Goodbye Europe; Hello U.K.

Today we flew with KLM from the absolutely enormous Schipol Airport just outside of Amsterdam, to. Edinburgh in Scotland.  The Pursor on the flight was so good.  She called us by name when serving the light meal, then when disembarking, I thanked her and she said, "You're very welcome, Mrs. Wood".  Okay, Jan Gott from Harvey World Travel in Reservoir had booked us on business class again. But still very impressive service.  We even got a spare seat between us for extra room.  The funny thing was, as the various lines at the airport were short, we were not willing to flash our Priority Pass to move straight to the front.  Just didn't seem right.

We had a wonderful taxi driver to the hotel.  Victorian houses have the bay windows and Georgian have flat ones.  He insisted I try Haggis, told us the Scottish give more per head to charity than any other country in Great Britain, and their undeserved reputation for stinginess was make-up by the Poms.  He said all Scottish whiskeys are fantastic, but some are just better than others. I suspect he was a plant for the Scottish Tourism Board, such was his enthusiasm for his city.

Our hotel is on the square in Grassmarket.  It is where the public executions were once held and features a memorial plaque to all those who were hanged, listing many of the names and dates, for being true to their religion.

As we are only here in Kilt Country for four nights, we have already booked a day drip out into the Highlands, seeing moors and lochs.  Stepping out our hotel, blimey, but a Scot in his kilt strolls by.  I thrust the camera at poor Woodsie, ignore his protests, and accost the man with a request for a photo. He was dressed for his role as a walking tour guide and was collecting a group from our hotel.  I
remarked on the mackintosh over his arm, assuming he was expecting a Scottish shower.

"Do ye know what it's for?" he asked me.  "In case it gets windy and my kilt blows up!"

Walking up the hill, we saw posters and touts for the Edinburgh Festival, in full swing here now.we were offered a free comedy show, staring in five minutes, so walked DOWN several flights of stairs, to see an hour show with three comedians doing 20 minutes each.  Turns out there are heaps of "free comedy shows" and you can give them a few pounds if you enjoyed them.  I thought they were great. Woodsie thought the first two swore too much.  But he still laughed a bit too.

We wandered around streets with huge grey stone buildings.  We went past Grey Friar's Churchyard, where the wee doggie pined for his master.  Now we are at an outside table at The White Hart Inn, opposite our hotel.

And guess what?  Our taxi driver was right.  Haggis is not half bad!!  Quite tasty, in fact.