A Sad Day: Our Last Day in Scotland

Packing up our bags and having our last Scottish breakfast, mum and I hit the road early--leaving Denny behind and setting our sights on Edinburgh Castle before leaving Scotland for England again.

Edinburgh Castle was having some repairs/etc. done to the most exciting parts of the Castle, so we didn't really enjoy it as we should have. The view from the top was amazing though. The war museums were also very interesting--sorry you couldn't have been there dad. Mum kept commenting on how great Scottish men were (she's married to one!). In one of the buildings of the Castle, a man of staff took a shining to mum and was trying to impress her with information about Scottish History. He asked mum a question and she rattled off all she knew about what we had learned during our visit--and the next thing I know, he reached for his walkie talkie and said "Security--get this lady a uniform, we need to start her immediately. She's about 5'9, 5'8, petite build..." Mum and I both giggled and got a kick out of it, especially mum. Inside that same building were books of Scottish men and women who have served in Scottish Forces--from the army, to airforce, to navy, etc. The only force we saw Saunders in was the Airforce--neat considering that both my dad and uncle were in the US Airforce!!

Once we left Edinburgh, we drove and drove to Jedburgh which is on the border of Scotland. The staff at the tourist office were so nice. They gave us these certificates showing we had visited Scotland for our keepsake.

Leaving Edinburgh, we planned next to go to NewCastle. We didn't realize how big Newcastle was--it's like a huge college city. Mum drove in and then wanted to drive out--traffic was crazy and everyone was in a hurry. We were glad to leave although we didn't get to hear the unique accents. :( When in Jedburgh I had purchased a Sound of the Music cd for 10pence at a little store--so mum and I sang the Hills are Alive! to get us to York where we checked into our Youth Hostel.

The York Hostel officially made me not the biggest fans of hostels. The girls in our room were so wordly I didn't feel safe. We took to the streets to see the city and went to Whackers to taste their famous Fish and Chips. Mum didn't care so much for her's because there was no tartar sauce, but mine weren't too bad. That night we probably got a few hours of sleep--but when we discovered that we worth both awake around 4:40ish and not sleepy, we left the room and went for a drive. We came back to the Hostel around 7ish to pack up and get out of there lol then went back downtown to explore some more. We went to Betty's Tea Room which is quite popular. I ordered the full tea for mum and I to share and mum also got the hot chocolate which was a little too rich for my taste but she loved it. The full tea came with a roasted chix sandwich, a smoked sandwhich (although good, it didn't look cooked!), a scone with clotted cream and strawberry jam (delicious) and some yummy house tea. Half way through our late breakfast, a pianist came in and started playing "All I Ask of You" from the Phantom of the Opera. It just made my morning. :) Oh, the full tea also came with a mini coffee chocolate coffee cupcake which was delicious!!! a lemon macaroon filled with yorkshire lemon curd, and a fruity custard cake. The service was extremely slow and our waitress never checked on us--we had to wait forever to get the bill until I finally flagged down one of the young ladies clearing tables around us. I think our waitress could tell we weren't VIP customers' and was busy...? Although the tea and select items were good, the service was disappointing.

From there we drove through Nottingham (Robin Hood) and Derby (Mr. Darcy from P&P) but they were just big cities which mum was scared to drive and I don't blame her. We were able to see reminents of Sherwood Forest during our drive to locate the iconic place--but no sight of Sir Guy!! hahaha (Kevin just contested my spelling of Sir Guy, thinking it was Gai (what?), but after some online research, well...as you noticed, my spelling hasn't changed! lol).

I'll continue the rest of our journey later....later alligator~!