Wednesday and Thursday

 Lots to tell and I'm out of daylight with another early morning tomorrow.

Wednesday - 

So Wednesday's scheduled event was a walking tour in Edinburgh with a guide who brings his wee doggie along - Rowie! We met Callum about midday at Greyfriars Kirk (kirk is a churchyard). If you don't know the story of Greyfriar's Bobby, google it and Disney made a movie back in 1961. It's on YouTube and is so sweet - and a tearjerker! Anyway, Callum gave us a wonderful walking tour of Old Town with stories and songs. A delightful couple of hours. 

People bring sticks so master & dog can play fetch in heaven. Rowie enjoyed chewing them!

The tour had people from all over - U.S, Columbia, Brazil, Germany, Ukraine, France, Canada - a friendly group and we all chatted and enjoyed each other

Rowie - half dachshund half Jack Russell. While he had a leash on and walked well on the tour, steps and all, mostly one of us carried him Such a little snuggle bunny!

St. Giles Cathedral

Bev's latest souvenir

Where his owner is buried

We decided  grab our afternoon tea at the Willow Tea Room. I had gone to the one in Glasgow my last trip and really enjoyed it so was thrilled to see one had JUST opened in Edinburgh. We had tea!, prosecco, the tower of sandwiches and desserts. So posh - and a table looking up at the Castle. This is beyond great

After our tea, it was time for lunch and then a visit to the National Gallery - so many lovely paintings and pieces of artwork. We spent a couple of hours and could have done more but they were closing!

Monet,  Vermeer, Titian..........great masters.

Maybe a couple more pub stops and then home as tomorrow we're catching a train to Balloch and Loch Lomond!

Thursday - 

We left out on a misty morn...................

And no, Bev's not wearing a kilt - that's her jacket tied around her!

Early trek to the train  station to figure out how to buy train tickets - yup, a new learning experience. Once again, we were helped by so many kind people. Tickets in hand, we have timed it perfectly to catch the train to Balloch with a change in Glasgow - easy peasy! One would think but they neglected to tell us that there was a second change. We were sitting at a stop and all of a sudden the train reversed and started back in the direction we just came from. Next stop we hopped off, read the schedule and in less than 10 minutes were headed back in the right direction.

Balloch is a lovely little town that is right on the southern end of Loch Lomond. We bought tickets for the 2 hr. cruise which was leaving shortly. 

OMG, what scenery! We started in the Lowlands and crossed into the Highlands where the mountains begin to rise.

Here's some of the scenery around the marina before we left out - 

Paddleboarders!! 

No way this picture begins to do justice to this scenery

Lunch at a cute little cafe with 2 servers that were hilarious. We invited both of them to come visit us!

And finish up the day at our favorite Panda and Sons speakeasy - again.

Off to bed soon - I'm waiting for my British granddaughter & her fiance to get here!!!!! Woo hoo - Anna and Jamie are coming and will go on our tour with us tomorrow to the Scottish Highlands. This is with the kilted Vikings Scots - hubba hubba!

As is always the case - we're running out of holiday way too soon. Dang - but nothing says we can't come back. We haven't scandalized ourselves THAT badly! Altho one of the conductors today did say we provided him with some entertainment in his day! Mission accomplished!

NOTES:

I cannot emphasize too much how incredibly kind, helpful, and fun everyone has been. 

Bev says to make sure you all know that SHE is keeper of the tickets and I am holder of the maps. Those who know me will be scared to learn I'm the navigator on all this!

And the weather has been wonderfully cooperative - even if there has been some mist or even light rain it hasn't hanpered us at alll and usually only lasts a short while.