Last Post from Scotland!

Just a few pictures before we head off to the airport for my trip down to Cardiff.....Dr Who , here I come!

This is an atmospheric scene near where I was staying in Aberdeen.....it didn't actually rain much and I was glad of some cooler weather.

We had a big adventure and went to Kelty on a double decker bus! Naturally we went upstairs and had great fun trying to take photos from there....some came out quite well :) Then we went to Dunfermline Glen in the searing heat and got burnt :(

This is the house I lived in until I was 6....just the top bit mind you! Strangely enough everything seemed smaller and a lot closer together so we were finished there in 10 minutes and caught the next bus

This is Dunfermline Abbey where Robert the Bruce is said to be buried.

This is the view from the bus on the way through Kirkcaldy taken by Mum of course!

Aberdeen

Well I haven't got the photos on the computer yet but I thought I should put something in here for the dedicated few! :)

The weekend started with a train trip up to Aberdeen and I was pleasantly surprised with the smooth and quiet journey. I had opted for the quiet carriage not really knowing what that meant but when the handsome stranger with the Irish accent started having a fascinating cell phone conversation he was promptly advised to take it out into the hallway between carriages so I missed out on the rest of the conversation!

I had found my allocated seat only to find that the guy in the next seat had his papers and a box of lavender plants on my seat. There were a lot of empty seats so I just went and sat where I wanted and it wasn't until halfway through the trip at Dundee that the ticket man came to punch my ticket. I explained that I wasn't actually in my allocated seat and he said " No madam , but you are on the right train !" and smiled sweetly...nice :)

Anyway , the purpose of the trip was to visit our friend Eric and his partner Ruth but I will add more about that when I have the photos organised!

Off to Kelty where I lived until I was 6 and then Dunfermline Glen where Robert the Bruce is buried. This evenings activities involve a bus trip to Glenrothes to visit my only surviving Aunt :)

More Italy :)

We were meant to go to Livorno on the 3rd day but there was a special announcement by the captain at dinner time to say the berth we were meant to use had been deemed unsafe so we were going to La Spezia instead. This was disappointing for Mum as her and Bill wanted to go back to a cafe in Livorno to see their friend they had made there last year but it ended up being much better and I think it was my favourite place. This photo is the waterfront...we appreciated the shade and the breeze as it was hot!

Sorrento was pretty special too and much hotter than we expected too :)

The taxi driver told us this was a good local restaurant but we had plans for the Foreigners club!

Getting there....

This is what you see when approaching Sorrento by ferry. We had real Italian pizza for lunch at The Foreigners Club just to the left of this photo. 29 degreesC that day!

Naples just after dawn.....I got up early to see the first berthing and then went for a swim :)

And I couldn't go through Charles de Gaulle airport without taking a few photos....this is where you go through security to the duty free shops and boarding gates. One is asked to remove ones shoes and given a delightful pair of blue plastic bag slippers to wear for the 2 or 3 metres when one is able to replace the slippers with your shoes!

Cruised out!

Here we are back from the cruise already! Quite an unusual experience but very enjoyable and I would do it again now that I know the ropes :) There are several hundred photos to organise between the three of us so you will only be getting a few even though Mum spent hours on the laptop editing on Picasa...a great tool for fixing up your photos so that they all look beautiful.

This is the swimming pool I had all to myself first thing in the morning....lovely salt water so very floaty!!! I didn't make it into the bubbly ones though ....next time!

There must have been thousands of these sunbeds...the red road is for people wanting to walk or run around and everyone else is supposed to keep to one side but I kept on getting in the way of people...very polite they were!

Edinburgh....cakes, castles and nearly crying!

This photo is for my workmates! They are familiar with that look when cakes are around :)

This is Princes St gardens complete with the hundreds of people out enjoying the lovely weather with the Scott monument the rocket-like structure on the left.

The lawn had apparently been dug up the last time Mum and Bill were there so they were very surprised to see the lovely green grass ......complete with human adornments :) I found this difficult to photograph but I should have read my camera booklet and found out the different settings I could have used. The trick here was to get St Giles to appear in the archway.

We had just come out from Jenners where we had consumed a lovely lunch and I finally got my fudge doughnut!

This was taken through the window of the restaurant with Arthurs Seat in the distance and the new railway entrance in the middle. I am impressed with the great improvements to what was a dirty, black and depressing area.

The main shopping street with as many monuments as I could fit in! At the time we didn't realise that the shiny bus thing on the right is actually one of the new trams which was open for public viewing. Just like a lovely new tube train really....40m long and there will be 18.5 km of track.

And of course The Castle! There are hundreds of people up on the ramparts so we thought there must be something going on when the gun went off.....12 times!!!! I was pretty upset as I don't like loud noises, had got a bit of a fright and really just wanted to cry :(

So , here is the surprise I got when on a whirlwind trip to my old school.....Findlay is my maiden name and Douglas Leslie is now a successful lawyer :)