We took the train to Edinburgh. We stored our luggage at the hotel and headed for the sites. Of course the first pic is of Edinburgh Castle. The piper was playing on the street. We stopped for lunch but it was nothing special. We then walked to Holyrood Castle, the Queen’s official residence in Scotland. The tour was really good with the audio guide. The tour included the abbey ruins and some of the gardens. It was getting to be dinner time, but we were in no particular hurry. However, we passed a shop with the most delectable looking cakes in the window and they also had scones with jam and clotted cream. Clotted cream is delicious. We decided that would be our dinner. We then were making our way back to the hotel and I had to take a pic of the Robert Burns monument. The weather is a bit chilly especially when it is windy, but we didn’t have rain today.

We left Glasgow at 8:00am for the highlands. The trip was 550 km for the day. Of course it was a day of magnificent scenery. The pictures may not reflect how beautiful Scotland is because it was cloudy. However it didn’t rain. Our first stop was Loch Lomond. We then continued on with brief photo stops until we stopped at Fort Augustus. Then we went a little further and stopped at Loch Ness for lunch, but we didn’t see Nessie. We had lunch at Loch Ness – I had haggis on toast with Drambuie sauce and Marsha had potato and leek soup with a side of turnips. Haggis tastes like the scrapple I ate all the time in Philadelphia. We continued thru the highlands learning much about Scottish history. We got back to Glasgow at 8:00pm. Tomorrow we go to Edinburgh.

We spent the morning planning our last week. We thought we would have no trouble finding rooms but were we wrong. Glasgow seems to be a happening place in the fall so we spent the morning looking for rooms, arranging a tour for tomorrow and buying tickets to London so we can fly out of Heathrow. We also plan on spending a couple of days in Edinburgh. It has been cloudy and rainy but at least the morning and afternoon were not rainy. I took a pic of one of the buildings.

We did a lot of walking around Glasgow and I found the TARDIS! Dr. Who is in Scotland. It is bigger on the inside!

The concierge at the hotel recmended a Thai restaurant so we went there got dinner. As usual it was wonderful. Appetizers- chicken spring rolls and fried corn cakes. Marsha had tofu, broccoli, carrots and more in a creamy chili sauce. I had sautéed pork bellies with basil and chilies. We had sides of rice and bok choy.

I forgot to mention yesterday that from the port in Scotland to Glasgow the bus drove along the coast. Again spectacular scenery and winding roads. It was almost like being on a tour. Tomorrow we are going on a long day tour to the highlands and Loch Ness. We have a very early start in the am and don’t get back until late.

We took a package trip that was a trip to the port in Ireland, the ferry crossing and the bus to Glasgow. The ferry was really nice but it was raining so no opportunity for pics. We got to Glasgow about 5:30pm therefore it was pretty late when we checked into our hotel. We got settled and then went out for dinner. We found a tapas restaurant. We had sangria and Marsha had each had 2 tapas dishes. When we left the restaurant it was raining so we went back to our hotel. It is supposed to rain tomorrow and we are trying to plan what we will do.