Monday 4th June (Jane's birthday). Today after a fairly slow start we visited 3 castles & Stonehaven. We arrived about an hour before opening time at Drum Castle so went on to the nearby Crathes Castle instead, both owned by the Scottish National Trust which gave us free entry on our WA National Trust cards. Both were well worth a visit, developed from tower keeps from the 14th Century to which wings had been added over the years. The major difference f...

Saturday 2nd June After breakfast we drove to St Andrews further along the coast & went to see the ruined cathedral which was the largest in Scotland before it was burnt by followers of John Knox the Protestant reformer in the 1560s. He keeps turning up everywhere we have been in Scotland & appears to be the catalyst for the destruction of Catholicism in Scotland. From there we moved to the castle which although ruined had a tremendous audio guide co...

Thursday 31st May In the morning we took a bus to see Roslyn Chapel made famous by Dan Brown in one of his novels. It took just over an hour to get there & as we had to be back in Edinburgh by 12.30 so we didn't have much time afternoon catching up & hearing of their plans to visit much time to inspect it carefully. Returning we met up with Sally & Richard who we had met on the Aurora cruise in 2017. They live in York but had come upon the train...

Tuesday 29th May Ate most of what was left for breakfast & prepared for our next leg to Edinburgh. Had a walk around some more of Floriana before catching a bus up to the bus station & another to the airport. Having allowed for various potential delays we arrived 30 minutes after leaving the unit 2.5 hours before the flight. The Ryanair flight was fine except that there was a shortage of acceptable food & it arrived on time in Edinburgh 3.5 ho...

Sunday 27th May Another day in the life of the weary travellers. Another late start after d*** went on a go slow. Crossed to the basilica at 9.30 to watch the procession of 'First Communicants'. Everybody was dressed up to the nines with the girls in very elaborate, full length white dresses & the boys in white suits accompanied by the proud parents also smartly attired, with the mothers' tottering on their bizarre high heels. The processing didn't s...