Golf – Day 7.5
Today is Chris’s return date. Good thing as it is raining just about everywhere in Scotland. It is about 90 min drive to Edinburgh and we wanted to see the castle & Royal mile with what time we had before Chris’s plane departed. Although we had a GPS heading for a parking garage downtown Edinburgh, we could not find it. It became a real challenge to find ANY parking near downtown but eventually we did.
Headed to the castle, which was interesting but it was very windy & cold. Froze my hands off. We wondered around the Royal mile for a while, had a bit to eat & then headed to the airport.
Cried when Chris left because now I had to learn how to drive on the opposite side of the road, with a standard using your left hand and no navigator. I have a tendency to start in 4th gear (I have a 6 speed) instead of 1st, which means a stall. Also like to shift from 2nd to 1st instead of 3rd quite often as well. Good thing is that I only got honked at once? Went around the airport roundabout about 3 times before I finally got the right exit.
Sidebar: traffic lights go red, yellow then green here in Scotland.
The cars are designed that once you stop and/or release the clutch, the engine turns off. Push the clutch in, & the car starts up. Probably why they have the lights go red, yellow then green.
Eventually arrived safely at my B&B, which is about 20 mins outside of downtown. Not the easiest place to find. Met my host Carolyn. She was very friendly & outgoing. Learned about her son in university taking engineering & then met her daughter who just graduated from high school & is trying to become a lawyer.
I decided to go back downtown to visit more of the Royal mile and then try to take a sunset picture from Colton hill. Made it safely but I have not yet been forced to parallel park yet. Can’t wait for that.
Royal mile still had quite a few tourists but was slowly dying down so I went to Colton hill. Things were not looking great as rain clouds were rolling in and there was at least a 50 mile/hr wind blowing. No, I am not exaggerating. Check with Wayne as he has been there. Froze just about every body part I had then to top it off it started to rain. Stuck through it like a real photographer and then the sun actually came out briefly and was able to get a few good photos. There were 3 other photographers with tripods along with a steady stream of other tourists.
Weather is supposed to get quite a bit warmer this week which would be welcomed.
Sorry Margo, no Jamie. He must be hiding in the highlands or he time travelled back to the 1800’s.
I did make it home safely, unfortunately my luggage didn’t. Good luck with the standard, driving on the wrong side of the road with an automatic was tough enough. Enjoy the rest of your trip!