Rudolph the Red-nosed Riendeer....

Day 15...last full day in a foreign land.
FINALLY a clear day...beautiful! First one since leaving London a week ago. We can actually see the Forth Rail bridge and the Forth Road Bridge from the hotel window...off in the distance but I can see the pillars! Exciting to me and one of the reasons we came here! It did clear up last night and we discovered that it doesn't actually get DARK here at all. Sunset in London was around 10 p.m., but it wasn't until after 11 that it actually started semi-darkening here last night. And sunrise was on the way at 2:30 this morning. In the meantime it never actually got dark....you could see light in the sky all "night!" long...that is really a strange thing to me!

They are in the middle of an extreme heat wave in London and they say it is way hot here too. Today was sunny and about 80, no humidity. Really quite nice by central Virginia standards. Sun was hot, breezes were cool...but here's the thing---there is NO AC in Scotland! Not in hotels (including ours), restaurants, shops, buses....and they don't refrigerate drinks or give ice cubes unless asked (and then the answer is often"we don't have ice"), so when you are hot there is no way to cool your body down. So I am looking forward to ice, COLD drinks, and AC!

Walked up the hill and over to the Grassmarket area today. Were hoping it would be like the Lawnmarket we were in on Tuesday, lots of good shopping and fun stores, but this one was a bunch of restaurants and bars...noting to do on a sunny morning...oh well! We had foot power so we walked all around the base of the Castle and through the Princes (not Princess---no misspelling there) Gardens. Lovely flowers and the greenest areas...peaceful, shaded and nice!

Hopped a bus to the Edinburgh Zoo...Great place but no one told us it was uphill all the way! We pretty much climbed a mountain and at the top had the view to prove it....WOW! Best view of the trip! There are beautiful green mountains around this city, another reason I love it! Saw some pretty neat animals---zebras, tapirs, lemurs, jaguars, rhinos, hippos, tigers, chimps, North American porcupines, sea lions, lots and lots and lots of penguins--adults and babies (they have 47 chicks!) climbing and swimming and sunning, koalas (the UK's only ones) and REINDEER!!!!! Had never seen real reindeer before--pretty nifty with their big antlers. My feet were pretty pooped by the time we got back on the bus, but we walked a little more, did some final shopping and had one last dinner in the UK. Doesn't look like we did much today, the zoo was most of it, but it was nice to do something relaxing (yet tiring!) on the last day here.

Bags are packed--did that last night, boarding passes are printed, wake-up call set for 5:30 and taxi set for 7:00...I think we will go back to the room and play some cards and hopefully go to sleep!

This trip has been everything I hoped for and more. I have seen and done things I always wanted and I have a whole new outlook on the world. Cat and I have gotten along wonderfully and we have had a blast doing EVERYTHING (except the taxi ride in Brussels). I apologize for the rambling I will do for the next year or so....but there is so much to share! I am sad to leave (but I did take over 1000 pictures to remember!) but I am ready to be home with Harvey and Jay.

To the folks in the photo at the right...
THANK YOU!!!!! You are the reason I had this opportunity! I will never be able to thank you enough!
To Harvey and Jay... Thank you for manning the fort, taking care of wisdom teeth and each other.
And to Cat...thanks for being a great travelling companion via planes, trains, subways, buses and automobiles! I will have the highest rummy score when we arrive back in Richmond!
This has been a blast....now to get some sleep, fly on home and do laundry! woohoo!