Edinburgh

Lesson number 1 - make sure you speak the language! We've been on the road for a while and decided tht we needed our jeans and sweat shirts washed. The hotel offered "Laundry service" so off went the offending articles, to return later that day, beautifully dry cleaned for the price of about 25 pounds - nearly $50!!! Things are incredibly expensive here - cup of tea for 3 pounds in some places.
Day 1 - two rather jet-lagged Canadians arrived early in the morning and left their bags at the hotel to wander around Edinburgh. The hotel is very well placed - only a short walk to the Castle and the "Royal Mile" which goes from the Castle down to Holyrood House, with many kilt shops on the way, all playing bagpipe music. We went into St. Giles Cathedral which was had beautiful stained glass windows and a side chapel called The Thistle Chapel (note to any speech pathologists reading this - if this had been the sixth chapel we had seen that day, it would be a really good tongue twister!)
Day 2 - My sister Pat came in last night to see us and she took us to the Castle today. It's built on a volcano and is VERY OLD! John of course took many pictures of guns and carvings. We have chosen a good time to come to Edinburgh as it's really out of the tourist season so there are not that many people around. Pat took us to a wonderful French restaurant for lunch - see picture of us with the wine waiter, Joel.
Day 3 - Royal Yacht Britannia complete with Rolls Royce and military band. I have now requested a band for our boat and of course a 12 piece bone china dinner service. We felt that we had to have a cream tea (scones with butter, jam and tons of clotted cream! see photo). Britannia is no longer the Queen's yacht and I can't imagine what Prince Phillip's comments would be if he could see us commoners tramping through his beautiful ship!
John is trying to fix our blog so people can leave comments - but it isn't working yet. I'm deliberately keeping the postings short so you just get a taste of what we're doing and where we're going. I'm off down south tomorrow to spend 5 days with my old school friend Jane, leaving John here in Edinburgh for a couple of days. He's planning to go to see Rosslyn Chapel tomorrow (of Da Vinci Code fame) and then he's off to Manchester to seek out lost relatives. We'll meet back in London next weekend. He assures me that he will be fine on his own, but I must confess to some anxiety leaving him along with his new bionic heart......