April 18

Yesterday we went off by ourselves to discover Edinburgh.  Gretta drove us to the Castle and we expected to stay a short time in order to cover as much ground as possible but we were surprised at how much there was to see.  Most of you will have been to Edinburgh Castle but not me!! I was impressed with the view from the Castle. St Margaret's Chapel, the Crown Jewels, etc and in particular to the way the Castle has been maintained.  After a couple of hours we walked along the Royal Mile, all downhill, and stopped for lunch at Deacon Brodie's Tavern.  Afterwards we visited St Giles Cathedral (Presbyterian) which is just beautiful.  Talked to one of the volunteers and he suggested we take a look at the  Thistle Chapel to see the Sir Robert Menzies Crest.  
On to the new Scottish Parliament - a fabulous new modern building, with an estimated building cost of £70 million but which in fact cost £700 million pounds.  
Then we went to Holyrood Palace, just across the road from the Parliament. 
That was most interesting, the palace is still used by members of the Royal family on a regular basis. Had a well earned cup of tea in the Palace cafe before returning to the Pritchards by taxi. 
Home in time to change for dinner.  Gretta & Kenneth had invited Sir John and Lady MacClusky for dinner - we have know the Lord for  a number of years through the IBA.  He didn't didappoint - we were entertained all night by his stories and wit! His wife, Ruth, is a lovely, long suffering lady! 
On Tuesday morning we picked up our rental car from the airport.  There was a slight glitch, apparently  we had inadvertently ordered a manual instead of an automatic car.  After a quick lesson in how to use a clutch etc !!!!!  we drove back to the Pritchards.  But earlier George had sat on the bedpost, (causing great discomfort which has resulted  in 2 packet of frozen peas for relief) and so guess who had the pleasure of driving in Edinburgh in a manual car!  As we were all leaving for the island of Arran at midday we opted for me to drive Getta and for George to drive with Kenneth.  End result - got here in one piece, mp problems. Gretta cooked lamb chops, grown on the island, for dinner and we had a roaring fire & a nice bottle of red.