Saturday, 4th of July

I just want Darrell to know that we are having FUN! It has been such a wonderful experience, we are unable to convey it adequately in words.

Today, we landed in South Queensferry, which is about 20 minutes outside of Edinburgh. Craig still isn't feeling very well, so he stayed on the ship and recuperated. He still has been running quite a temp, in spite of the antibiotics.

So, Vickie, Cathy and I took a shuttle into Edinburgh, which is the capitol of Scotland. The whole town is phenomenol. Many buildings dating from the 12th century on ... and I do mean many. Everywhere we looked we saw the most phenomenol structures. We took the hop-on-hop-off bus to see as much as possible, then decided where to get off on the second time around. We got off near Edinburgh Castle, had lunch at this neat tavern, then walked up to the castle. We did not go into the castle as it was way too crowded. We don't like being pushed and urged on ...

The city is so crowded, probably since it is a Saturday and the weather is gorgeous. Whenever we would start to get too warm, the clouds would hide the sun and we would cool down again. It wasn't the least bit cold, though.

My grandmother had told me that my grandfather's family was originally from Scotland. I found some information on the Murrays, which was fun. Doubt that he was a direct descendent, but it was still fun.

From the castle, we walked down to the Grassmarket area, which is a large square ringed by shops. There was a portable bandstand there and quite a few people were doing the tango ... with an instructor. A little further down, there was another portable bandstand but, before we could find out what they were doing, the bus came along and we hopped on again. Went by Holyrood Palace but couldn't go in, as the Queen was in residence. Craig forgot to send her a note letting her know we were going to be here or we would probably have been invited for tea.

Before we got on the shuttle to go to Edingburgh, we met this elderly lady who was trying to find out how to get to Edingburgh. She is 90 years old, in excellent physical shape, and is from San Juan Capistrano, CA !! We kinda took her under our wings and she stayed with us for most of the trip.

Cathy and I have decided that we love Scotland and would love to spend a week or two here in the future. It is such a beautiful country and the people are phenomenol.