Manchester to Edinburgh

After an overnight flight from Philly to Manchester (arriving Saturday), we rented a car and began the drive to Edinburgh, stopping along the way in Knaresborough, one of the oldest towns in England. We wandered the streets and had a long, leisurely (slow) lunch. The restaurant we chose advertised quick service, but their interpretation was anything but quick. But, hey, we're on vacation!

We arrived in Edinburgh at around 6 and got lost looking for the Turret guest house, where we would be staying. After checking in, we set out on foot to find a place for dinner, ending up at a Moroccan restaurant that had very good food as well as an excellent belly dancer. Fortunately, we weren't invited to join her! We also drank a bottle of Moroccan wine, which was quite good. Who would've known?

Yesterday (Sunday), we wandered around Old Town in Edinburgh, visited the Edinburgh Castle, and then continued our wandering in New Town. New is relative here... built in the 1800s rather than the 1400s. Edinburgh is a really interesting and vibrant town with lots of pubs, filled with large groups of guys drinking beer. Sunday was the final day of the Edinburgh festival, to be capped off with a huge fireworks show accompanied by the Scotland National Orchestra. We were lucky to hear them practicing early in the day (since we couldn't hear them at all from our vantage point during the fireworks). After a late, light lunch at a pub, we walked back to the guest house and took a long and much needed nap. Then, we grabbed a cab back to another pub in Old Town where we met a group of people for a Literary Pub Tour. Two actors treated us to an interesting, amusing, and fun walk through town as they regaled us with tales about famous writers in Scotland (especially Burns, Stevenson, and Scott) and their drinking habits. After that, fireworks, and another walk back to the guest house, stopping along the way for a late dinner at an Indian restaurant.

Today, we're off to see the rest of Scotland (or at least whatever we can fit in over the next 5 days). We have been lucky thus far to have beautiful weather, but today it's cloudy and rainy. Garrett has done an amazing job of driving on the left side of the road. He's even managed to not throttle me as I gasp and cringe as we enter and exit the many roundabouts. Good thing he is driving and not me!