Polmont - Edinburgh
Met up with Maja, Bill and The Boys on the Anstruther coast on our drive from St Andrews to Polmont, near Edinburgh, where we were staying with Bill's mom. The mist blanketed the coastline and enhanced the grey - in - grey look, but lifted when we reached the other side of the Firth near Polmont.
We were fortunate to catch the very last day of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and after working through the information on 2800 shows (incredible !) - we managed to get tickets for 2 shows :
Avenue Q - at the incredible Assembly Hall venue - a musical which included muppet puppets - amazing dialogue and great voices and puppet actions. Really had us captivated ! In one scene the muppets sing about the uses of the internet - and one of the muppets finishes every sentence off with "porn". Well, thereafter, the conversation and texting to Bill, who was coming to join Maja and us for the second show, could not be more ambiguous. Have not laughed as much in ages and decided that Clint and Bill make for a very dangerous combination. Meeting Bill at the top of Cockburn Street with the amazing guitarist plucking his G-String - just took on a whole new meaning !
This guitarist was amazing. He was busking on the Royal Mile playing an accoustic guitar, that had seen better days (it had a few extra holes in it !). His rendition of "Memories of the Alambra" was amazing and brought back very recent memories of the string trio at the Santorini sunsets and the Alambra in Granada (which is now one of my most magical places). And to top it all - the sun was shining on us !
Then we went to see a very alternative musical, Dumbstruck, by a small group called Fine Chisel. Again - amazing - such talented musicians and actors. Totally different, yet very thought provoking and wonderful voices. There needs to be a next time for the festival - this is serious chocolate cake for the soul !
Before dinner we enjoyed drinks at The Dome - majestic building with the most beautiful chandeliers and gigantic flower arrangements with the beautiful fragrance of St Joseph Lillies wafting through the building. Gorgeous environment - which we would never have found on our own.

All good things come in threes they ( whoever they may be !) say. Well - the following day we embarked on Doddle No.3. Bill was keen to take us up a mountain in the Highlands - but as the weather there was rather iffy and it included a 4 hour return drive, we decided to rather do an easier walk along the Union Canal and see the engineering feat of the Falkirk Wheel, which replaced about 8 Locks at the joining of the Union Canal with thr Forth&Clyde Canal. Our little walk turned into about a 30km walk !! Great scenery, interesting aquaduct, barges and locks, Falkirk Wheel really interesting and the section of the walk through a very long, dark and damp tunnel....well, yes...interesting. Needless to say Maja and my jaws got much more exercise than our legs ....lots of years to catch up on.
Clint and I spent another day in Edinburgh after Bill, Maja and The Boys had left for London. We managed to look around the People's Museum, which showed the lives of the people of Edinburgh through the ages. For manynit was a real struggle to survive in this forbidding city with its harsh climate. Edinburgh is impressive and majestic, in a very harsh kind of way. The ancient buildings are well restored and give a good indication of the origins of the city. From the Arthur Seat hill and Salisbury Cliffs we got a great view of the city skyline, with the Castle, the church steeples and the monuments and towers.
The inner city graveyards attached to the churches contain graves from as far back as the 16th century, as the law prevents graves from being destroyed. Makes for interesting reading ! The many Ghost and Horror tours also point to the scary underbelly of this city over the centuries. Watching live music acts in a 14th Century Church, where an artist is drawing a huge mural, is quite a surreal experience. Edinburgh is an amazing edgy place - must be a paradise for artists and musicians.

No visit to Scotland would be complete without a Whisky Tasting - even for a non-whisky drinker like me. The closest option - right in the centre of Scotland is the Blair Athol Distillery in Pitlochry which produces a single malt Whisky which is used in the creation of Bells blended Whisky. The whisky tour was most interesting - especially the fact that they take the water directly outof the stream next to the Distillery (and salmon move up this stream for their spawning !) and that Whisky is put into Vats to mature that previously have been used for sherry or bourbon. Pitlochry is also a very quaint holiday town - since Victorian days. It is known as the Switzerland of Scotland - which should give you a hint to topography and beautiful forests. Ithas a hydro-electric scheme, which also has a salmon ladder, to assist the salmon to get past the dam wall to the spawning area at the top of the river. Very interesting indeed - especially that the salmon are so clever as to find the entrance to the ladder and have the strength to move against the very strong flow of water.
The very picturesque highlands of Scotland and its amazing golf courses will have to wait ! The Pitlochry Golf Course was already extremely tempting. Clint has serious withdrawal symptons.