Some Photos of aircraft

More Castles

As we love castles we thought we would post a few more pic's.

Edinburgh Castle from the North side.

The chapel on the top of the castle is the oldest remaning structure in the town

You can still see how good they were for defence

Scotland Christmas

Well this christmas we had to prepare ourselves to be away from most of our loved ones. So we decided to runaway for the week and do something different. We drove to Scotland to Edinburgh to have Christmas with Cousin Meg and Shona Mary. Driving into Scotland Christmas eve, after dark (5pm) was like driving into fairy land. There were lights of everycolour, beautiful buildings and the castle was a glow dominating the sky line. Market stalls and show rides were full of people bustling around. It was such a mezmorising site that we managed to drive down a bus and taxi only street much to the discust of bus drivers and predestrians a like. Fees exclimations of glee quickly turned to the familar pattern which I call CSOMG, that is Cringe, shrink down and say "Oh my God".

Christmas day was a hoot, meeting some of Megs friends, a typically eclectic group, she put on a great spread including some traditional Scotish delicacies. Hagas....... I was too afraid of decorating the Christmas table with chunks to try it but it smelled quite delicious...... if only Fee hadn't read the ingredients before it was cooked. I am sure none of the family will be surprised that the Canasta cards came out during our stay and now I am quite keen to teach Fee Samba so she can whip me at that too.

We loved what we saw of Scotland and we managed to tick off most of the touristy stuff in Edinburgh. The castle, Holyrood Palace, the Royal mile we even squeezed a ghost tour and underground tour into our time. There was only one minor hiccup in the saty when we were locked out of our B&B by mistake but Megs and SM saved us a night in the car when we banged on her door at 1 am (sorry guys).

Now unfortunatley there is not enough time to tell you all the stories and about everything we did but the Palace was great maybe even better than the Castle, they are however both a must see. What I will tell you is what happened to us in Mary Kings close.

Mary Kings Close is a street that runs down away from the Royal Mile (the main street) that runs the spine or ridge of Edinbourgh city. It was one of many streets inhabited by the poorer residents. During the plauge years, there was an extremely high mortality rate and like much of the old areas, when the city came out the other side they built over the top, in tombing the old buildings under the "new" city and using there walls as foundations. This street and a few others have been recently reopened for historical tours. So totally under ground walking around streets which were lost for hundreds of years learning about the old city and hearing stories of the residence. Very Cool. It was a great tour weaving our way around dimly lit caverns standing in peoples houses and hearing stories of treachary, tradgedy, love and murder. We came to a last house on the tour, a series of tenaments which were bought by a family and turned into one large property. Large groups are not alowed in because of the arsnic in the wallpaper but the guide wanted us to be able to see so we gathered around the door way to peer inside. Fee and I beinging dorks were right at the front of the group and as the door opened a cold rush of air washed over me and the guide. I would not have raised an eye if it wasn't that the guide was imediatley flustered and as she struggled on, she then apologised and told the group what she felt. It then dawned on me that there really shouldnt be a breeze underground!!!!!

After this we were moving out towards the stairs back to the city and as we made our way up the street we stopped at a workshop. Fee and I were At the back of the group now, closest to the exit and as the guide told us about the workshops and how they were used fee suddenly looked at me, looked at my hand and then looked back at me with a quzical look. "did you just touch me?" she said. I think she the knew the answer considering she had hold of my hand, I looked behind her, no one was there. So whos small hand was it that touched her leg.....?

Wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas and a happy new year.