This morning Ryan and I woke up in a brand new world. The blankets of fog may have followed us from Oberbierbronnen, but the kartoffel have become tatties and the roads have changed from narrow winding streets to never ending round abouts...not to mention driving on the opposite side! We are finally in Scotland...Ryan has made it to his homelands.

Ryan and I arrived in Edinburgh Monday afternoon after a luxurious 1 hour ride on an EasyJet plane. Somehow we managed to make the front of the que when boarding and got front row seats on the plane with unlimited leg room. We were picked up by Donald and Jennifer who drove us to Betty and Ernies...our home base for the next 2.5 weeks. We all shared lunch before settling into our new surroundings. It was quite a unique lunch as Ryan got to taste Black Pudding for the first time. Now, I am a very big fan of pudding however; for those not familiar with black pudding, it is not exactly vegetarian friendly. Black pudding is made from congealed pig blood with little pieces of pure fat all smushed into little sausage discs. Apparently, very tasty on a bun. After lunch, not wasting any time, Ernie was eager to show us some of Edinburgh so we jumped in the car and went for a little drive. We drove past the Old Course at St. Andrews which is the oldest golf course in the world and then to a lookout point where we SHOULD have seen the Fourth Bridge which crosses the Firth of Fourth. On this particular day, the fog was so thick that we could not even see the train crossing on the railway tracks overhead. We then went to Cramond which is the landing site of the Romans in Edinburgh (140AD).

Today Ryan and I were off to see one of the top sites in Edinburgh, the National Museum of Scotland. This free museum is absolutely MASSIVE! It puts the Toronto Science Centre to shame. Ryan and I spent 4 hours there and only tackled one portion of the museum which was a complete history of Scotland spread over 5 floors. We will have to return we still have to see the Museum of Costume, War, Rural Life, and flight.

After we were museumed out, we spend a few more hours walking the streets of the city centre. There were Scottish shops EVRYWHERE! Kilts, souvenirs, cashmeres, bagpipes and clan paraphernalia appeared in every other store window. After visiting a dozen of such shops, we realized that the exact same trinkets are found in each one. Ernie is going to show us where the real Scottish shops are...there is still time for Ryan to get his McFarlane tartan.