Edinburgh

May 1

Today we spent the day in Edinburgh. We started off with a bus tour of the city. Our guide boarded the bus and gave a narration as we drove through the city. Most of this part of the tour was through the new city which dates from the Georgian period (1714 - 1837).

We ended up outside of Holyrood Palace where part of our group disembarked for a walking tour of the old city with a different guide than the one for the bus tour. We entered the grounds of the palace which serves as the Queen's residence when she is in Edinburgh. Our guide provided us with a listening device so he could talk to us as we walked along.

The Holyrood Abbey is also on the grounds. It is ruins but was still very beautiful to see. They also had several gardens and we were here at the right time to enjoy the spring flowers.

When we left the palace grounds we proceeded to walk up the Royal Mile. This is the street that leads up hill to Edinburgh Castle. The castle is on the highest point in the city. Along the way we saw several old buildings and our guide filled our heads with lots of information about the history of the city and its rulers. One of the houses we saw was John Knox's home one of the oldest in the city.

We passed the current Scottish Parliament building. 

We saw the World's End Tavern. The guide said it got its name because this was the site of the old city wall and beyond it was the rest of the world.

We also walked through a close which is an alley that leads to buildings behind the main street. 

We went through Saint Giles Cathedral.

We finally arrived at the plaza in front of the Castle. Norman had our tickets so we proceeded to enter and avoided the long line waiting to buy tickets. 

At this point we were on our own to explore the Castle. We walked through the royal apartments, the museum and even got to see the crown jewels. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures inside. 

 

We also had a great view of the city and could even see the waters of the North Sea.

When we finished touring the castle we headed back down to our hotel stopping for a light lunch at an Italian restaurant. We split a chicken Stromboli. We rested in our room and then explored a few of the shops in the vicinity of our hotel.

The last event for the day was a group dinner at a venue outside of town. We were treated to a Scottish Dinner including Haggis. We had bagpipe players and dancers. The highlight of the evening was when they called out our names and brought us champagne to toast our 50th wedding anniversary. Norman had arranged this and we really appreciated it.

Wales and the Lake Region

April 29-30

Sunday morning was an early start as we had to be on the ferry before the 8 o'clock sailing, so we boarded the bus at 7. The good thing was I slept most of the way across. We got to see some lighthouses both as we departed and then arrived in Wales.

Ireland

Wales

Once we landed we headed towards our first stop of the day at the town with the longest name in the world. Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogeryrndrobwllllantysiliogogogch.  The name means 'the church of Mary in the hollow of the white hazel near the fierce whirlpool and the church of Tysilio by the red cave'.

From there we continued on to Caernarfon to view the castle where Charles was crowned Prince of Wales on July 1st 1969. 

We spent a couple of hours there touring the castle eating our lunch and enjoying the town.

It was also the home of David Lloyd George the British Prime Minister during World War I.

We finished the day by traveling to our hotel for the night which was near Chester. It was an old manor house Grovsnor Pluford Hotel and Spa. It was nice but a very confusing walk to our rooms as they were in the midst of doing renovation. We had a very nice group dinner and then retired for the evening.

Monday the 30th we left the hotel at 8 and headed from Wales back into England and then on to Scotland. 

Once we were off the motorway we drove thru the Lake District. The roads were narrow and hilly and we wondered how the bus was going to make it but we did. We saw lots of sheep and stone walls, lakes and beautiful scenery.

We stopped in the town of Grasmere and visited St. Oswald's Church. This is the place where William Wordsworth is buried. We explored the town and enjoyed the quiet countryside.

We even got some gingerbread at a little bake shop.

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Our next stop was the village of Gretna Green in Scotland. This town is just over the boarder and was the destination of eloping couples from England after the laws changed in the 1700's. It was still legal to marry at 16 without parental permission in Scotland. The town makes a big deal of this and there are shops and souvenirs to be had. They even still do a lot of weddings and one was taking place while we were there. This was also a lunch stop and we ate a snack on the bus.

We continued on to Edinburgh and our hotel for the next two nights. We had some free time before having our group dinner on the top floor of the hotel. It was a nice location as the wall of windows gave us a grand view of Edinburgh Castle on the hill over looking the city.