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Published: January 3rd 2006
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Hello again!
Well, we made it back safely from our Haggis Tour. It was tiring but awesome, & it was great to hear about the history of Scotland from our driver/tour guide, as it gave the places more meaning.
On our return to Edinburgh it was great to have a bit more space to ourselves in a hotel (as opposed to a hostel), & the next morning we headed into the city to look around Edinburgh Castle. When we arrived there we saw several sets of friends we had made on the Haggis Tour, as they were all having an extra day there (or staying for Hogmany) so we caught up with them around the castle. It was an amazing castle - we were pretty much all castled-out, as we had visited so many on our tour & had seen enough, but Edinburgh Castle was well worth it. You could easily spend a whole day there. We saw the Crown Jewels & the Stone of Destiny, as well as being there for the One O'Oclock Gun. The castle is on a huge cliff & you get a fantastic view of the city. Really excellent!
From there we did
a bit of shopping & spent far too much money. Vaughan & I just couldn't seem to stop buying things in Scotland. We jumped in the van & went on a tikki tour around the place (there is Old Town & New Town in the city centre, to look around) & we also went out to the coast to a place called Portobello. We really enjoyed Edinburgh & it seriously made us wonder what we were doing in London. So that's something to look at in the future, maybe after Winter. From there we went to a place where my Dad's grandmother had lived, in the Caledonian area, which was quite close to the central city. We had dinner in a great pub in Old Town called the White Hart, which has a real spooky history, & I ate haggis - it was actually really nice! Then we went on a
night tour around Edinburgh's underground vaults, which are these extensive underground tunnels that run underneath the city. These vaults used to house small business stalls (such as cobblers), as well as many drunks & postitutes, back in the day. There was also a tunnel to the Medical School at the
University, where a dodgy doctor paid two men to murder various people, & bring their bodies to the school so that he could study anatomy. It was basically the seedy underbelly of the city, but was really interesting to look around. It had previously been filled with rubble, but a big excavation operation began in 1981, with the tunnels safe to open to the public in 1996. We basically tried to fit in as many things as we could in Edinburgh, as after the tour finished it was time to head to Glasgow, which was about 1 1/2 hours away by car. We arrived at 10:30pm so it was dark by then & we didn't really get to see any of Glasgow when we came in.
The next day we drove down the coast through Port Glasgow & Greenock to a place called Wemyss Bay, where we caught a ferry across to Rothesay, on the Isle of Bute, where my some of my Dad's family had also come from. The ferry could take cars but we didn't take the van across. The journey was quite enjoyable, even though it was low in visibility due to fog & snow. Rothesay
was much bigger than I had imagined & it was situated around a half moon bay - mostly holiday homes (not fancy NZ style but old fashioned UK style), plus a few shops. There's also a ruined castle there. It seemed like quite a nice place to go for a Summer holiday - you can also take bus tours around the island. It was pouring with rain by the time we were there, so I had a quick photo in front of the Old Town Hall (my family owns this land) & a look around the town for a few minutes, before sheltering in a nice cafe & having some hot soup & coffee for lunch. We then headed back on the ferry, drove back up to Glasgow & tikki toured around there briefly (we didn't really stop anywhere in Glasgow except the Hotel) & got kebabs for dinner to take back to the Hotel.
In the morning we did the burn back to London in the van. It had taken us 8 hours to get there on the way up, but ended up only taking us 6 1/2 on the way back, so it wasn't too bad at
all. We were quite disappointed to leave Scotland, & almost immediately on re-entering England, noticed the increase in pollution & traffic. We really enjoyed ourselves in Scotland immensely & look forward to making it back there one day.
That's it for now. Take care, guys!
Love Toni & Vaughan xxxxx
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