New Years Scotland - part 1

29 Dec 09 - Day 1

We left RAF Lakenheath around 6 am and began our 9 hour trip, headed to Scotland. We made a few stops along the way for breaks and lunch. The next stop we made was at the England-Scotland boarder.

We had an amazing view of Scotland, especially with all the snow on the ground! We continued into Scotland and finally made it to the hotel at around 3 pm. We had time to freshen up and meet back on the bus, which would take us into Edinburgh, to explore the nightlife. We decided to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe. It was great and we didn't even have to wait very long for seats.

Here I am at HRC.  The hostess and the waiter were extremely Scottish and extremely nice! After dinner we decided to walk around and find a pub and get some drinks before we headed back to the hotel. We found a pub, apparently a 'world famous' pub, called Dirty Dicks. We asked the waitress why this pub was so famous and she told us the story behind the name. The pubs name comes from a guy who used to clean up horse dung from the streets in Edinburgh and sell it for manure. After a hard days work, he would find hospitality in the pub that now bears his name, as he was often called Dirty Dick. We still don't really understand why it's world famous, but the waitress suggested it could also just be the name.

We saw the Edinburgh Castle on the way to eat and it was BEAUTIFUL at night, all lit up!

We also saw the opening event for Hogmanay, Scottish New Year! The Torchlight Procession starts on the famous Royal Mile and ends at Son et Lumiere.

It had been a long day so we decided to head back to the hotel at around 9 pm. The tour guide kept telling us that all we had to do was get on bus 31 and it would take us back to the bus stop right outside the hotel. We decided to do that instead of taking a taxi. It took us a few minutes to get tickets, because we needed EXACT change only! Well, we ended up only getting one ticket, because we had too much money to get another ticket. It was a mess, but we decided we would just have to spend 30 extra pence to get on the bus...no big deal. We get on the bus and waited. After a few minutes, I thought we were going in the wrong direction, but didn't really think too much of it. Edinburgh is pretty small and assumed we would turn around at some point. Then, thirty minutes later, the bus comes to a complete stop, lights go off, the worst possible thing that could of happened. We ask the bus driver if the bus is going to the Marriott and he says, 'Oh, you've made a terrible mistake. I can get you to your hotel in about an hours time'. We should have gotten on bus 31 going in the other direction, but the tour guide never said that at all. Benjamin and I are pros at underground subway systems...not so good at bus transportation. We finally got back to the hotel well after midnight! Here is a picture of that darn bus we were on for so long!