We go sight-seeing in Edinburgh

Yesterday when we arrived here in Edinburgh it decided to rain. It didn't rain hard, but hard enough to make you want to find a nice, warm pub where you could park yourself next to a nice pot of tea and watch the umbrellas go by. Today it was beautiful, not a trace of rain, and big, fluffy clouds drifted across the azure skies all day long. The first thing we did was learn the bus system, which turned out to be quite easy. From our B&B we rode to the old part of Edinburgh on a city bus which runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week. From there we bought tickets for the sight-seeing buses that tool around and give you a general, narrated overview of the city. We got off the bus near Edinburgh castle (which we're actually going to visit tomorrow) and toured the Scotch Whiskey Heritage Museum (they had samples - yum!) and the Heritage Weaving Museum. After that, we got back on sight-seeing bus (you can hop on and off as much as you like) and went down to the docks area to visit the Queen's Royal Yacht. We were having such a splendid time that we completely forgot about lunch, which may be a first for me. Actually, the breakfast this morning at the B&B was so wonderful and so filling that I scarcely missed lunch at all. Homemade yogurt and porridge, waffles and fresh fruit, English marmalade. What in heaven's name might you want besides that besides good old American coffee, which they also conjured up. Bless them, one and all!

Once done with our sight-seeing tours, we walked back into the old part of the city and found a nice restaurant where I proceeded to make up for my missed lunch. Naturally, I had shepard's pie, which was darn good, and a nice pot of tea. Concetta had the salmon which was good as well. After dinner, we managed to find the right city bus and rode it back to our B&B without a single problem. The transit system here is absolutely marvelous, comes every 20 minutes, and runs literally all the time, day and night, 24-7. The buses are clean, the patrons well-behaved, and I saw nary a single spot of graffiti on the whole fleet. Pretty amazing city. Two of the photos are of our visit to the Royal Yacht. The third is the view of the city from Edinburgh Castle.

Once back in the room I managed to round up the inn keeper and asked him to help me connect to his wireless internet. He had given me the magic password the night before but darned if I could make it work. Fortunately for my blog-crafting needs, a local neighbor with an unprotected network afforded me unlimited access to the outside world (thanks whomever you are) and I was able to do my writing.

Tomorrow we must say goodbye to Edinburgh and head south for the Scottish border country, specifically the village of Hexham, Northumberland, where the hunt for my ancestors will begin. In the 1820s one part of my family tree, the Browns, was living in the border region in the village of Corbridge. Our B&B in Hexham is located only a half dozen miles from Corbrige which was originally founded by the Romans and has been continuously inhabited since. I have scheduled four days in the area, which should give us ample time to explore Hadrian's wall, visit nearby Newcastle-upon-Tyne where the Brown patriarch was a machinist in the 1820s, and generally enjoy the peacefulness of rural northumberland before we move on to the north of Wales. And by the way, north Wales, in the county of Flintshire, is where the Davis name is reported to have its earliest beginnings I understand. So, be sure and stay tuned.