We were looking at the air temperatures for Oliver this coming week ( 30 to 38 C ), and I thought to myself, it is only June now, what will July and August bring, 40 degrees Centigrade?

I think back about sitting in Mr. Fleming’s math class or Mr. Holmes-Smith’s social studies class with all the windows open. It was just as hot inside as it was outside. Mrs. Lougheed’s math classes were hot too.

And the line ups at the fountains, if someone took too long a drink, those at the back got nothing and returned to class parched. I don’t know why we didn’t think of bringing water. We brought our lunches, why not water?

I suppose the new high school has air conditioning so the students won’t have to endure what we went through. Did that lack of creature comfort make us stronger, more resentful or more resourceful?

Just had to mention that today.

I’m returning to our trip overseas.

One thing I didn’t mention about our the bed in our hotel room. At the time I just chalked it up to jet lag so I made no move to do anything about it, but our bed was the hardest bed in Great Britain. I didn’t get one full nights sleep out of five. It wasn’t until we slept in a different bed that I realized how hard the London bed really was.

In doing my online research into rail tickets, I found that I could buy a rail pass sold only to non residents. They were called Brit Rail England, Scotland, Ireland passes. They could be purchased online and out of season and they were delivered to your door.

The tickets meant you didn’t have to join the line ups at the ticket booths in the rail station. You just figure out where you want to go and get on the train. Buying individual tickets is very complicated so we spared ourselves a lot of grief with the Brit Rail Pass.

After five days in London we boarded a train at the Kings Cross railway station and went up the east coast of England on a Virgin Train. It was on that train that I tasted my first cup of decent coffee, and it was instant coffee which to me was a surprise!

Four and a half hours later we arrived in Edinburgh. The day was cloudy and everything looked quite dull. We hailed a cab, another London cab style car. Our driver jumped out and helped us with our bags and closed our doors.

Our driver was a Swede who came 10 years ago and liked it so much he stayed. The taxi fare was 8 GBP. Our hotel was called the Britannia and was located outside of the city centre. We checked in and for an extra fee bought breakfast and supper for five days.

Our room overlooked The Water Of Leith which was a small river flowing through Edinburgh. Outside of our window was a pink flowering tree. The leaf looked like that of a cherry tree, but none of the staff new what the name of the tree was.

We booked a tour of the Scottish Highlands which included the lake the Loch Ness monster was living in. The next day our tour bus came at 7:50 am and after making five more stops to pick up more passengers, we headed off to the Highlands.

Our driver ( Brian ) had such a heavy Scottish accent, we had a great deal of difficulty understanding him. The bus company was the Greyline and Brian had been employed by them since its inception 16 years ago. Brian was loaded with information, it was unfortunate that we missed half of it.

The Highland hills were all brown because the heather hadn’t flowered yet. There was however, a prickly bush with a pretty yellow flower Brian called Gorse, which was a scourge upon the land and was spreading far and wide. The sheep couldn’t eat it nor could the cattle and humans were unable to use it.

We saw forests of pine, larch, fur, and spruce, all planted by the forest companies. The trees were grown 20 to 30 years then clear cut in sections,the clearcut sat unused for 3 years then it was replanted. The forests went halfway up the 3000 foot high hills.

One pm brought us to Fort Augustus which was the town beside Loch Ness. We had lunch then boarded the Loch Ness cruiser for an hour trip onto the lake. Not far from shore, the depth finder which was shown on a large screen, indicated that the bottom of the lake was getting deeper faster. At one point it was 500 feet below us.

There were silhouettes of the monster painted on the windows of the craft, so of course we all had to get a picture with the lake as a background.Too soon it was over and it was back to shore to disembark.

We headed for Pitochry, a small old town where we wandered about taking photos and used the bathrooms. We tried the local craft beer and found it tasty and reasonably priced.

We returned to Edinburgh by 8 pm, had supper and settled in for the night for we needed to be ready for our next tour the following day. We would be touring a whisky distillery.

Our bus picked us up at 9 am. Our driver’s name was Graham. He was a Englishman who settled in Edinburgh years ago and was much easier to understand than Brian.

Our first stop was a small park where Douglas Firs were planted in 1887 which were imported from North America. From there we went to Dunkheld where we had lunch and I ate haggis for the first time! It was good and was done up in puff pastry.

Next it was off to the Glenturret distillery. Our tour lasted 1.5 hour. We were not allowed to take pictures or use cell phones because they said that the gases produced by the distillation might cause an explosion which could be triggered by the batteries in our devices.

I’m not a scotch drinker but we did some tastings and the went to the sales room to make purchases. I bought chocolate bars. Then we boarded the bus and returned to our hotel for the night.

The next day we walked to the city centre and bought some souvenirs. We had coffee at an Italian owned chain store called Nero. Finally! A decent cup of coffee! I’d seen Nero coffee stores in London but hadn’t tried their product.

On the way back to our hotel, we saw the way McDonalds is advertised in Edinburgh, a man holding a stick with an arrow pointing the way. He was not pleased that I took a picture of him! He told me that what I was doing was illegal.

Our last day there, we bought some hats, wandered a bit looking at the City. Five days is really not sufficient to take it all in. We met a gal from Ottawa who was working at the counter in an eatery. She was from Ottawa and was planning on working until September in Edinburgh. That is the way to do it, to see the sights properly.

Departure day, we left Waverly rail station at exactly 9:30 am to return to Gatwick in preparation for our trip to Portugal. That is next weeks story.

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