Edinburgh, Scotland--an Introduction

We said our goodbyes before 7:30AM to Ben, the Manor Founcroup and headed back to Paris. Our destination was Orly airport where we caught a plane to Edinburgh, Scotland. It was my first experience at Orly. There was a computer problem and the check in process was more than two hours. It was disconcerting to have employees bring lines of people in front us whose flights were boarding and yet, we just stood there. Our daughter, who travels almost every week, took charge and got us to a staff person to check us in. We arrived at our gate with enough time to munch a sandwich before boarding our plane.

Our flight was uneventful and we arrived in Edinburgh late afternoon to rain. (The rain followed us almost our entire trip!) Our cab driver from the airport to the hotel was a terrific ambassador to Edinburgh. He shared his top picks about the sights to see and activities to do while we were in the best city in the world. When he heard we planned to rent a car, he gave us some driving tips. One of which was, "If you find yourself on the wrong side of the road, just keep going and get back on the correct side. If you stop, it will cause all kinds of problems."

On our walk about that evening we entered this office building and saw these figurines. Often, there will be art in the foyers of office buildings which is free to see.  So, we tend to pop in to all types of interesting business buildings!

The figurines were all different. Each one had a different "sponsor" and filled the entire foyer and stairwell in the building. It was interesting to see them! Isn't that an odd color? I liked it because red is my favorite color! I didn't see information posted information about the art; but I did enjoy viewing it.














We checked in to our hotel and had a short walk about to the castle. It was too wet and overcast to take photos and enjoy the view from the castle. Looking at the view in the overcast setting, I could tell it is beautiful on a clearer day. We also checked some souvenir shops before we celebrated DH's birthday at Nandos.

Nandos is a favorite restaurant of ours. Our daughter is partial to the peri-peri chicken and corn on the cob. It is a restaurant chain and there are some outlets in the U.S. but, none are on the west coast. When we see one in the city where we are, we often will stop! The service was terrific and the food was excellent.

After dinner, we went on a scotch tasting tour. We were given a scratch and sniff card that helped you decide what region you might like the scotch made from. I learned the different ingredients used and how the scotch is processed. It was really interesting and we had a couple more tours/cities on our agenda. DH took advantage of his new age with some price reductions at the distillery!

The next morning, we rented a car and headed out to see the country. DH was our brave driver. He said it was challenging to shift with his left hand and to parallel park on the left. Of course driving on the left was exciting at times!!!!!

DD programmed the GPS and we were off to see Scotland and tour several distilleries.