A brand new day....in Edinburgh/9-17-12 Monday

Rise and shine and to the airport for the 6 travelers to Scotland. We managed to check in our bags luckily and everyone but two travelers(Paula and Cris) were overweight and their bags tagged "heavy"!!

After a quick flight to the Edinburgh Airport we hailed a taxi to the Scotsman and Frasier Hotels. The taxi driver accused us of bringing everything but the kitchen sink in our bags.

The Scotsman Hotel was even more spectacular than we expected! Nick, the special host that was assigned to us, he showed us to our suites, brought up the luggage, and was at our beckon call! He is a cute 26 year old, available, likes American girls and is a semi-pro soccer player!

Nick suggested one of two pubs to eat and we decided on the Royal Mcgregor. After a bite we headed for the Edinburgh Castle with Libby and Mary. As soon as we bought our tickets it started to pour cats and Scottie dogs! Kind of ruined the picture taking but the castle was unbelievable!

Roberta, Paula, Mary and Libby went on the Scotch Whisky Experience Tour to see how scotch is made and do some tasting of the scotch's of the regions. Every 2 minutes 4680 bottles of scotch whiskey are sold worldwide. However, they didn't sell us! We didn't acquire a taste for it!!

Dinner at a small Italian restaurant and we are turning in for the night. We will get an early start tomorrow and hope for better weather!

9-14-2012 The Walking Tour of Galway with the Tour Director from h...!

The morning started out at the exchange store so we could all get euros then it was off to the farmers market. We had a new member, Irene, join our group today. Boy is she in for a surprise! Roberta decided she had to have a University of Galway sweatshirt for Mariah so all six of us took a lovely, long, stroll along a canal in the rain which was so lengthy that we had to stop for a coffee break at a corner cafe. After the University shopping spree we visited The Cathedral, yes that is the name! Not quite as impressive as the Killarney cathedral but pretty darn impressive! Exhausted from our trip so far we had to seek nutrition and we snuck into a small pub, Finnegans, for a light lunch! Next it was off to the Spanish Arch, built in 1584 and we were so lucky to have experienced the punk band that was having a personal concert for maybe 8 or 10 losers right at the entrance! Then it started to rain
so we ducked into the Galway Museum. When the rain let up we found our way to Blakes castle which was built in the 1600's. Popular tradition claims that the Blakes descended from one of the nights of King Arthur's round table. Next it was on to the oldest medieval street in Galway, Kerwans Lane. There we just had to stop for the local lemon meringue pie and hot chocolate treated by Carol! Then wimps(Carol and Karen)went home to take a nap and that's when Roberta decided that we should go into one of the oldest pubs in town called Kings Head, located on High Street. There she discovered that she really likes Jameson and ginger ale!! Surprise surprise! Paula felt left out that she didn't buy anything at the cute little jewelry store, McCarthys so again we had to stop there!
Then headed back to the hotel we stopped for another, guess? Yes a Jameson and ginger ale! We sat and watched a Brazilian group concert in Eyre Park then back to the hotel room for more ice, Jameson and ginger ale!
We ran into Tim who had gone with Del to a local soccer game. Sounded like they really enjoyed the match.
A few people took the day trip to the Aran Islands and returned around 6.

Everyone is tired tonight and we are calling it a night so we can pack our bags for our trip back to Dublin tomorrow! Galway was a fun city and it seemed like everyone enjoyed themselves as you can see from the pictures. See you all soon!

P. S. Did I mention that as far as tour guides go, you get what you paid for? Ask Cris, she will tell you!