Julie's comments are in BLACK and Judie's are in BLUE and italicized

A word of warning...this article is long and has lots of pictures. It is not very gadget related - but it does describe a good time. We hope you enjoy our trip. ☺

Friday / Saturday
Julie: We left Columbus, Indiana and drove to the Indianapolis International Airport at 8am. We got on a 2hr flight at 11:30am for Dallas, TX where we met up with Judie and family.

Judie: We, on the other hand, had a four hour drive to get from San Angelo to Dallas.

Julie: We had several hours until the flight to London, so we got a bite to eat and sat around flipping thru Judie's gossip magazines.

Judie: What can I say? Not only do I have subscriptions to T3, Handheld Computing, Pocket PC Magazine and Pen Computing - I also have subscriptions to Star and Us. <blushing furiously>

Julie: The flight to London lasted 9hrs and was probably the most uncomfortable flight I have ever been on. There just isn't enough knee room between you and the seat in front of you.

Judie: Julie and I made a pact that the next long trip we make, we will book just as far in advance as we did this one, and we will use some of the substantial savings to upgrade to a "more legroom" class.

Julie: Definitely! First class even had foot rests... ahhhhhh, my kingdom for a foot rest!.... British Airways does treat their customers very well though, we were watered and fed several times throughout the flight.

Judie: This is true. We were treated to a better than average airline meal, the drinks were free, and there was even a "tuck" box in the rear of the plane when we wanted something sweet or salty to snack on.

Julie: One cool feature of the flight was the color LCD monitor on the back of each seat. Through it, you could watch movies and even track the progress of the plane as time went by. A membrane style remote was in the arm rest of every seat. You used this to change channels, adjust volume levels and even toggle the overhead light above your seat.

Judie: The seats we were in had a remote control like Julie described, but it came out of the seat arm and was attached with a cord. It also functioned as an in-flight phone - not that I wanted to make any calls for $5 a minute.

Julie: I didn't even notice it was a phone too! Darn! I watched 2 movies on the way to London. The Antwon Fisher Story with Denzel Washington which was pretty good, and a lame family movie called Touching Wild Horses with Jane Seymour. Although every passenger was given a set of headphones to use, I used my brand new Bang & Olufsen A8 earphones. WOW, they are the most comfortable earphones I've ever had. I was able to leave them on almost the entire trip and didn't even notice they were there. They have great sound while not isolating you from the outside.

Judie: I watched The Four Feathers and Special Ops - which was so bad it put me into a stupor. I used the headphones provided by the airlines - and after a while, my left ear went numb; I won't be doing that again. I am open to suggestions for portable headsets...anyone?

Julie: Ok, so don't take my word for it that the B&O's are the most comfortable ever! <pout>

Judie:  Well, we can't have matching everything, now....can we? ☺

Julie: After what seemed like a millennium, we arrived at London Gatwick early Saturday morning. Unfortunately, we had yet one more flight to take before reaching our final destination.

Judie: Gatwick was different than other airports I have experienced for several reasons. The first being that after we were let off our Boeing 777, and after we had cleared customs, we were let into a communal area which meant that we had to go through yet another security check-in before we  could board our second British Airways flight. I thought it would have been more efficient if they had kept us in a secure area and just allowed us to board. The other major difference was that our pictures were taken as we checked in this second time. As we walked to our gate, our faces were compared against the digital photos in British Airways database at the next checkpoint. We didn't have to show our passports again, which I liked. It wasn't like an American airport where they want to see your driver's license and boarding pass at every point.

Julie: Soon we were loaded onto another plane for a short flight to Scotland's Edinburgh airport. By the time we unloaded, and retrieved our luggage, I think we were all about ready to collapse.

Judie: It was shortly after 10:45am UK time - but it was 4:44am at home. Jet lag was setting in...but we still had to catch a cab and get to our Flat.

Julie: Speaking of luggage, I brought along a great little gadget called the TravelTow. It's a rugged plastic handle that you can attach (with two very strong Velcro straps) to the existing handle on your rolling luggage. The nice thing about it is that it swivels so that you can hold your arm naturally as you walk with it. I really liked it, and it is now permanently installed on one of my bags.

Judie: We walked out the baggage claim doors to one of the more organized cab queues I have ever seen. All these funky little cars were lined up and we were pleasantly surprised to see that all of us and our luggage would be able to fit in a single cab.

These cabs look deceptively small on the outside - but they can hold 5 people with luggage comfortably

Julie: Due to some advice that we had been given here on the site, Judie and I were both worried that we wouldn't be able to all fit in one cab with all our luggage. Our fears were unfounded though as we had no problems at all piling into a standard sized cab. Soon we were headed to our rented flat in Edinburgh.

Judie: Riding down the "wrong side of the road" was an experience in and of itself! Cars were darting in and out from everywhere - buses were pulling out in front of everyone, and we could quickly see that we had done the right thing by not renting a car to use in town. Honestly - I am afraid that if I had been behind the wheel of a car there that I might have endangered everyone on the road! We would soon find out that as long as we were in town there really wasn't any need to have our own car; cabs and buses were readily available almost everywhere, and walking was almost always an option.

Julie: When we arrived at the flat, we were happy to see that the lady we were renting from was already there and had everything ready for us. The flat was very nice! Clean, bright and well equipped. We were so lucky to find it! If any of you are thinking of taking a trip to Scotland, you MUST contact Mandy to check out the availability of vacant flats. They are so much nicer than staying in a hotel!

Judie: We stayed in the Grange Flats at 64 Findhorn Place. This was a Victorian building dating from the late 1800s, and though completely modernized, our Logan flat retained the quaint charm of the bygone era. The ceilings were at least 12' high and there were large windows in each room - making everything seem open and bright. Radiators and space heaters kept the rooms comfortable - and believe me, they were needed as it was in the upper 30s outside. Our flat could have slept 7 to 8 people, but since we had no where near that many with us - we were quite comfortable. (Oh - if you do contact Mandy, PLEASE tell her we recommended her flats so that maybe she'll give us a discount in the future.)

Julie: Since we had all been up for almost 24hrs, we crashed and took a 2hr nap. Once we woke up, we were hungry and ready to explore Edinburgh just a bit and find somewhere to eat. Oh, just for future reference, EDINBURGH is pronounced as Edin-burrow, and not Edin-berg like an ice berg.

Judie: We also heard that you can also call it Edin-bruh. I think as long as you say it like you know what you are talking about, no one will argue with you.

Julie: We were a little apprehensive about how the food situation might be there. Several people had mentioned that the food pretty much sucked. Boy, they couldn't have been more wrong! The restaurants and food there in Edinburgh were some of the best that we have ever had the opportunity to visit and eat! And talk about variety, every block probably had 3-4 different restaurants of different ethnicities.

Judie: I had not seen such a selection of Indian, Thai, African, Chinese, Italian, Mexican, Lebanese, French, Nepalese, Japanese, and of course basic fish and chip storefronts in any city other than maybe New York! This doesn't even include the little French and Scottish bakeries that dotted every block. I could tell right away that my fears of having to cook every meal in the flat's kitchen were completely unfounded.

Julie: That first night, we were fortunate enough to get into The New Bell Restaurant which was only 2 blocks from our flat. It was here that we had our first taste of Haggis, and we loved it!

Judie: Who would have thought it! I ordered the Haggis because I figured, "when in Rome," and we all took turns savoring it. While I am sure that there are places in Scotland where the Haggis is bad (just as there are places in the US where you don't order certain food items), we can highly recommend the New Bell for their fabulous Haggis. We also had ribeye steaks and assorted desserts. Let me tell you right now that the ignorant stereotype of UK restaurants' meat being boiled down to bland rubber does not hold true in Edinburgh. The meat was tasty and cooked to perfection. One stereotype that did prove true was the cold and damp weather, and we were walking - but hey - at least it wasn't far and we had dressed for it.

Julie: After the meal, we headed back to the flat since it was late and most shops were closed.

Judie: We were tired anyway, so we figured that if we went to bed we would escape the worst of the jetlag effect, waking up the next day ready to explore!

Sunday
Julie: We all got up bright and early to start our first day of sight seeing. Upon leaving the flat, we were greeted with a stiff breeze and temps around 40 degrees F. For myself, the weather wasn't a big problem. This winter in Indiana has been one of our coldest and snowiest to date. Scotland actually felt warm to me. I don't think Judie and family quite felt the same way...

Judie: No - we were freezing! We live in WEST TEXAS, where we had already been enjoying spring-like weather before this trip. Even though we knew it was going to be cold and wet in Scotland - knowing and experiencing firsthand were two different things. Thankfully we had come with leather jackets, scarves and caps. I definitely needed a pair of gloves, which I figured I could pick up later.

Julie: One of our first stops of course was for breakfast. We found a nice little diner and were treated to tea, and morning rolls with bacon. To translate, it was hot slices of ham on a warm roll. Yum!

Judie: Slices of ham with butter on them! It was different, but very good. I also had one of my many Scottish lattes...for those of you that like to indulge - you will definitely love this city! Almost every restaurant serves coffee drinks, and if that isn't enough for you, there is even a Starbucks on the Royal Mile!

Julie: Soon, we were out the door and heading in the general direction of Edinburgh Castle. Along the way, we became typical tourists, gawking and pointing at every interesting building and point of interest. Anyone interested in old architecture, would be in heaven while visiting Edinburgh.

Judie: We took pictures of everything! One of the less obvious but very cool features of the buildings on the Royal Mile were these little alleyways, called closes, that run in between the tall buildings. Some of them had doorways leading into homes, businesses, or restaurants along their way; some of the Closes were more like traditional alleys - acting as strict shortcuts between blocks. Most went up and down steep sets of steps - showing that the tall buildings we were standing in front of on the Royal Mile had even more stories than they at first appeared. We would learn more about that later, when we took the vault tour on Thursday.

Julie: We were also amazed at the fact that we saw almost no large vehicles. Definitely no Sport Utility Vehicles. Cars were either compact or subcompact in size.

Judie: The largest personal vehicle I saw was a Jeep Cherokee. We saw plenty of the new (and old) Mini Coopers, Vauxhall's (Suzuki's) and lots of cool little energy efficient cars made by automobile names you would recognize - but models that we will probably never see here in the US, which I think is a shame.

Julie: Once we reached the Castle, we went on a self guided tour.

Judie: We wandered all around, taking pictures like the tourists that we were, and we generally were in awe of our surroundings and several facts: first of all - the age of the castle and the volcanic rock upon which it was built, secondly - that the castle had been built at all. In case you have never seen a castle (which was me, before this trip), it is almost impossible to fathom the amount of labor and craftsmanship that goes into creating a structure like this. It was massive, beautiful, and more than just a little bit intimidating. I drug everyone into every castle gift shop hoping for the perfect souvenir - but in the end only got a couple little things because I was discovering that the pictures we were taking were going to be the best souvenirs of all . Here are some of the shots we took from inside the castle area...

                    

Julie: I didn't buy much at all as far as souvenirs on this trip either. I was more interested in seeing things then shopping. All the shops in Edinburgh were fun to check out though, and there sure were a LOT of them!

By the time we finished at the Castle, we were ready for lunch. We lucked out by going into the Scottish Whiskey Museum Restaurant where we had our second great meal.

Judie: I spent most of the meal (when I wasn't savoring my honey-thyme chicken) convincing everyone that we should do the whiskey tour - even though none of us even gives a fig about whiskey! But then I wound up changing my mind because I wanted to see what was down the street. We had the woolen mill across the street, Camera Obscura, and a bunch of cool churches we would eventually have to explore.

Julie: The Woolen Mill was really cool. You could look down onto all the looms and even learn a little about the history. The sweaters, blankets and scarves that were for sale were gorgeous. Expensive though!

Judie: In years past, I was active on the Eldorado Woolen Mill's preservation board, which supports one of the last operational mills in the southwestern United States. I was interested to see that the machines used in the Scottish mill were almost identical to the Texas machines - they even looked to be of the same era, late 1800's to early 1900s.

Julie: At this point we started the trek back to our flat. On the way back we stopped into many shops. The city is a shopper's dream.

Judie: But amazingly enough, we really showed remarkable restraint and didn't buy much at all.

Julie: After we got back to the flat, we started the process of downloading the pictures that we had taken that day to Judie's 5GB PCMCIA card. Using her 5455 iPAQ, Whitney PC card sleeve and I-O Data Reader we pulled pictures from the Memory Stick that my Sony DSC-U20 used and CF card that her Canon S320 used. We also used Pocket Internet Explorer and the built-in viewer to look at some of the pictures. Jeez, those two apps are painfully slow!

Judie: Well, we started with Pocket Internet Explorer - which was incredibly slow, and then we used Picture Viewer expecting to see an improvement in speed...and there was, but not much of one. :0P Transferring the many pictures, some of them quite large, took a little while. I wound up just setting my iPAQ on the floor as the pictures moved from card to card, and we switched between the four channels available to us on British Television.

Julie: Using Judie's NEXcell charger and our voltage converters, we also took turns charging our digital camera batteries. I love that little NEXcell and want to get one of my own. I really like the little tune it plays when the batteries are fully charged. It's fast too! The charger that came with my U20 took over 8hrs to charge 2 AAA batteries while the NEXcell took less than 2hrs!

Judie: I actually wound up buying a blue U20 after admiring Julie's on the trip, and I can definitely vouch that the NEXcell charger  is wayyyyyy better than the included Sony version.

Julie: Speaking of voltage converters, both of us bought one for the trip. Mine is called the Voltage Valet and came from Packinglight.com. It came with several different plug adapters. I used it with my hair dryer and various PDA, camera chargers. It worked great, although I did notice that when using the hair dryer with it, that the dryer felt as if it was running slower than it should have.

Judie: We brought a converter from Magellan. We had a little bit of a scare when we were charging the iPAQ because the lights started flashing between red and green on the converter, the charger was warm, and there was a noticeable burning smell! Of course, neither of us had bothered to read our chargers' instructions, but once we did, we found that the switching lights and the warmth were normal. We just figured the smell was because the charger was new. This turned out to be the case as it never did that again after the first night.

Julie: Most evenings we watched TV there in the flat. No offense to any Scottish people reading this article, but your TV channels are lame! I think we had 4 to choose from. I did notice that they allowed the F-word and once we saw a commercial for toilet paper that showed a bunch of butts! Ha! Supper ended up being Chinese which wasn't all that great because we had it delivered to the flat.

Judie: Now that I look back, I don't know why we didn't just make ourselves rest for a while and then go back out, but it's true - we ordered in, and that was the last time we made that mistake. With all the great restaurants right there in our neighborhood, we should have bit the bullet and gone out. Ah well, we were exhausted. I for one had not done that much walking in years!

Julie: Me neither! But, I'll tell you what, it sure makes you sleep good at night when you're exercising like that all day.

Monday
Julie: Another chilly, gloomy morning greeted us as we started out for Waverly Train Station to see about tickets to Chester, the walled city. As it happened, we decided not to go due to the expense and time. Instead, we booked ourselves on a double-decker Mac Tours tour bus and gave our feet a rest for a little while. As we rode the streets of Edinburgh, a very nice lady narrated the trip, giving us interesting information about buildings as we passed by them.

Judie: First we rode the red Mac Tour line, from which we saw pass by: the John Knox house, the Elephant House where J. K. Rowling penned the first Harry Potter book, the art school where Sean Connery posed nude (!!!), the Greyfriar's Bobby tavern and statue, the Scott monument, Alexander Graham Bell's home from before he emigrated to the US, the homes of many more famous, infamous, and literary people whose names just screamed their history to us. I have to admit that even though I knew that there were many notable Scotts, this tour just drove it home for me even more.

We were suitably impressed. In fact, there was so much history being revealed to us on the bus tour, that Steve and I almost decided to take the tour again the next day! After we rode the red tour route, we hopped the blue tour bus, and enjoyed another ride to the Botanical Gardens. As we were making our way across town, we passed a huge private school that our guide told us cost �23,000 per year for students to attend. He named several famous people who had attended, including British Prime Minister Tony Blair and James Bond author Ian Fleming. Interestingly enough, he said that Mr. Fleming had written that James Bond attended the school, too. Then the guide proceeded to tell us that Sean Connery had also been to the school - but as a milkman! Who knows if it was true or not, but it sure was fun!

Soon, we arrived at the Botanical Gardens. We spent about an hour there, marveling at the "glass houses" and their interior ecosystems and their accompanying plants. They were amazing!

   

Julie: There was even a jungle room that totally fogged up your glasses when you walked in. It had to have been a hundred degrees in there with 99.9% humidity. For awhile, we forgot all about being cold!

Riding this tour bus was a great way to find ideas for places to visit further. As a result, I knew I wanted to check out the Scott monument. The tour lady also told us about Jenners, the oldest department store in the world. I wanted to get a look inside that store as well.

The last stop for the bus was at the Royal Yacht Britannia.

The Royal Yacht, Britannia

So we hopped off and headed into the Ocean Terminal shopping mall for lunch and a tour. The mall was nothing out of the ordinary, but we did notice that Scottish stores seemed way more trusting than US stores. One of the electronics stores had a small table at the opening of the store with a variety of mobile phones just laying there. Anyone could have just walked by and snatched them up!  We also went into an Orange store and ogled at all the itty bitty phones that neither of us could use here in the states <sniff>...

Judie: It hardly seems fair (not that anything ever is) that in the US we don't have as excellent of a digital infrastructure as they do in Great Britain. We want cool phones, too!

Julie: After lunch, we went on a self-guided tour thru the Royal Yacht Britannia. It was interesting, but not especially exciting. Although the yacht has only been retired for a little over 5yrs, the furnishings just seemed old fashioned. Actually, I believe they were from the 50's.

Judie:  That sounds about right. I guess this was the first time I saw things that actually had been used by a living monarch, and I was just expecting things to be a little bit more ostentatious. We were told though, that the Queen is actually quite frugal and thrifty, so I guess that explained it. I did think it was a little bit weird that in the bed chambers there was a twin size bed for Prince Phillip, a twin size bed for the Queen, and the only double bed in the history of the boat was the one Prince Charles had had brought on for his honeymoon with Princess Diana.

Julie: I agree, that was strange about the sleeping situations... But you know how old married couples can be ;o) I was also surprised to learn that they still have dinners and events on board the yacht. While we were there, there were people in the kitchen working. Also, when we walked by the little onboard canteen area, the man there had fresh chocolate fudge that he let us sample. Once we were finished with the tour, our feet were tired and we were ready to head back to the flat for a brief rest before supper.

Judie:  Steve was worn out from all that walking, so he wound up staying at the flat while we went to have dinner at DeNiros, which was an excellent Italian restaurant. By the time we got back, he had caught his second wind and had gone up the street to get some fish and chips. He still had room for the tiramisu I brought him, though.

Julie: Steve missed a good meal too! The Bolognese spaghetti was wonderful. Unfortunately, I was a klutz and somehow managed to break a plate as we were getting our coats on to leave. The waitresses there didn't look any too pleased... They also gave us funny looks when we kept asking for extra ice for our drinks.

Tuesday
Julie: Judie's and my families went our separate ways this day as we all wanted to do some different things. It was a really crummy morning, with wind and rain. So, we called a cab and had it drop us off at the Royal Mile which is the heart of everything, so we wouldn't have to wear ourselves out walking that far right off the bat.

The first order of business was to book an all day tour for the next day to the Highlands. We wanted to see the countryside.

The next item on the agenda was to check out Camera Obscura. We had seen the building the prior day, and knew it was supposed to be a good photo opportunity. It actually also turned out to be part museum, and part amusement. After paying our entrance fee and learning that this was Edinburgh's oldest attraction (over 150yrs), we were instructed to climb up 6 flights of stairs. This was the real start of Julie's fitness vacation, let me tell ya! Anyway, once at the top of the building, we waited for the demonstration. When it was ready to begin, we all filed into a small room and gathered around a round white table. The lights were then dimmed and we were told about the camera that protruded out of the roof of the building. Soon we began to see the live image of Edinburgh Castle and the streets below us appear on the white table top. After the demonstration, we made our wait out side to take a few pictures down to the street below. Unfortunately, it began raining again, so we cut that activity short. On the way down the 6 flights of stairs, we stopped into various rooms that housed interesting photographic displays and hands on exhibits. Very cool 3D holograms were all over the place.

View from Camera Obscura

It was still raining pretty hard, so we decided to duck into a really cool pub called the Filling Station for lunch. What made this pub so interesting, were the old gas pumps and car parts that decorated the walls. Their food was good too!

Once lunch was finished, the weather started looking up, so we thought it would be a good time to check out the Scott Monument. 287 claustrophobic steps later, we arrived at the top.

Up, up and away!

Word of warning, if you are a large person, you might not be able to make it all the way to the top of this monument as the stairway narrows considerably the farther you climb. We were lucky that we didn't meet anyone going up or down as it would have been almost impossible to pass each other. Once we did make it to the top, the views were fantastic! It was also cold and windy! From there we could see the Jenners department store below which we had heard about on the bus tour the previous day. We decided to make that our next stop.

Me in front of Scott Monument, View from on top of the Scott Monument, and Jenners Department store

After a brief visit in the store, which had a great 'old store' feeling but at the same time had totally modern wares, we headed back outside.

Next stop was St Giles Cathedral. We had been intrigued by this building due to the top, which looked like a crown. Built in the 1100's, this just building oozed history from every stone. Surprisingly, we learned that it is an living church with an active congregation. The large pipe organ and beautiful stain glass windows were breathtaking.

All day, I kept wondering what Judie and family were up too...

Judie: We started out with breakfast at Biblos, a bar by night but a great coffee house/deli by day. Next, we took a cab to Holyrood Palace. Our cab driver was something else! He wanted to know where we were from, and when we said Texas, he said, "Ah - so you are Texicans!" We loved the term, which believe it or not, we had never heard. Then he started asking all kids of questions about America, like how much did our gas cost, how efficient were our cars, etc. etc. He told us that his cab got over 30 MPG, which I thought was pretty amazing. After a stern warning about how unless we were totally "into royalty" we should skip the expensive palace tour, he let us off at the gates.

The minute we walked through, I was so glad we had come! It had nothing to do with royalty so much, but everything to do with history and seeing things that were ancient and massive.

We took the tour of the palace marveling at the sheer size of the rooms, their furnishings, the plaster work on the ceilings, the antique furniture, everything was just amazing! Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take any pictures from inside the palace. Trust me though, if you ever find yourself in Edinburgh - take the tour. It lasts about an hour and it is well worth the time and the expense.

We had a great tour guide that told us many stories about the former occupants of the castle and the times they lived in. Right away, Steve, Sarah and I were whispering back and for that we were going to watch Elizabeth, Rob Roy, and Braveheart as soon as we got home!

When we reached the bedroom of Mary Queen of Scotts, the tour took a turn for the dramatic and even my daughter Sarah - in all of her 13-year old coolness - got caught up in the moment...The story was how Mary's adviser/lover was having dinner with her and two ladies-in-waiting. Her husband came up the secret passageway by her bed and entered the little room where the others were gathered. He grabs the lover, and stabs him, then drags him into the outer room, where he leaves him to bleed to death! It didn't really sink in that this was more than a history lesson, until Sarah called me over to look at a plaque on the wall in the next room which stated that below it was the place where the body had lain. I told Sarah to look down, and I thought she was going to come out of her skin when she realized that the ancient wood floor appeared to be stained where the body had lain! The cost of the tour was worth the look she had on her face! ;0)

After the palace tour, we explored the adjoining abbey's ruins.

We then decided to couple some shopping with our sight-seeing, and so we headed to Princes Street. We had lunch on the 5th floor of a department store, and enjoyed a great view of the Scott's monument across the street. After lunch, we started a l-o-n-g walking tour that took us by the Greyfriar's Bobby tavern...

...and of course - the Elephant House, where Sarah and I got our pictures taken next to a sign that told about J. K. Rowling having written there.

As we were darting into various stores, we actually ran into Julie and her family! We heard about each other's days, and agreed to meet back up at the flat for dinner after a while.

Julie: By then, I was ready to collapse and shortly there after, we hailed a cab for the flat.

Judie: When we got back, we were once again so exhausted that we had to take a cab when we left for dinner at Izzi, a Japanese restaurant.

Julie: Which again, had great food! I even ate it entirely with chop sticks which I've never done before. Ha!

Wednesday
Julie: We got up early to head back to the Royal Mile to catch our van to the Highlands. We booked with Rabbies Tours, and I can't recommend them enough! Our tour guide was Shelby, and she was awesome! A master story teller, comedian, and even a singer, she made the whole day a fun and educational experience. The tour we chose was the Loch Lomond National Park & Stirling Castle tour.

As we made our way out of Edinburgh, Shelby entertained us with the story of William Wallace (Braveheart). The first stop on the tour was the castle. It was a beautiful day, blue sky and no wind (yes, we were still in Scotland). As such, we were happy to take an hour to walk around exploring the castle. According to our tour guide, Stirling Castle was called the 'Key of Scotland' and even more important than Edinburgh Castle as far as defending the area. This castle had more of a castle look to it too.

An hour later, we were loaded back in the bus and on our way towards the Highlands. During the ride, Shelby gave us another story, this time of Rob Roy who was the Robin Hood (sort of) of the area. We stopped in a small town called Aberfoyle and ate lunch at the Forth Inn. I had the Mince and tatties which translated into what looked like ground beef in a rich gravy with cooked carrots. The tatties were potatoes. It was YUMMY!

Once lunch was finished, we were back in the bus and heading farther into the Highlands and to Loch Lomand. We did make a quick pit stop so that we could meet Hamish the Hairy Coo. The Hairy Coos are cows that look unlike any cows you see here in the states! Hamish was a sweetie though and would eat food from your hand... you just had to watch out for the slobber! Eck!

We bid farewell to Hamish and drove the rest of the way to Loch Lomand. Loch Lomand is a beautiful lake that inspired a song that I'm sure 99% of you have heard before.

O ye�ll tak� the high road and I�ll tak� the low road,
And I�ll be in Scotland afore ye.
But me and my true love will never meet again,
On the bonnie, bonnie banks o� Loch Lomond.

After everyone finish snapping their pictures, the tour was finished and we enjoyed the ride back to Edinburgh listening to Scottish music. What a great day! We loved it so much that we decided that we would do another one.

Judie: This was Steve's and my first day with just the two of us in Scotland, so we decided not to waste a moment. As we walked downtown, we created a massive plan of attack. First, we climbed the Scott's monument - which was an experience in and of itself. There were points in the tight spiral staircase when I thought that I was going to have a claustrophobic fit - and I am not claustrophobic! Reaching the top was worth it - the views from up there were simply incredible.

Next, we explored the Princes Street Gardens, which are basically in the area that was once the moat for the castle. According to our tour guide, the gardens had once been full of water and dead bodies (!!!) to keep enemies away from the castle. It was hard to imagine what it must have been like at that time, because in the present day it is a beautiful, serene park.

No dead bodies here...that we could see!

We lined up with the locals and grabbed some take-out from the Mark's and Spencer department store deli, then we sat on a bench in the park and ate a very tasty lunch. Afterwards, we caught a cab and headed to the Nelson Monument on the top of Calton Hill.

We climbed to the top of the monument, and I was happy to see that this spiral staircase was quite a bit wider and more user-friendly than the one at the Scott's Monument had been. Once to the top, the views were simply amazing!

After leaving Calton Hill, we ducked into an ancient cemetery, where we were surprised to see a huge memorial to Abraham Lincoln. It was dedicated to the Scots that had died during the Civil War and in the fight for US slaves' emancipation. This cemetery was one of the most gorgeous I have ever seen - the tombstones were like something out of a gothic novel.

Next, we toured the John Knox house, which is one of the few (maybe the last) homes left in it's original medieval state in Scotland. Now, just in case you don't remember your history - I will over-simplify and tell you that John Knox was a protestant that did not approve of the Catholic Queen Mary in the least. John Knox was a contemporary of John Calvin, and Knox was the founder of Presbyterianism in Scotland.

After leaving the Knox house, we were famished and so we ducked into DeliFrance, where we enjoyed awesome French goodies and coffees.  After getting our second wind, we caught a cab home and met up with everyone else.

Dinner was at the Wild Elephant, an excellent Thai place.

Julie: Yes, yet again, another great meal! That reminds me another interesting thing about Scottish culture that we should mention. If you're the type of person that likes to gulp down your food and then dart out of the restaurant, you're going to learn a lesson in patience if you visit Scotland. No one gets into a hurry there. Meals are a relaxed affair... which is a nice thing as far as I'm concerned. And another thing that really impressed me, when your food is served, it is piping hot! Not like here in the states where luke warm is about the best it gets sometimes.

When we got back to the flat, I found out that my Tungsten|T was deader than a door knob! I'm so glad that I have taken up better habits and was able to restore everything using BackupMan from Bits n Bolts. Thanks Mike!

Thursday
Julie: The previous day was a relaxing day (mostly), so this day was to be another beat-your-feet-on-the-pavement-day. We started out by having our taxi driver take us up to Calton Hill where Judie and company had been the previous day. Unfortunately, there were buses blocking the entrance, so we had to walk up the to the hill on foot. It wasn't really that bad, but it got your heart pumping.

Once at the top, there was a great view of the town below. We also climbed the 187 steps to the top of Nelson Monument. We got some pretty good shots of the area. The building with the pillars pictured below is known as the Shame of Edinburgh. It was originally called the National Monument and was meant to be a replica of the Parthenon in Athens. Unfortunately, they ran out of money and never finished it.

Does the Nelson Monument remind you of anything? It was decided to look like an upside down telescope.

Nelson Monument and view of the Athenian style acropolis from the top

We walked from Calton Hill to Holyrood Palace. Like Judie and Steve, we found it to be really impressive. The royal family actually lives there 1 week out of the year. We also got the story about the bloodstain on the floor boards in the bedroom of Mary Queen of Scots. But, our guide also told us that the floor had been replaced several times through the years and every time the 'stain' had crept back into the wood. Spoooooky!

The Holyrood Abbey ruins there are also very impressive. The history of this building spans 800 years.

Abbey Ruins

After the tour, we made our way back up the Royal Mile and found a little pub to have lunch. This was a real old time pub. The locals were eating there. You think they could tell that we weren't locals? ;o)

Judie: By this day, Steve and I were nearing our limits on the amount of walking we could do anymore. Call us wusses, but oh well. We thought we would take it easy and catch a cab back to the Ocean Mall, see a movie and have lunch at the Ocean Kitchen again. Once we got to the mall, we saw that the earliest movies weren't starting until after 2pm! So instead, we enjoyed an early lunch at the OK, which left us time to ogle the classic cars on display in the mall. I could totally picture myself cruising in the vintage Cobra or Jag we saw there . After a while, we caught a bus back into town, and once again decided to walk around and explore some of the shops and sites. Amazingly enough, after a while we found that we were in the vicinity of DeliFrance again - so we had to duck in for some refreshments.

We were supposed to meet up with Julie and her family at 3:30 for the underground vault tour, so we started to head towards the Royal Mile. Since we had a little bit of time left to kill, we checked out St Giles, a gorgeous church on the Royal Mile.

We also stepped into the Police Station which had several interesting items on display - including a card case made from the skin of one of the first serial killers in Scotland...eeeeeeeeeeeeeew!

Julie: Burke and Hare were their names. They would dig up the graves of freshly dead people and sell their bodies to the local medical school. Once they got tired of digging up graves, they just started just killing people instead... less work that way!

Judie: Shortly afterwards, we met up with everybody and got ready for the tour. Just in case any of you have forgotten - it was COLD outside and the wind was blasting and it was drizzly! We sat on a bench near the place where the tour was to start...and my teeth were just chattering away!

Julie: I was actually freezing my buns off this time too! The wind there really cuts through you!

Judie: About 20 minutes later, the tour group was assembled and we were on our way. It seemed like it just got colder and colder - and the wind was stronger and stronger...and I was just about ready to quit the tour and go back (seriously) when we finally entered an unmarked black door on the side of a building that took us into the beginning of a section of underground vaults. What a freaky underground world! If you can imagine a city under a city - rooms where people lived, worked, and did their thing underground, then you will have an inkling of what this place was like. In later years, the vaults were used as storage for wine and beer - since the underground temperatures and conditions were ideally suited to this purpose.

The vaults were actually the under-supports for the tall buildings that make up the bridge that composes the Royal Mile. Of course, when you are standing on the Royal Mile, you would never even realize that you are actually on a bridge at all, what with the tall buildings on either side of the road - but you are! It's amazing!

Julie: It was very cool. It's too bad that we were too tired and cold to take one of the ghosts tours.

Judie: After the tour, Steve and I headed back to the flat. We were cold and wanted to warm up a bit. After resting, Steve and I took a hike up the block to Pataki, a fabulous Indian restaurant. Steve had never tried Indian before, but he was game. Afterwards, he said it was one of the best meals he had ever had in his life! If you knew my husband, then you would know that that was saying a lot!

Julie: Ha! Every meal that he ate, he said that it was one of the best meals he'd ever had. Just like you would say that every latte that you drank was the best ever!

Judie: Now hold up - he would say that various meals he would eat were the best he had had in Edinburgh - but if you ask him, he will say that the Indian food at Pataki was one of the best meals of his life. Big difference. ;0)

Julie: We weren't up for Indian, so we found a great little place that served a dish called Steak and Ale Pie. This was chunks of beef in a beer gravy with a flaky biscuit-like top over it. Yum, yum, yum!

Friday
Judie: We had finally reached our point of exhaustion. We decided that since it was our last day and we had seen just about everything that we wanted to see, and had done everything that we wanted to do - and since we had already decided that we would be returning one day - we would just take it easy! We slept late, then walked to Pataki again for Indian food. Yes, we were hooked! Afterwards, we strolled up and down the block looking at antique stores.

After a while we went back to the flat and just chilled. Julie and her family were on another tour, and we were wondering if the week was starting to catch up with them yet, or if they were doing just fine...

Julie: We were pretty tired too, but we couldn't resist taking another tour into the countryside. I could spend everyday doing things like that! This time, we took the Highland Waterfalls, Gorges & Whisky tour. Our tour guide for this trip was Alec. And as luck would have it, our tour guide from the first trip was riding along.

This time, we were off for a tour of the Famous Grouse (formerly Glenturret Distillery), the oldest (legal) distillery in Scotland, established in 1775.

On the way, we stopped to see the Forth road bridge and rail bridge. The bridges which are over 1 mile in length, are parallel to each other. The rail bridge which looks really modern (at least to me), was actually built in the 1880's!

Soon we were back on the road and shortly arrived at the distillery. Now, I'm not really a whiskey drinker, but the tour was informative and fun. I was snapping pictures along the way and about halfway through, the guide told me that pics weren't allowed. Oops! At the end of the tour, we were given a little test to see how well our sniffers (noses) were for picking out the different tastes that go into a blended whiskey. Afterwards, we even got to drink a dram! Wow, no wonder the Scots like this drink. It really warms you up! I think it even made the side of my throat numb! Ha!

 
Secret pictures of the distillery...shhh...

We ate lunch there and couldn't resist getting the Haggis Neeps and Tatties. This time the haggis was a bit different. More peppery... but good. Neeps translates to cooked turnips. I didn't get overly enthusiastic about eating them! Hehehe.

After lunch, we all piled back into the van and made our way to the 'Birks of Aberfeldy'. Here, Alec asked if we would all enjoy a wee walk to see the waterfalls. Of course we said yes. We were wondering why Alec was only in short sleeves though, and didn't wear a jacket. It was pretty chilly out. We thought we was just being macho. About 10 minutes into the walk, we found out why... Alec is a power walker! Yikes! I think I needed an oxygen tank by the time that wee walk was finished!

The views of the falls were worth it though! Everything (including the trees), were moss covered.

Judie: Later in the day, when Julie's family got back, we all went to enjoy one last Scottish meal at the New Bell Restaurant. Once again, our meals were fabulous!

Saturday
Julie: Oh boy, we were all up at 3am for the trip back home!

Judie: Our plane was set to leave at 6:30, so thinking that as in America, we needed to be at the airport two hours in advance - we got there at 4:30. Well, imagine our surprise when we found that we didn't need to be there 'til 45 minutes before the flight! At least we were first in line, but I sure could have used that extra hour in bed.

The flights home - even though they were longer, seemed shorter. I watched 8-mile, and fell asleep soon after Analyze That had started. It was on this flight that I also saw something that I have never seen before - and maybe some of you can tell me if you have ever encountered it: the people and their children that were sitting in front of us would actually clamber like monkeys over each other to get out of and into their seats! Instead of one getting out to let the others in and out, the person that wanted to leave or come back in would just step over them onto the armrests of the seats. Is this normal?

I was glad to get back to Dallas - even though we still had a four hour car trip ahead of us - I was looking forward to the comfortable chairs in our Ford Expedition!

Julie: They had it a little luckier than we did. We had to take another flight from Dallas to Indianapolis. Then an hour's drive home. Needless to say, we were glad to be back, but wow, what a great trip!

We only took the gadgets with us that we really needed. Living without a laptop was hard (especially when I got home and had over 1100 emails to wade through!), but at the same time, this was a real vacation... away from technology... for the most part. Our main gadgets were our digital cameras. And I have to say that the tiny Sony DSC U20 served me well!

Judie: Guess where we're planning to go next year? Africa!

Things We Experienced That We Hadn't Expected
We saw many people with jeans and white sneakers on - both locals and tourists. You won't stand out if you wear them.
The food was wonderful.
Take Away is the same as Take Out, and is about 15% cheaper than dining in at the restaurant.
The sinks had separate spigots on either end of the bowl. One for hot and one for cold... and we're talking scalding hot or freezing cold. No in between.
Make Way signs that look like Yield signs are the same as Stop signs.
Coca Cola there doesn't taste the same. The ingredients even mention 'vegetable extracts'.
The water quality is excellent for drinking right out of the tap - and just about cold enough, too.
There is not a central water heater in each home - instead each shower had its own heater that had to be turned on before you got in. You then had to adjust a dial to pick your temperature - it took a little while before we were able to keep it from being either scalding hot or freezing cold.
People - even the older ones - are generally very friendly.
Almost nobody in service industries expects a tip.
While it's not cheap, it is no more expensive to do anything in Edinburgh than it is in any major US City. That goes for tours, dining out, and grocery shopping.