Last Day in Scotland

October 24, 2012

Though it was very foggy last night we ventured out to a great Italian place down the street.  Bc is amazing at parallel parking, on the wrong side!  We enjoyed our meal so much, we bought a bottle of wine to have tonight and found that the place will deliver a Parma covered mushroom and cheese pizza.  Yum!

For breakfast I had a croissant with goat cheese and tomatoes.  All heated and melty.  Nice.  Bc had a croissant with cheddar cheese, tomatoes and bacon. 

We found the post office and mailed off the TEP, which is the internet thingie we rented.  This time we were smart and remembered it was Wednesday and the PO closes at noon!

Off we went to see the Royal Yacht Britannia.  The now decommissioned Royal Yacht of Queen Elizabeth and her family.  Annie Macallan got us there quite well.  Driving in traffic with various 5 spoke round abouts can be very nerve wracking! 

The yacht is very nice.  We were surprised at how simple it all is.  The Queen’s room is sparse as is the Prince’s.  They are connected by a door.  We saw the State Dining room, a lot of the officers’ quarters and lesser staff’s quarters.  Bc was reminiscing about his time on the USS Enterprise!  It was a nice tour, very historic with lots of pictures and memorabilia. 

After that we had Annie take us to the Royal Botanical Gardens.  It turned out to be a nice, clear, cold day.  The gardens are lovely.  Though I suspect they are much prettier in the spring.  We ate a small bite at the cafeteria and rested our tired feet. 

For one last time with Annie, we had her take us to the airport to return her and the car.  She did a great job!  BTW, we drove over 1100 miles in Scotland.  We caught a taxi back to our B&B Violet Bank House.  Reta and John’s grandson Finley showed us all over the backyard.  He is "4 and ¾" and let us see all the secret spots in the back yard.  It’s gorgeous! 

We spent time reworking packing, ugh, and now we are enjoying some sherry and whiskey before dinner.  We will go to bed early as we have to get up at 5:30am!  Ick!

Please, say a prayer, keep your fingers crossed that our travels won’t be too difficult.  We fly early tomorrow to Dublin, wait all day and fly Aer Lingus to New York.  Spend the night at an airport hotel and Friday fly to Sacramento, via Southwest.  Kate will pick us up and voila!! We will be home. 

We’ve had a marvelous journey.  We’ve learned so much, enjoyed so many new things and are pleased that we had this chance to explore Ireland and Scotland together. 

Random Thoughts:

I have never seen so many red haired, adorable children!

Our knees, ankles and generally our bodies are weary from spending too much time walking and standing on stone floors, uphill treks and just general castle plundering 

The whole royalty thing is confusing and not that much different than our football/baseball/basketball stars, movie stars and other assorted “famous” people who we watch for some strange reason.

The drivers in Scotland and Ireland are so nice.  Always waving at each other (and not the 1 finger wave!), waiting to allow people to pass.  I think they might be run over on California’s freeways and streets. 

We are so pleased we missed an entire month of the US Presidential drama!

And lastly, “there’s no place like home….”

, bc and gc