July 1

Just in case you are curious, there was still a fire in the lot out back even though it was much smaller, and there were still people there but maybe 6 or so versus the 15+ from the night before.  The pallets were still organized around the fencing and some were stacked into the pit shape with some broken ones piled high in the middle.  Something big going to happen!!

It’s July already!! When did that happen!  We got up very early to make sure we’d get to the ferry on time.  It was actually nice driving as there was hardly any traffic!!  We made it with time to spare and were put in a line.  This ferry was jam packed with cars, and buses and people.  We had stopped at a “quick mart” on the way back to our room last night and got some croissants, bananas, and milk to have on the boat; some passengers opted to buy breakfast on board.  The sun actually rose about 5 AM so we were in daylight the entire time and it was gorgeous on deck.  We are a bit leary about driving at night since we are driving on the LEFT and they say the headlights are a problem for oncoming traffic because our steering wheel is also on the left. The trip itself was about two hours and soon we landed in Scotland!  Lovely!!  

We waited our turn and departed along with LOTS of others, including those bit giant tour buses!!  Lots of green fields dotted with sheep and cows greeted us, as did stone cottages, and stone walls, and windmills.  I love how many windmills we’ve been seeing.  Europe is really taking wind power seriously!!  AND quite a few houses host solar panels on their roof tops!   

We needed some coffee so stopped at a quaint little place opposite Ailsa Island and had coffee and scones.  Scones are very tasty.  We didn’t realize that the large rock was actually an island until after we’d been seated.  We Googled the restaurant (thinking that its unusual name may have been the name of the rock!) and the island’s name came up.  It turns out it is privately owned and is on sale even, for 1,500,000 pounds, down from 2,500,000 pounds. :)  It is currently uninhabited but it sounds like at one point it was a pretty busy place, with its own castle, geese hunting, mining, railway, lighthouse, chapels, and pirates/smuggling!  They used to make curling stones from the blue honed granite quarried here.  The island was formed from the volcanic plug of a now extinct volcano and is currently a bird sanctuary. It really is huge, just sticking out of the water!!

We drove through the charming countryside with livestock and random ruins, and adorable little towns with their cobblestone streets and random ruins.  We were on a mission to get to Edinburgh.  We did do a drive-by of Glasgow but it was just a drive-by or drive-around perhaps.  

You can see Edinburgh Castle long before you get to her.  She is one huge castle, or actually fortress.  She’s been looking down onto Edinburgh as a castle from Castle Rock since the twelfth century.  It turns out that Castle Rock is also a plug from a now extinct volcano!!

Studies have concluded that the actual site has been occupied by humans since about 2 AD.  As one of the most important strongholds in the Kingdom of Scotland, it has been involved in quite a few skirmishes over its long history!  Our GPS directed us close (YEAH!) and we could park and walk UP to see if we wanted to tour or not.  It is amazing to see how these ancient stone masons worked WITH mother nature, and had a great deal of respect for her.  The castle looks like it grows out of the earth and is essentially part of the rock outcropping.  They trust that those rocks will be there for an eternity and not come rolling or crashing down!

We did stand in a line, that moved remarkably quickly, to get tickets to go inside.  Since she is a fortress it was interesting to see all she contained, for one, St. Margaret’s Chapel which happens to be the oldest building in all of Edinburgh; The Scottish National War Memorial (actually a “remodeled” building to honor those lost during the World Wars and other conflicts); the Governor’s residence (still is one so we couldn’t go in); the Queen Anne Room (original purpose they think was a kitchen, and also which wasn’t available today due to a wedding being held there!); the prison chambers; and cannons, and turrets and little shops and so on.  We also stood in a short line see some Crown Jewels, with the sceptre presented to James IV in 1494, the crown first worn in 1540 and these two used together in 1543. OLD! They were apparently moved and hidden to keep them from Cromwell’s army and rediscovered in 1881 by Sir Walter Scott (the author), except when they were found there was also a mysterious silver wand with these items.  They have never figured out why it was there or to whom it belonged.  We, along with a zillion other people, meandered around the grounds before heading back down the hill.  

We popped into several shops just to see what we could see (Most shops sell the same things.), had a quick dinner (We split a burger!), and then found a really cute repurposed church that housed a “local” market, with a nice variety of local vendors selling different things, most of which were their own handmade things---my favorite kind!  

We got back to our car and Googled/pulled up camping sites on our phone only to realize they’d all closed earlier!  WHAT?  And it was early, for us anyway.  Usually we’ve been lucky in they are open later, but no such luck today.  We stopped at a little town called Berwick-upon-Tweed (Just gotta love the town names!) located just over the border in England.  It was very quiet for a Saturday night and it still was not late!  We hoped the magic called Expedia would once again pan out.  But apparently something good was happening locally somewhere as almost all the accommodations were sold out.  WHAT! again!!  We scrolled and we finally found one room and it was a very, very good price and gave its address as Berwick-upon-Tweed, so we booked it.  Hmmm, apparently Berwick-upon-Tweed is the AREA around town as well-----it’s address was actually Ford, a short distance away--maybe a 20 minute drive.  

We drove on some nice little country roads, turning left here and right there and found ourselves in the driveway of a cute little stone house.  WHAT? Yet again.  It didn’t quite match the picture but the address matched and the phone GPS, aka Google Maps, said we had arrived!  Cheryl rang the bell and a very nice gentleman asked if we were looking for the Estate House.  Why, yes were were.  He said that there were four houses in Ford that had the same postal address and it happens all the time that he gets their visitors (We are not sure how you can have the actual same address but perhaps we misunderstood what he actually said/meant.).  He showed us we were only a block or so off and we headed in that direction.  Cheryl rang the bell, and waited. Rang again, and waited.  She then walked around and opened a gate and rang a different bell and 4 dogs came rushing out of a door that had been cracked open.  It was rather amusing as they didn’t see Cheryl at first and were barking at the gate and then, finally noticing, trotted over to check her out.  A very nice person answered the door and apologized for not hearing the front bell.  Although we had been confirmed she hadn’t gotten a text yet.  She hadn’t gotten to check her email; she probably thought she was done for the night!!  It was completely our fault as we were late booking but she was so great about it. We had a really cute and spacious room in a B & B aka a really old house.  We will have to do some research on it!!  We also had our own private bathroom just down the short hall.  The backyard was spacious and we heard doves cooing while we unpacked.  She asked about breakfast times and then let us be so we could get ready for the night.

Nighty night.