CHAPTER 1: EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND
Wednesday, August 25

We had a great flight from the States and eventually arrived safely in Edinburgh. For this flight we splurged a bit and upgraded to business class, which is definitely the way to go! Big comfortable seats, lots of little bennies, good service. Heathrow was a bit of a pain: we had to walk about a mile from our arrival gate to the departure gate for Edinburgh. We made it in plenty of time, but two of our bags didn't. They made it on the next flight up, two hours later. Somehow we managed to totally miss Customs. At Heathrow, they said that we'd process through Customs in Edinburgh; however, Customs in Edinburgh didn't seem to exist! Once we collected our bags and were ready to go, we asked a cabbie what it would cost to get to the hotel … answer was 50 pounds (about $80) … we took a bus into town and then a taxi the rest of the way for a total of 11 pounds for both of us.

We're staying at the Airlie Guest House on Minto Road, which is in northern Edinburgh about two miles or so from the main tourist interests. This B&B is pretty neat. It's a couple of old rowhouses joined together and converted into a small hotel. We're a short bus ride from the center of Edinburgh. Very convenient. On the negative side, we don't have a telephone available in our hotel, so we have to use a cyber café to check our email. We found a friendly café, but computer time is expensive, and we can't afford ($$$) the time to send personal notes to everybody. Have found some super restaurants in the area already. The best so far has been the fabulous Italian place we stumbled into last night. Ciao Roma has incredible food, friendly service (a bit sarcastic, in the best Sicilian tradition), and a homey ambiance. I noted a picture of David Coulthard (a Scottish Formula 1 driver) on the wall. Turns out he's a regular at this place.

Today we wandered all over downtown Edinburgh. Beautiful, beautiful city! Lots of old buildings, lots of character. This ain't Kansas, anymore, Toto. Not only that, but the Edinburgh Festival is going on, with tons of music, art, crafts, theater, street performers, and tourists. To give you an example: one of the shows down the street is an updated version of Cinderella … only with dirt bikes, flamethrowers, drugs, gangsta rap, and the Butt-Ugly Sista's. What was that about not being in Kansas anymore?

We will stay in Edinburgh for a bit under two weeks. We're safe, sound, and enjoying life. Our trip is off to a great start!

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