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Published: October 1st 2018
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Note on a question about marrying in a blacksmith shop from yesterday: It was the law in Scotland that anyone could marry you if you stated you wanted to marry. Actually, you could even be “handfasted” by just reciting vows stating your intention. That was not the case in England. Thus the dash to the border by those who, for whatever reason such as parental disagreement, “ran for the border” to get married. The Blacksmith Shop was the first building on the border. Those to get married shared their vows from opposite sides of that anvil if the blacksmith shop was where you exchanged your vows. Another little tidbit we got was the fact that depending on where you said your vows, either outside or in a room in the house...THAT was the place you had to sign the official registry book.
Another note on a comment about advantages of taking tours from yesterday: Yes, going with a tour group enables us at least to see MUCH more than we would likely do on our own. We are pretty good at seeing things when we travel in the states in our car or RV. Having also been with RV caravans,
we know that there can be a great deal more to see and learn about. Since we are relative “newbies” traveling overseas, traveling with a tour is our method of choice right now. CIE is the best we have been with. They really keep us hopping, and I know that there is much more that we could see, but we are seeing a lot more than we have with other companies. Another plus is that there are no “options” with CIE that make you feel like you have to pay extra if you want the full experience.
Report on yesterday evening: First we had a cocktail reception just for our group and then were “piped” into the ballroom for a short bagpipe concert and a question and answer session. Then we enjoyed another delicious 3 course meal after which there was music and a little Ceilidh dancing instruction. We had a good time, but were ready for bed when it was over. This is a really good group to travel with.
Our time to be on the bus was a very luxurious 8:45 today. We took a city tour in our coach and were eventually unloaded to walk
up the Royal Mile to Edinburgh Castle for a walking tour around the outside of it before we were released to look on our own. We went into two parts that we did not see on our stop here last year. They were the War Memorial and the Great Hall. After that, we wandered around the Castle area for awhile before heading back down The Royal Mile looking at the architecture and stores with a stop for lunch. There was still an amazing number of folks there on the first of October (Happy Birthday, Lennie by the way!). Today was a somewhat raw weather day...cloudy in the morning, but the temps started dropping after 12:00 and the wind picked up. We had two choices on our transportation back to the hotel—3:00 or 6:30. Since we were here last year and the weather was starting to deteriorate, we decided to take the 3:00 bus and have a quiet afternoon. We were glad that we did because it started raining about the time we were to catch the bus! We are now catching up on a little laundry and generally relaxing. Tomorrow is another travel day—St. Andrews and Glamis Castle are on
our agenda!
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VAYON SWICEGOOD
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numbers?
What do all the numbers on some photos mean???