July 9

At 10:30am our travel day began. Remember that wacky rental car we reserved when we were running around Heathrow? We picked it up with no real trouble. Ain't that a shocker? We pulled out of the York train station and Amy immediately began screaming that I was going to hit the parked cars on the side of the road. Aw heck, at least I was on the right side of the road... er the left side. Whatever.

We soon got onto a straight road that was only half as small as the smallest road in the U.S. Everything was going well until we got to a roundabout. I got in ok, found my turn ok, but I forgot I had a slightly wider turning radius now that I was on the other side of the car and bump bump I was on and off the curb. Dang.

Ok, so we were on the road now and cruising along and warp eight because the British don't drive slowly. Talk about weird, I had to move to the left so people could pass me. We developed a great way to help me stay in the lane. Amy would say "hugging" and that meant I was getting close to the edge. The louder she said it the closer to the edge I was. Egads she said it loudly.

I think the biggest problem I had was that I didn't get a chance to see the countryside we were driving through. Zoom. Was that a quaint little village? Zoom. Was that a forest? Zoom. What the heck was that? Basically, I was totally consumed with driving.

It was 150 miles from York to Edinburgh, but we decided we'd stop at Hadrian's Wall. That wacky Emperor Hadrian had a wall built all the way across the British isle to keep the even wackier Scots at bay. Where the wall crossed a river was a fort of sorts called "Chesters" complete with a bathhouse. Absolutely amazing.

On the downside, it was our first experience with foot and mouth disease. Since the ruins were in the middle of a large field surrounded by farms we had to drive over disinfectant pads on the way in and out of the parking lot as well as walking on them while entering and leaving the actual field. Pretty spooky.

From Hadrian's Wall we took all the tiny roads north across the Scottish border (just like crossing the Washington/Oregon border except you can still pump your own gas in Scotland) and into Edinburgh. We finally arrived at our B&B on the outskirts around 3:30pm.

Our room was comfortable, well-appointed, spacious and complete with a hostess and dalmation intent on making us feel at home. So very nice after arriving in York to find we'd been moved to a different place due to urine. Although there was a spot we could park right outside the B&B I resolved not to even think about getting back into the car until it was time to go. The bus sounded mighty nice to me.

Edinburgh is a splendid place. While London seemed too large to grasp and York to small and limited, Edinburgh seems to strike a perfect compromise. Although I'm sure there's more to the city we found the Old and New Towns to be nearly perfect. From New Town one can't help but marvel at the skyline of Old Town and Edinburgh Castle.

The Castle sat on 200 foot high cliffs and sets the nobility apart from the layperson while constantly reminding the people down below that they held all the power. Isn't that what a castle should do?

Between the Old and New Towns there's a deep gully that looked like it should have contained a river, but had only railroad tracks and a park. In London there were tons of really old buildings, but they were interspersed with newer buildings. In Edinburgh every building looked amazingly old. All along the "Royal Mile" (the street between the Castle and the royal residence) the buildings were a dirty grey with tiny alleys and gothic spires.

The effect of all this is far greater than the gardens and squares of London or the wall and Minster of York. While the other cities felt somewhat modern with old spots in them Edinburgh seemed more like an ancient city with a couple of Starbucks and Pizza Huts.

At the end of all this I'll pick where we'll have a vacation home outside the U.S. There's still far too much still to see, but I think both of us agree we'd love to return here and spend more than the day and a half we're allowed.

July 10

We started the day back up at Edinburgh Castle. Thick black clouds were building on the horizon, but it wasn't raining yet so we bundled up and crossed the ditch and stood at the base of yet another wall. The winding road (built by prisoners of war) went around through another gate. There was also a set of stairs that went pretty much straight up called the "lang stair," but these were so steep the likelihood you could go up while people didn't want you to was very low. These defenses were so formidable the Castle was never taken by a direct frontal assault.

Cannons look out over the city, though you really couldn't see much for the clouds. When the sky broke open and began dumping we continued walking around while everyone else ran for cover. It was great because we were able to have the outside all to ourselves, but when we tried to go inside we found the rooms packed, hot, and stuffy. Ick.

In a little garden just over one of the walls was a tiny little cemetery with undersized tombstones. It's where the dogs that campaigned with the troops were buried. It made us long to play with Tokul.

Every afternoon at 1pm they fire a cannon to mark the time. Why 1pm and not at noon? Our guide, who happened to be Irish, said it's because the Scots are so cheap they'd rather fire it an hour later than waste eleven extra shells. He never did tell us the real reason.

When we left the Castle we headed down the Royal Mile. At some point in the past Amy's family covered up the fact they were Scottish by declaring they were English instead. Why? Hard to say, but there we were in Scotland with newfound knowledge that Amy was of the Clan McKinnon. How many places could there possibly be in Scotland (of all places) where they'd sell tartans? Turns out there are a lot. A lot. In the end we came away with me still in pants, a couple of scarves, and a sweater or two. I think we got off easy.

We ran back to the B&B to change and then headed off to climb Arthur's Seat. The Seat is a mere 800 feet tall, but with some amazingly strong winds it felt higher than that. From the top we could look all the way around since there's nothing taller in all of Edinburgh. The part of the town we had explored was tiny compared to the sprawling modern town that stretched all around the Old and "New" Town. As tempting as it was, we had no time so we didn't get to explore the rest of Edinburgh.

We did, however, decide that after warming up back at the B&B we'd head to the pubs for dinner. We hit a bunch of different spots having a drink in each of them. We were feeling fine when we wandered into an Irish pub (yeah, I know, we're in Scotland) where we watched a bit of Gaelic Football (there's a weird sport) and had a bit more to drink. We listened to some live music, had a few more drinks, and then realized that unless we wanted to walk all the way home or catch a cab we needed to run to the bus.

We headed out the door, took a right, took another right, took a left, took a right, took a left, took another right, and, oh crap. Isn't that the bar?

Well, we missed the bus, but worse than that we realized we really had to go to the bathroom after all that wine and cider. Amazingly we walked faster and faster until it seemed we were almost running the last couple of blocks. Oh, sweet, sweet release. It wasn't long until we were both sound asleep after that.

When morning came we had a tasty Scottish breakfast, said goodbye to the hosts (and their dog), and climbed back into that crappy car to head south. Click here to follow us.