Scotland Part I

Greetings All,

I've been back for almost a week now and I still haven't found the time to put pen to paper (figuratively speaking of course) about my trip to the 'old country'. I apologize profusely. I've been awfully tired and plagued by migraines this week.

Scotland was surprisingly sunny and warm (well, warm for there... I think the warmest day was 18 degrees Celsius). Not all of the time that I was there, but certainly for a fair amount of the time. As always, my relatives were wonderfully hospitable and a pleasure to spend time with. It's nice to have nice relatives. T'would be horrid to have horrid relatives.

So, what can I say about Scotland??? The people are polite, the architecture is old, the grass is green and everything is expensive. I went to visit the new parliament buildings in Edinburgh: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/nmCentre/images/latest/index.htm and took a tour that was quite enlightening and only cost about 3.50 pounds. That was quite reasonable we thought.

I was once again amazed at the how the people don't seem amazed by the buildings all around them. I know that they're used to them, but it always surprises me in Europe when I see such old, beautiful buildings and people just live and work in them like it's nothing. We wandered around Edinburgh for the day and went to see the resting place of 'Greyfriars Bobby'. This is a dog about whom Disney made a movie some time ago. Apparently the dog belonged to the groundskeeper of the Greyfriars Churchyard (cemetery) and would run about the city all day but would always come back to the churchyard at night when the keeper would lock the gates. When the keeper died, the dog would sleep on the keeper's grave. Mine is not a good telling of the story... for a better rendition, please click on the link: http://www.greyfriarsbobby.co.uk/story/story.html

The next day, we went to visit the Falkirk Wheel: http://www.thefalkirkwheel.co.uk/index.asp This is apparently the only one of its ilk in the world and it joins two canals that are at rather different heights. It's pretty cool.

So I was reminded of how much more efficient the rest of the western world seems to be at mass public transit than we are. I took several trains while I was in the UK. It really is the better way there. It's cheap, quick, easy; it gets you right to the centre of the city and you don't have to worry about parking (which really is at a premium in a small place). They are almost always on time, and the people working there were even polite.

So that was the first leg of my journey in Scotland. I'll write more when I'm not so tired. Until then, I remain,

The Artful Traveller