Two days of tours. (April 26|27)

We woke up early, ate breakfast in our hotel, and headed our first day tour to Rosslyn Chapel, then into the Scottish Borders. We had jacket potatoes in Melrose at the Ship Inn pub. On we went to a great picture: Scott's View, named after Sir Walter Scott who loved the borders area. Last,we visited the Glenkinchie whiskey distillery where we toured and tried their 12 year old single malt. Alaina even drank her whole sample! After returning to the city we had supper at a great pub called Dirty Dick's which had kitsch all over the walls and ceilings. We left to check out a bar for the next night then came home.

The next day we had another tour, this one going to the Kingdom of Fife. We grabbed a coffee in Anstruther and checked out the harbour. There were lots of fishing villages on the way to our destination - St. Andrews. When we arrived we checked out the Old Course: the most famous golf course in the world and the place the game was invented. We then walked to the massive beach and watched puppies playing in the surf, a guy kite surfing, and a fighter jet doing barrel rolls overhead. We had a nice lunch then walked around in the ruins of the old cathedral and graveyard. We walked past the castle ruins but we didn't have time to go in. We ate at an Italian restaurant for supper then headed over to Ghillie Dhu for their ceilidh night. It was so much fun to watch everyone do the traditional dances while one of the band members called the moves. We even tried one of the dances that required six couples. It was probably the hardest dance as it turns out but still a blast to try! We stayed out until 1:30 if you can believe it! Great time!

Cambridge and European discount airlines. (Apr. 24|25)

After a delicious proper English breakfast including beans, charred tomatoes, and bacon wrapped sausages we had to figure out what to do. It was raining quite heavily and was supposed to do so all day so Mairi and Rod gave us a whole list of things we could do in the area that would be mostly indoors. We did a little research on the internet (how did people even function before it was invented) and decided we would head into Cambridge to look around and visit the Fitzwilliam museum. We spent a couple hours wandering through the museum followed by a short walk through Cambridge to look at the colleges. Unfortunately, exams were going on so we couldn't do much more than poke our heads into the greens, but the were very impressive.

After we finished wandering around Cambridge, we headed to an eclectic little pub called the Queen's head in a near by town for a pint, some brown soup, and a game of bar skittles.

For our last night Mairi and Rod cooked up a fantastic Thai curry on noodles. We enjoyed a leisurely supper with plenty of good conversation a few bottles of wine, and an entire bottle of 18 year old port. We made it a reasonably early night in order to get up early to pack before Mairi and Rod gave us a ride to the airport.

Our many thanks to Mairi, Rod, Hollie, and Katie for a fantastic but tragically short visit and for being such wonderful hosts.

Not much to say about transfer flight to Edinburgh. It was about what you would expect for a no frills airline. I must say though, the service was at least as good as Air Canada's, and they were able to file their paperwork... Getting to the hotel was completely painless. A straight bus route from the airport to a stop about 4 blocks from the hotel had us ready to check in under an hour after landing. Oddly, our booking was done in 3 blocks, but shouldn't be any problem other than having to reactivate our keys every couple days. We spent the rest of the day wandering some of the streets around Edinburgh and checked out a couple places for drinks, including the most opulent place I've ever had a pint - the dome. To finish the night we found a near by pub for a pint and some traditional pub fair. Alaina went with a steak and ale pie, and Jeff went for the mash, haggis, and neeps.

A countryside adventure. (Monday April 23)

After a delicious breakfast of cereal, eggs benedict, and tea cakes we loaded into the car with Rod and Mairi drove off to tour some of the countryside small villages and pubs.

We stopped in at a fantastic inn pub called The Swan in Levenham for a nice pint and did some more touring before heading back to the house and meeting up with Rod and Mairi's other daughter Katie for supper. Apparently Jeff must be missing work as he spent a couple hours working on her computer which had been having issues. Again, we had a delicious supper with plenty of wine and beer (various versions of Leffe and Afflegm) before making our way to bed.

A bath and a meal. Hello, goodbye. (April 21|22)

With Saturday being our last day in the area we decided to head off to see the Roman baths in Bath. The wonderful Roger dropped us off at the train station in Reading and we caught a mid-morning train to Bath after picking up some pain au chocolat for the train ride.

After arriving in Bath we wandered around for a while before making our way to Bath Abbey to do some exploring and did a tour of the bell tower. Climbing the narrow (Jeff could barely square his shoulders) and winding stairs up the tower was a challenge, but the experience and view were definitely worth it.

Our next stop was the excavated Roman baths. The entrance of which was conveniently located just across the square from the Abbey. We spent a couple hours wandering through looking at the baths and displays and following another audio tour on the Romans and the baths.

After making our way out of the baths (and having tasted some of the purified spring water - which Alaina hated but Jeff didn't mind) we decided it was time for lunch. Being a weekend, most places were very busy, but we managed to settle on a place called Revolution that had some good food but was a little lacking on the beer choices (they did have Guinness though, so it was all good). After supper we went for a walk around Bath, walking up through the circus and the Royal crescent (both interesting housing areas) then back through some of the side streets which were full of small shops. After the amount of rain we've seen so far, and having spent the day in London with soaked feet, Alana decided she needed a pair of wellies (rubber boots). She is now the proud owner of a pair of Croc wellies.

We ended the night by heading out to a nice Italian restaurant with Roger and Sheila for a fantastic final supper before we moved on to our next stop.

The next morning Roger made a proper English breakfast for everybody while we packed. After breakfast we headed to the near by cricket pitch in hopes of catching a match. Unfortunately, the matches were cancelled due to impending rain. The beer in the club house was good at any rate.

We had arranged to meet Mairi and Rod at a service station just north of London which was about an hour from both Mairi and Rod's and Roger and Sheila's. Roger drove us out to meet Mairi and Rod and we said our goodbyes and hellos and headed out to Wicken Bonhunt in Essex via a nice scenic route. We made a stop in at the pub where Mairi and Rod's daughter Hollie works for a visit and a pint before heading up to the house for a fantastic sit down supper and copious amounts of beer and wine.