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Road Trip to Scotland
23 to 25 August 2011
We had Tuesday night tickets for the Edinburgh Military Tattoo so after a luggage reorganize we were back in the little red car heading north east. We made it to Edinburgh, navigated the tangle of one way roads and bus/taxi only roads to make it to our hotel for a quick freshen up before setting off in search of a Trip Advisor recommended restaurant for dinner. We had an excellent meal at an unpronounceable restaurant then off up the hill to Edinburgh Castle. It was quite a crush at the end of the Royal Mile as we made our way into the castle and up to our seats. Excellent seats, excellent weather and excellent entertainment. Lots of photos in the album.
Edinburgh was absolutely buzzing because it was Festival time. The Royal Mile was dotted with street entertainers and eccentrics as well as milling tourist and serious festival participants. We spent most of the day siteseeing and soaking up the atmosphere.
We left Edinburgh at about 4.30 - peak hour - with no definite plan and nowhere to stay. We just headed south east with the general intention of reaching Hadrian's wall and following it back to the west. About 5.30 we happened on a tourist information centre in Jedburgh. With the help of the 'information lady' we found a delightful B & B in an old Gate House. The town of Jedburgh turned out to be as interesting and delightful as the B & B so we ended up exploring it's history until early afternoon the next day. The main features of interest were the Castle Jail, Mary Queen of Scots museum, the Abbey, the butcher shop and a craft shop as well as the general village atmosphere. Again I refer you to the photos.
From Jedburgh we headed west, found Hadrian's Wall and followed it along before we stopped at the site of a Roman Fort. It was lovely exploring the ruins in quiet of the late summer afternoon and imaging the Romans in residence, living a civilized life with all of the 'modern conveniences' in the middle of nowhere while defending their territory from the marauding Scots.
Next all consuming activity was searching out a place for dinner. We found a village with two pubs almost across the road from each other. Consensus was no to the first one (refer to photos) but the next one proved a good choice and we had an enjoyable meal.
This road trip ended with a long, night drive down the motor way and back into Manchester were we just fell into bed and stayed there until well into the next day.
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