To read what happened before this, go here.
Fri Jul 12, 2024 – Departed the condo just before 10:00am for the short drive to the Oxenholme train station. Fortunately, we left with plenty of time because the traffic was really backed up in Ambleside. Got there in time to catch the train to Glasgow, a two hour trip. Checked into our hotel at 2:30 and set out to explore. We saw the Glasgow Cathedral and the Glasgow Necropolis, an old cemetery. We made our way back towards the hotel before stopping at Sarti, an Italian restaurant, where they served excellent food. After a short walk back to the hotel we had a drink in the lobby and played Quirkle and Cribbage. STAY: Hampton by Hilton Glasgow Central
Sat Jul 13, 2024 – Went on Rabbie’s Oban Glencoe Highland Lochs and Castles all day tour today. Nothing remarkable to report. Lots of time in the bus and Carl took several naps. However, for dinner the front desk at the hotel recommended The Red Onion, a restaurant right across the street. It was excellent food. The kitchen messed up and our food was slow coming so they gave us a second round of drinks on the house. STAY: Hampton by Hilton Glasgow Central
Sun Jul 14, 2024 – Spent the morning in our room before walking to the train station. Upon arrival to Edinburgh we walked to the Cairn Hotel and Apartments, conveniently located next to the Ukraine Embassy, and asked them to store our bags. We then headed out to find the Camera Obsecura and World of Illusions exhibit. Along the way we walked along the Royal Mile, stopped at the Tron Kirk (old church converted into a craft sale area) and passed St. Giles Cathedral. A queue was forming for Camera Obsecura for entry in 10 minutes and two tickets were available. A fascinating and interesting place with optical illusions and “magic”. Afterwards, we headed to the Johnnie Walker Journey of Flavour Tour. This tour took us through the ages as Johnnie Walker was created and developed, all in an entertaining manner. A whiskey and soda drink was created for us based upon our answers to several different flavor questions and the tour ended with us selecting two cocktails to enjoy. Lori even liked the cocktails and Carl got a hoody sweatshirt from the gift shop. Returned to our hotel, checked in, relaxed a bit before heading to a local pub, The Theatre Royal Bar, to watch the football (soccer) finals Euro 2024 which matched Spain and England. Unfortunately, England didn’t win. STAY: Cairn Hotel & Apartments
Mon Jul 15, 2024 – Departed our hotel around 11:00 am, walking to our Walking Food Tour with Secret Food Tours. As normal we were early so we did some sightseeing, again, along the Royal Mile and a quick tour of St Giles Cathedral, where our tour was meeting. Our guide, Carlos, was from Spain! Excellent walking tour where we stopped at Mimi’s Bakehouse for scones and tea (excellent), to Rattray’s Whisky Experience and Whisky Shop for Scotch Whisky tasting (Lori liked this one as well!), to the Fudge Kitchen for a small, small sample of fudge, to a food court for pizza made with 4 cheeses from Scotland, and finally to The Magnum for the best food. We had Cullen Skink, a fish soup, which was superb and Haggis Bon Bons, pretty good. By now it was late afternoon and raining so we decided to go to our hotel and relax for the evening. STAY: Cairn Hotel & Apartments
Tue Jul 16, 2024 – Departed our hotel around 10:00 am for a walk to see the Royal Yacht Britannia when along the way we stopped at another Mimi’s Bakehouse for a late breakfast of scones and salmon Benedict. Both were excellent. We finished the walk and were not able to get much of a view of the Yacht and decided the price for a tour just wasn’t worth it. Caught the TRAM for a ride to get us near the Edinburgh Castle. We were only ½ mile from the meeting point for the Underground Caverns Tour so we got tickets and joined the group-just as it started raining. The first half of the tour was outside so our rain jackets came in handy. The underground caverns story was interesting – mainly the history part, not the “haunted” stories part. We stopped at Jeremiah’s Taproom for fish and chips and mac n cheese as well an apple cider and grapefruit hefeweizen beer. Played a game of cribbage before coming back to the hotel to relax and prepare to depart tomorrow. STAY: Cairn Hotel & Apartments
Wed Jul 17, 2024 – Had an early start to the day with PU by UBER at 5:30. At this time of the day the traffic was light so no issues getting to the airport. We actually arrived before the kiosk to check in was open. The first leg of the trip was a 1.5 hour flight to Amsterdam where we had a 3 hour layover which we spent in the Delta lounge. The airport is large and not efficiently laid out, however, it did have nice, creative seating options. The flight from Amsterdam to Detroit had the same first class seating as the flight over. I had a nice Argentine Malbec wine with a fish dinner and an ice cream sundae. I watched the movie “Freelance” and most of “Beekeeper” which had little to do with beekeeping. Spent most of the 4 hour layover in Detroit in the Sky Lounge before arriving to Green Bay and being picked up by Ed Tucker at 8:30 pm. A long day! Stay: Home.
