll know why. :-)


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Edinburgh