This will be a short blog post. I took the bus today from Bilboa to Irun. Unfortunately I was ripped off at the bus station in Bilbao. As I was waiting for my bus I had some time to kill so I decided to go outside, find a bench, sort through my gear and pack my Camino backpack. The rest of my stuff was going to go into my suitcase and on Saturday morning I need to get my suitcase to the post office and mail it to Santiago. While I was doing this a very agitated young man came up to me and asked me to help him find the bus station. I pointed towards the bus station a couple of times before he seemed to understand and then he ran in that direction. I continued to sort my stuff for another minute or so when I realized that my Camino backpack was gone and my carry on back was also missing. Stupid me. I set myself up to fall for the oldest trick in the American traveling in Europe book. I am such an idiot. I spent about four hours running around Bilboa until I found a backpacking store where I replaced everything I lost, except my prescription sunglasses. 😎 I have transition lenses in my regular glasses so losing the prescription sunglasses is not catastrophic.

Today was a lesson learned for me. When you are in a big city over here you really need to pay attention. It is late and I am tired so I am going to go to bed.

I hope everyone had a great Thursday.

Good night from Irun, Spain.

Goodbye Scotland. Thanks for your hospitality. I have really enjoyed my visit. I have given Scotland a hard time about their National flower, the thistle, and their National dish, haggis, but I really do love their National motto: “No one provokes me with impunity.” I would expect no less from a country that is proud to say that the thistle is their National flower.

My flight leaves at 8:40 AM so I had to get up at 5:00 AM to shower, shave, pack, police the room, check out of the hotel and get down to the tram station to take the tram to the Edinburgh airport. I never sleep well the night before an early morning flight. I am always worried that will oversleep and miss the flight, in spite of the fact that I have never overslept and missed a flight.

I really enjoyed my time in Scotland. Glasgow was a very interesting city and Edinburgh is a world class tourist destination. You could spend a month in Scotland and not run out of things to see and do. And Kelly was right, the Scottish people are amazingly friendly. They make it so easy to enjoy your time in Scotland.

After I checked out of the hotel I stopped by the Cathedral to light a candle and say a prayer for Anna. The Cathedral was closed so I sat on the steps and said a prayer for Anna and everyone else on my prayer list. I do believe in the power of prayer. And as my Father always says, “It can’t hurt.”

I decided to take the tram out to the airport instead of a cab. It is a new, very comfortable tram with great high speed internet. And it is only six pounds. What a great deal.

My first flight is from Edinburgh to Bristol, England. From Bristol I take a connecting flight to Bilbao, Spain 🇪🇸, where I spend the night before taking a bus 🚌 to Irun, Spain.

It is going to be hot 🥵 in Spain. I am talking mad dogs and Englishmen hot. I am talking Omaha in July and August hot. I am talking Illinois State Fair hot. Well, I guess you get the picture. And on top of that it will be very humid. What was I thinking 🤔. As usual, I wasn’t thinking.

I am becoming an old hand at getting through the bag check and security at Euro airports. As I was walking to get to my gate I had to walk through the duty free shopping area. It appears that alcohol and perfume are the big sellers in the duty free shopping area. The two ladies holding trays in the middle and on the left hand side of this picture were handing out free shots of gin.

They want you to buy a bottle or two of gin and you wouldn’t want to do that before you sample a shot of three or four types of gin. And it’s only 8:00 AM! I can’t imagine throwing down multiple shots of gin at 8:00 AM. Even if you are a nervous flyer, that kind of gin consumption this early in the morning seems excessive. I took a pass on the gin and decided that I would wait until I arrive safe and sound in Bilbao and find my hotel before I imbibe.

I am flying easyJet from Edinburgh to Bristol and then Bristol to Bilbao.

This is what easyJet calls a point to point trip. That means when I get to Bristol I will be required to retrieve my bag and then go through the bag check process and the security process before I can board my easyJet flight from Bristol to Bilbao. Hey easyJet, you are not making it easy to fly easyJet. Wouldn’t it make sense to check my bag all the way through to my final destination. It seems like easyJet is going out of their way to make this trip as difficult as possible.

I had to show the gate agent my passport to board the flight in Edinburgh. Abe noticed this passage from his Gettysburg Address on the first page of my passport.

Abe sure is proud of his Gettysburg Address, as well he should be.

I arrived in Bristol about 30 minutes late but I have a long layover so that shouldn’t be a problem. This is lunch at the Bristol airport. It is a traditional Cornish pasty. Not too tasty.

It is a lot of dry pastry and a little bit of beef, potato and gravy filling. What do yo expect from airport food in England?

I arrived in Bilbao and checked into my hotel room.

They even gave me a stamp for my Pilgrim Credential. It is a very basic room but they are very nice and spent 30 minutes with a map showing the best places to eat and visit this evening.

I spent about five hours walking around Old Town Bilbao and through the park and along the esplanade next to the river that runs through Bilbao. What a beautiful town.

This is one of the beautiful plazas in Old Town. The adults are eating, drinking and playing music while seated at the outdoor cafes that line the perimeter of the plaza while the kids play games in the middle of the plaza.

This is the esplanade next to the river

This is the Cathedral de Santiago.

There was a five euro charge to tour the Cathedral. When I tried to pay, the nice young woman behind the counter said there was no charge for Pilgrims. I asked her how she knew I was a Pilgrim. Was it the ratty clothes? Was it the limp? It couldn’t be the stench because I did laundry 🧺 yesterday. She finally stopped me and pointed to the Pilgrim Credential that I had in my hand ready for a stamp. She said the Pilgrim Credential and the ratty clothes mark me as either a bum who has worked out a scam to get free admission to the historic Cathedrals in Spain or a true Pilgrim.

A picture of the statue of Santiago the Pilgrim inside the Cathedral.

I lit a candle and said a prayer for Anna and for everybody else on my prayer list.

It was time for dinner and I thought of going to one of the high end Michelin star restaurants in Bilbao and dropping a couple of hundred euros on a fancy dancy dinner, or have the world’s best bocadillo. In spite of all the grousing I did last year about the endless ham and cheese sandwiches, I decided to see if this place did indeed have the World’s best bocadillos.

I bought two cans of San Miguel Radler and had a picnic, Pilgrim style, on the steps of the Cathedral. Now I haven’t had bocadillos all over the world, so I can’t say this was the world’s best bocadillo. But this was one might tasty ham and cheese, or as we say in Spanish, jamon and queso, bocadillo.

I hope everyone had a good Thursday.

Good evening from Bilbao, Spain.

When I got up this morning I checked the forecast for Edinburgh and it looked like it was going to be a rainy and overcast day. Sounds like perfect day for a visit to the National Museum of Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿.

After I showered, shaved and dressed I went out to the Cathedral where I lit a candle 🕯 and said a prayer for Anna. Then it was on to breakfast. I visited the Tesco next to the Cathedral and picked up my breakfast.

Doesn’t that look like a delicious smiley face breakfast? I decided to dine al fresco as it had not yet started to rain. I found a park bench and proceeded to have a relaxing, delicious and healthy breakfast.

After breakfast I returned to my hotel and relaxed for a few minutes. The Museum opens at 10:00 AM so I had a few minutes to kill before I commenced the 15 minute walk to get there. As I was walking to the Museum I passed by the Patisserie Valkyrie. Dana loves pastry shops so I thought I would put this picture in the blog for her.

I was stuffed from breakfast and knew that I did not need a pastry. I am proud to say that I exercised a great deal of self control, unusual for me, mastered my craving for a pastry, wiped the drool from my chops with a handy hanky and proceeded to the Museum.

What a great Museum. I started out on the main floor of the Museum where they have cultural artifacts from all over the world. The Scotts collected these artifacts when they were helping the Brits civilize the rest of the world.

This looks like a canoe 🛶.

It is actually a huge banquet bowl that can hold 200 gallons of food.

Next I moved on to the Scottish technology exhibit. Guess who this is?

It is Dolly the cloned sheep.

They had a great exhibit tracing the development in Scotland of the coal industry, the iron and steel industry and the textile industry. During the height of the Industrial Revolution, Scotland lead the world in the development of these three key industries. Scotland was also one of the world’s leading shipbuilders and was a leading manufacturer of steam locomotives.

This is a full scale working model of the first steam engine invented by Thomas Newcomen.

This steam engine was used to pump water out of underground coal mines. Scotsman James Watt was hired to repair a Newcomen steam engine. Watt quickly realized the the Newcomen steam engine was extremely inefficient. Watt developed a new and much more efficient steam engine. This new and improved steam engine was one of the driving forces behind the Industrial Revolution.

Next I visited the Far East exhibit. I was greeted at the entrance to this exhibit by a smiling Buddha.

I spent a delightful four hours at the Museum, out of the gloom and the rain. Time now for a late lunch. As I was walking back to the hotel and searching for a place to grab a quick bite to eat, I started to think about all the things I had done in Edinburgh and all the things I had failed to do, namely try haggis. A number of you are scratching you heads and wondering, what exactly is haggis. Well let me tell you. Haggis is minced sheep lung, liver and heart mixed with onion, suet and oatmeal and cooked in a sheep stomach. It is the national dish of Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿. Like the thistle is the national flower of Scotland. I think haggis is to fine dining what the thistle is to beautiful flower arrangements.

In an earlier post I railed at people who claim they don’t like sushi 🍣 when they haven’t even tried it. How can I say I don’t like haggis when I haven’t even tried it. That would make me a hypocrite, wouldn’t it?

As I continued my search for a good lunch spot I saw this sign.

I still don’t know if I want to try haggis, but this restaurant claims to “Have Edinburgh’s Best Haggis By A Royal Mile.” If I am going to have haggis, I definitely want Edinburgh’s best haggis.

Unable to decide “yes” or “no” on the “do I want to try haggis question,” I continued walking.

Then I walked past this sign.

What in the world is a haggis ball. Is it kinda like a Rocky Mountain Oyster only with sheep testicles? Now my poor little head is really spinning. I am terribly confused. Should I try haggis, yes or no? If I try haggis do I go for the traditional haggis or do I eat outside the box, take a walk in the wild side, and try haggis balls?

As I was trying to solve this dilemma, I walked by an Indian fast food joint and decided to say no to haggis and yes to chicken tikka masala.

Call me a hypocrite, but I have decided to take a complete pass on haggis.

After I wolfed down my tasty lunch I continued my perambulation to the hotel. On the way I spied Greyfriars Bobby. It is an Edinburgh tradition to rub Bobby’s nose for good luck.

Bobby and his master guarded the graveyard at the Greyfriars Church. Resurrectionists would come into the graveyard at night and dig up fresh graves and sell the bodies to the medical school in Edinburgh for big bucks. Bobby was such a loyal dog that when his master died, Bobby spent every evening for the rest of his twelve year life guarding his master’s grave in the graveyard at the Greyfriars Church.

This is one of the many bagpipers who stand on street corners all over Edinburgh playing their bagpipes.

In Edinburgh you are rarely out of earshot of the sound of skirling bagpipes.

After I got back to the hotel I realized that I was long overdue for a laundry day. To put it delicately, my clothes were getting a little ripe.

This is the laundromat.

And this is me in my rain suit at the laundromat.

Every stitch of clothes I packed for the trip went into the washer. I spent a very pleasant two hours at the laundromat chatting with the owner, Anne Gracie. It really adds something special to a trip when you get to chat up the locals.

After I finished my laundry I went to dinner.

Beef stroganoff over wild rice. Yum!

That is it for tonight.

I hope everyone had a good Wednesday.

Good night for the last time from Edinburgh, Scotland. Tomorrow I fly to Bilbao, Spain.

I got up this morning and had a couple of bananas for breakfast. I then walked to the Cathedral to light a candle and say a prayer for my sister Anna.

As I was walking back to my hotel to use the WC I noticed this sign.

I didn’t want to go in but Abe insisted. Technically he is dead, although he is more than a little touchy about his designation as “deceased.” I think that is why he is always interested in the old graveyards we encounter and the memorials to the soldiers who did not return from the two world wars. This is the walk up to the old graveyard.

A few of the old monuments.

You will never guess what we encountered as we were walking out of the Old Calton Burial Ground.

That is my buddy and traveling companion Honest Abe in Edinburgh, Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿. The memorial was dedicated to the Scottish-American soldiers who fought and died in the American Civil War. Abe truly is a world wide rock star. So far we have found Abe in London and Edinburgh. Abe wanted to cancel our Camino and fly all over Europe visiting every city that has an Abe Lincoln statue. I told I might consider that for our next trip overseas, but for this trip we are heading to Spain to walk the Camino Del Norte. He is disappointed but he will get over it.

After this unplanned detour we hiked over to the lower end of the Royal Mile and walked up to the Edinburgh Castle. As we were walking up the Royal Mile we saw a seagull crapping on Adam Smith’s head.

Apparently this sea gull does his business on Adam Smith’s head all day long and only takes a break to reload. The locals have nicknamed this sea gull Bernie Sanders. It only makes sense that a socialist sea gull named Bernie Sanders would be taking a dump on Adam Smith in Edinburgh.

We finally got to Edinburgh Castle.

This is what the castle looks like from the city center of Edinburgh.

The Castle sits on top of an extinct volcano 🌋. It looms over the city.

One of the first things you encounter when you enter the Castle is the Dog Cemetery.

Those upright slabs of stone are the grave markers for the dogs who are buried in the Dog Cemetery.

Next we visited the One O’clock Gun.

In order to accurately navigate at sea you need to know what time it is. As ships were leaving Edinburgh they needed to set their chronometers to make sure they were starting with an accurate time. They set up a time ball on top of the Nelson Memorial that they dropped at exactly 1:00 PM to let the ships set their chronometers.

All the ships would wait until the Time Ball dropped, adjust their chronometers accordingly and then hoist sail and get out of Edinburgh as fast as the wind would carry them. This was a great system on clear days when the ships could see the dropping of the Time Ball. Edinburgh gets about ten clear days a year. So the whole Time Ball thing didn’t work. You would think they could have figured that out before they built the Time Ball. As a backup plan they decided to fire a gun from the castle at exactly 1:00 PM every day. It became a tradition to fire the One O’clock Gun. They continue to fire the One O’Clock Gun even though everyone now has a cell phone that tells them when it is one o’clock. If you are touring around the Castle and are near the Gun at one o’clock the gun blast scares the bejesus out of you.

Next we toured “The Honors: The Scottish Crown Jewels.” No photos of the Scottish Crown Jewels allowed.

This is the Royal Crest of Scotland.

The unicorn on the left is the national animal of Scotland and the lion on the right is the national animal of England. According to the Scotts a unicorn 🦄 always trumps a lion🦁.

This is the Scottish National War Memorial.

Front entrance.

Back side.

Again, no photographs inside this building. On the walls of this Memorial there were large commemorative tablets for each battle in which Scottish men and women fought and died, stretching back at least three centuries. The most moving memorial was to the Scotts who gave their lives in World War I and World War II. The inscription on the base of the memorial read: “The souls of the righteous are in the hands of God. There shall no evil happen to them. They are at peace.” More Scotts per capita died in WW I than any other nation that participated in this War to end all Wars.

As we were leaving the Castle we encountered a series of these storyboards that explained the history of the Castle. I especially liked this one.

So these three hundred guys spent a year drinking in the castle and then rode out to their doom. After a year of drinking I am surprised they could even saddle their horses. And after a year of drinking did they think that they would ride out to anything other than their doom?

This explains how Mary Queen of the Scotts had a son who became King James VI of Scotland and eventually became King James I of England, thus combining Scotland and England under one ruler.

They are putting up the stage and the grandstands for the Royal Edinburgh Military Tatoo.

This is a view from behind the stage.

This was my late lunch/early dinner at Salt “n” Vinegar.

It is a Doner Kebab and it was delicious. The owner, Genghis, like Genghis Khan, threw in the fries for free.

On the menu they had haggis pudding and deep fried pizza.

I should have asked Genghis if anyone ever ordered haggis pudding or deep fried pizza.

Things were very slow at the restaurant so after I finished my meal Genghis brought over two cups of tea and we talked for an hour. He emigrated from Turkey six years ago and would up in Edinburgh three years ago after spending three years in London. He likes Edinburgh but sometimes the gloomy weather makes him homesick for Turkey. He wants to emigrate to America. He told me that I have no idea how lucky I am to be living in America. As I was leaving he thanked me for listening to his stories and insisted on giving me a water bottle for the walk back to the hotel. What a nice guy.

I walked back through Princes Street Gardens.

This is a beautiful fountain I found in the Gardens, with the Castle in the background.

This is a thistle plant. The thistle is the national flower of Scotland.

Are you kidding? I don’t want to offend anyone who is Scottish or of Scottish extraction, but this is one butt ugly plant. Do you see any flowers on this plant? And technically, a thistle is not a plant or a flower, it’s a weed. In the good old U S of A if we get a thistle in our lawn or garden we get out the Roundup and it is goodbye thistle. Were all the colorful beautiful flowers taken when it was time for Scotland to pick a national flower? One of the tour guides told me a cock and bull story about an invading army that was sneaking up on a sleeping Scottish army in the middle of the night. As the soldiers in the invading army got close to sleeping Scotts, they decided to take off their shoes so they could silently sneak up on the sleeping Scots. Shoeless, this invading army walked right into a patch of thistles and their high pitched screams of pain woke up the sleeping Scots who, with their shoes on, waded into the thistle patch and slew the shoeless invading army. Hey Scotland, nobody, and I mean nobody, is buying this cock and bull story. Either get a new national flower or come up with a more believable story to explain why you picked the butt ugly thistle.

That’s it for today. I hope everyone had a great Tuesday.

Goodnight from Edinburgh, Scotland.

Happy birthday to me. Happy birthday to me. Happy birthday dear Mark. Happy birthday to me.

I am 64 years old today and I feel every one of those 64 years. I have never celebrated my birthday away for the good old U S of A. It is kinda strange.

Thank you all for your emails, text messages and ecards wishing me a happy birthday. That was very nice. My sister Karen and my brother-in-law Mark sent me a birthday card a month ago so I could take it on this trip and open it on my birthday.

Very funny card. Thanks Karen and Mark.

Jan sent an especially funny ecard with three nuns singing happy birthday. So far this trip I haven’t encountered any nuns. I am afraid that once I start walking on the Camino, word will spread on the nun grapevine and they will grab their rulers and make all necessary preparations to ambush me at every church, monastery and convent along the Way. My knuckles are already starting to ache.

I celebrated my birthday by sacking in and then walking over to the Cathedral to thank God for all the gifts he has given me over the last 64 years and to light a candle and say a prayer for Anna and Garon.

This is Garon. He was a flat out amazing human being. They don’t come any better than Garon.

And this is my sister Anna.

She is the one sitting between my mother and father. Anna is so generous and warm hearted. She has more friends than there are stars in the sky.

After I left the Cathedral I walked up to Calton Hill.

Once I got to the top of Calton Hill I toured the Nelson Monument.

They had a nice museum at the base of the Monument and for 5 pounds I was allowed to climb the 143 stair spiral staircase up to the top of the Monument.

I have always been confused about the difference between a memorial and a monument. Don’t think you can Google this question and get a straight answer. “The main difference between a monument and a memorial is that a monument is a type of structure that is either explicitly created to commemorate a person or important event or is used for that purpose. A memorial is an object that serves as a focus for our memory of a person or event.” Now that is as clear as muddy water. Why do we have the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial? What makes one a memorial and one a monument? Who knows?

I took some pictures of Edinburgh from the top of the Nelson Monument.

Edinburgh Castle is the structure in the middle of this picture.

This is the Salisbury Crag. You can hike up to the point of the Crag where there is a beautiful view of Edinburgh.

This is the Palace of Holyroodhouse. More on the Palace later in this blog.

After I descended from the Nelson Monument I hiked around the perimeter of Calton Hill and took some photos.

That is the Firth of Forth in the distance.

It looks like they started to build the Parthenon on the top of Calton Hill and after 12 columns they gave up.

After Calton Hill I decided to have lunch.

What a delicious and healthy lunch.

After lunch I hiked over to the Palace of Holyroodhouse.

This is the front gate.

This is the central courtyard.

They would not allow pictures inside the Palace, so you will need to trust me when I tell you it was flat out amazing. Tapestries the size of a basketball court hanging on the walls. Portrait galleries with paintings of every Scotsman who played a significant role in the history of Scotland. And rooms and rooms of beautiful furniture.

After the tour of the Palace I went on a guided tour of the gardens. This is our tour guide, Peter.

Some of the lovely flowers in the gardens.

This is a picture of the ruins of the old abbey.

The final stop on the tour was the Queens Gallery which is an art exhibit exploring the relationship between the English royal family and the Russian Imperial family.

You know how much I love history. My visit to the Palace was one of the highlights of my trip so far.

After I finished touring the Queens Gallery I decided to have a birthday dinner.

First course was a gin and tonic. It was Scottish gin and Scottish tonic.

Second course was focaccia and olive tapenade.

Third course was a caprese salad.

And the fourth and final course was a pan fried cod fillet served over a bed of mashed potatoes and sautéed spinach.

That’s it for today. I hope everyone had a great Monday.

Good night from Edinburgh.

I started the day by attending the 9:00 AM Mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral.

I prayed extra hard for my sister Anna who is having a difficult time battling Non Hodgkin Lymphoma. If you have a prayer to spare please send it Anna’s way. I also prayed extra hard for Garon Coriz and his family and friends. Garon was a gifted, skilled and caring physician. He was an amazing athlete, a gifted artist and musician, and a dedicated conservationist and civil rights activist. He deeply loved and was deeply loved by his family and friends. He was also a skilled and experienced mountaineer. Yesterday Garon died while climbing in the Sandia Mountains. Everyone who knew Garon is in shock and is mourning his loss.

The service at the Cathedral closely followed the services I have been to in the States, until we got to the sermon. Today’s gospel reading was the parable of the Good Samaritan. Before he started his sermon, the priest noted that not a one of us qualifies as a Good Samaritan and warned us that we had better pay close attention to his sermon.

The priest started his sermon by explaining that the Jews and the Samaritans hated each other, so it was more than noteworthy that the Good Samaritan helped out the Jew who had been beaten and robbed on the road from Jerusalem. This particular gospel opens with a scribe asking Jesus how to get to heaven. The priest scornfully explained to us that a scribe is sorta like a low life scum sucking attorney. When he said that I swear that he was looking right at me and if looks could kill I’d be rotting in Hell right now, instead of writing this blog for your reading pleasure. How did he know I am a member of that loathsome tribe called “attorney?” Did he see me slither into the church and up the main aisle to my pew? Did he see me covetously eyeing the money in collection box? I was dressed in my tattered and ill fitting pilgrim garb, not a natty three piece Seville Row suit. How did he see through my disguise and call me out for being a slithering snake of an attorney?

After he held my gaze for what seemed like an eternity, he went on to describe the scribe’s cross examination of Jesus and the lesson to be learned from Jesus’ response to this cross examination, the parable of the Good Samaritan. The lesson to be learned is Jesus has commanded us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves and everyone is your neighbor. According to this priest we should love everyone no matter their creed, color, gender, gender identification or political beliefs. I thought it was interesting that he included and emphasized political beliefs. Maybe we should all try to be Good Samaritans and stop hating each other because we have differing political beliefs. Nancy and Mitch, are you following this blog? For goodness sake, holster your pistols and try to get along.

Today was Sea Sunday at the Cathedral.

The Catholic Church has a special outreach for the men and women who work in the merchant marine. It sounded like a good cause so I gave them a couple of pounds, or it could have been a couple of quarters. All these pounds and pence and euros have me unbelievably confused.

Abe and St. Christopher spotted this bank of candles and made me empty out my pockets and give them all my change. They proceeded to drop coins in the donation box like two drunken sailors on shore leave.

They lit a candle and said a prayer for Anna and Garon and Mary and Jay and Wiley. I need to have a little talk with Abe and St. Christopher about a candle budget.

After mass it was time for breakfast.

I stopped at a grocery store and bought a vegetable smoothie and a banana and a chocolate croissant. I used a self checkout pay with your credit card kiosk at the grocery store to make these purchases. As I was leaving the store I heard Jan ask, as she always asks after I make a purchase with my credit card, “Did you put your credit card back in your wallet?” I always listen to Jan and in this case I am so glad I did. I immediately checked my wallet and couldn’t find my credit card. I ran back into the grocery store and found my credit card still in the card reader. Boy was I relieved to retrieve my credit card and put it back in my wallet. I need to slow down and concentrate on what I am doing.

After breakfast I meandered around town to kill some time before my 1:00 PM Free City Tour of Edinburgh.

I walked by this escape room. I didn’t know they had escape rooms in Scotland.

Then I walked through another section of Princes Street Gardens. What a beautiful green oasis in the middle of the city.

They are trialling a robot mower in the Gardens. Is trialling even a word?

The trial didn’t seem to be going very well. The robotic mower looked like it was very confused. It would start and stop, go forward and backwards and, in general, aimlessly wander around the park with no robotic idea of what it was supposed to be doing or where it was supposed to be doing it.

Beautiful flower beds in the Gardens.

This is Great Aunt Lizzie’s. What beautiful roses she has in her yard.

I took a quick lunch break before starting my Free City Tour.

This is a picture of the counter guy fixing me a sandwich. No vegan options at this restaurant.

I finally made it to the spot on the Royal Mile where I met Zenon, the tour guide for our Free City Tour.

This is the Heart of Midlothian, set in a sidewalk on the Royal Mile.

According to Zenon, it is good luck if you spit on the heart of Midlothian. Although this makes no sense to me, I saw plenty of people spit on this alleged good luck charm.

This is a statue of David Hume on the Royal Mile. Notice the shiny right foot. You guessed it, it is good luck to rub his right foot.

This is festival season in Edinburgh. We had to walk through this Mardi Gras like parade where everybody was dressed up in flamboyant costumes and beating on different types of drums.

This is St. Giles Cathedral.

This is a stained glass window inside St. Giles Cathedral.

I decided to go back to the ramen noodle joint for a quick and inexpensive dinner.

I was craving vegetables and this mixed vegetable yakisoba really hit the spot.

That’s it for today. I hope everyone had a restful and relaxing Sunday.

Goodnight from Edinburgh.

Today was the day I travelled from Glasgow to Edinburgh. I was staying two blocks from the train station and there is a train leaving Glasgow for Edinburgh every 30 minutes, so I decided to take the train.

Glasgow has a very nice train station but it was very crowded. There must have been something going on in Glasgow as the trains from Edinburgh were arriving and disgorging hundreds of teenagers. The teenage boys were dressed like you would expect teenage boys to dress, but the teenage girls were, as they say over here, “all tarted up.” A little bit of unsolicited advice for Scottish parents, before your teenage daughters leave the house check out what they are wearing and don’t let them leave the house if they are dressed in some of the outfits I saw at the train station.

Coors Light seems to be very popular as I saw these billboards all over the train station.

After I got my ticket I asked the ticket agent to direct me to the departure track. After he played around with his computer for about 5 minutes he said the departure track was between track 5 and track 3. What in the world is that supposed to mean. Track 4 is between track 5 and track 3. But if my departure track was track 4 why didn’t he just say track 4. I gave up on this guy and went down to the level of the train station where the trains were arriving and departing. I finally found a helpful older gentleman who confirmed that my train to Edinburgh was going to depart from Track 4 in a few minutes. I got on the correct train and got my luggage stowed before the train departed. I am always afraid 😱 that I will get on the wrong train, fall asleep, and wind up 500 miles from my intended destination. You need to always be on your toes when you are traveling over here.

After a pleasant hour on the train I arrived in Edinburgh. I am staying at a small hotel right off Princess Street, which is the main street through the city center.

I had a little trouble finding the Parliament House Hotel as it is tucked away in an alley, but it seems like a clean and quiet hostelry.

This is my room.

Nothing fancy but it will do just fine. In order to get to my room I had to climb up three flights of narrow steps, then walk down a hallway and walk down one flight of steps. It reminds me of the place where I stayed last year in London, quirky but comfortable.

After I checked in I went around the corner for a bite to eat. I found a ramen noodle place that had a pretty good crowd so I thought I would give it a try.

This is the description of what I ordered.

Beef Tataki Ramen.

It was very good but the curry was just a little bit too spicy 🥵. I also ordered a Japanese lemonade.

Japanese lemonade tastes a lot like Sprite. I am not sure why the Japanese call it lemonade.

After lunch I went for a walk. Near the city center train station I found this lovely park.

It was a beautiful day so everyone was out enjoying the sunshine and blue skies.

Flowering bushes in Princes Street Gardens.

Me sister Anna is having a little bit of a setback. So St. Christopher and Abe thought it would be a good idea to find a church and light a candle and say a prayer for her.

This is St. Mary’s Cathedral.

I believe that a lot of Polish people have emigrated to Scotland to find work. A lot of the masses at St. Mary’s are in Polish.

This is the altar at St. Mary’s Cathedral. It is very sparse and spare, especially when compared to the cathedrals in Spain.

The candle in the front row is Anna’s candle. If you have a spare prayer please say one for Anna.

As I was walking back to the hotel I noticed this sign in the window of a fast casual restaurant. Why in the world would they expect anybody who is interested in busing tables or washing dishes to have a CV? They should be looking for a warm body, not someone who has a CV.

That’s it for today. I hope everyone had a relaxed and restful Saturday.

Goodnight from Edinburg.

Ten days ago, after driving only six blocks from the Hertz rental car office in Dublin, I sideswiped a parked van and pretty well bunged up the passenger side of the rental car and the van. Ever since that incident Hertz has been sending me emails begging me to rent a car from them and offering me reduced rates to do so.

Hey Hertz, are you crazy? Why in the world would Hertz ever allow me to rent a car from them? It must be a Euro thing. The more rental cars you wreck over here, the more they want your business. In the good old U S of A I am sure that Hertz has my mugshot posted in every Hertz office in all 50 states with a “shoot on sight” order.

I did not want to repeat the Great Dublin Rental Car Debacle, so I decided to sign up for a standard Ugly American Big Bus Tour of the Scottish Highlands.

This is our route for the day tour. Twelve hours on a bus. Yikes! What was I thinking.

We boarded the bus at 7:50 AM and departed at 8:00 AM sharp. We drove for an hour to get out of Glasgow and up to Loch Lomand before we took a break for breakfast and a cup of coffee. I don’t drink coffee and I stuffed myself at the hotel’s free breakfast buffet before I started out on this adventure. So I used this stop to stretch my legs and snap a picture of Loch Lomand.

I also ate a croissant and a banana that somehow made their way from the breakfast buffet to the cargo pocket of my pants this morning. I have no idea how that happened.

Next we drove up to the heart of the West Highlands. The scenery was nothing short of spectacular.

There is a ten day hike called the West Highlands Way. Can you see the hikers in this picture.

It looks like it would be a beautiful hike in good weather, but the weather is always iffy at best in this part of Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿.

After a lunch at a truck stop, an almost inedible hamburger, we drove on to the ruins of Castle Urquhart on Loch Ness.

The castle ruins were on a bluff above the Loch so I got some nice pictures of the Loch.

And then I ran across this sign while I was touring the castle ruins.

That’s right. The Scottish are doing the same thing I caught the wiley Spaniards doing last year, raising pigeons to eat but serving them as chicken. I am never going to eat Euro chicken again. This pigeon scam is everywhere over here.

After we finished with our tour of the castle ruins, we took a boat trip down the Loch to meet up with our tour bus.

This is a picture of the castle ruins from the boat.

A picture of Loch Ness from the boat.

After we got off the boat there was a shop selling souvenirs and to my surprise, a guy giving away free shots of gin.

I know that it makes no sense to give away free shots of gin but you all know how much I like free. So I bellied up to the bar and asked for my free shot of gin. It wasn’t very good but I didn’t want to act like an ungrateful ugly American. So I told the guy behind the bar that his gin was the best gin I had ever tasted and that when I get back to the States I am going to buy a case and drink it for breakfast, lunch and dinner! He bought this line of crap and lined up two more shots on the bar and insisted that I drink them. By now everyone else was on the bus and the driver was honking his horn at me to encourage me to end my tippling and get back on the bus. So I chug-a-lugged both shots of gin and got back on the bus.

Now I never get carsick. I don’t understand the whole carsick thing. However, after ten minutes of twisty windy roads the motion of the bus, the paint thinner gin and the awful hamburger all combined to give me a new appreciation of how people feel when they say they are carsick. Although in my case I was bus sick. After an hour of this torture we made a dinner stop and I had a big ice cream cone🍦. That seemed to settle my stomach down and it was on to Glasgow.

Another street mural in Glasgow.

I hope everyone had a great Friday.

Goodnight from Glasgow.

Kelly recommended that I check out the Glasgow Botanic Gardens. The weather forecast said cloudy but no rain so I decided this would be a good day to put on my walking shoes and check out some of the outlying sights. The Botanic Gardens is almost straight west of the city center and a long but pleasant walk. Part of the walk was through Kelvingrove Park. This is a 100 meter path in the park with a 10 meter wide herbaceous border on each side of the path.

Some of the flowers in this herbaceous border.

I got to the Botanic Gardens about 10:00 AM and spent a very pleasant 2 hours strolling around the grounds.

I think this was a flowering apple tree. What a lovely scent.

This is a path along the river.

This is the arboretum.

Flowers in the arboretum.

It was so hot and humid in the arboretum that I thought I was in a jungle.

More flowers.

After I finished touring the Botanic Gardens I walked through Hillhead, a trendy section of Glasgow with a lot of little boutiques and restaurants. I stopped in Martha’s and had a chicken chipotle rice bowl. It was so healthy and so good.

After lunch I walked over to the Riverside Museum.

This is Glasgow’s transportation museum. It is on the North bank of the River Clyde and one of the exhibits is a restored clipper ship.

The ship is very kid friendly with many activities for the kids to keep them occupied and make them feel like they are part of the ship’s crew. This group of kids were having so much fun swabbing the deck.

The Museum was chock full of many interesting examples of Glasgow’s transportation history. These are all working motorcycles.

For years, Glasgow was one of the world’s leading manufacturers of steam locomotives. This Glasgow manufactured locomotive ran on the South Africa Railroad.

This is a miniature one person car.

If Hertz had rented me this car in Dublin I would have been able to drive it around the narrow roads in Ireland without getting in a wreck and damaging my rental car and a parked car. I should sue Hertz for renting me a standard size vehicle and then expecting me to drive it without incident. What were they thinking?

After I finished touring the Riverside Museum I walked back to city center Glasgow. I was looking for a place to eat diner when I walked by this place.

This is the website for The Buttery.

The owners of The Buttery must be two very strong women with absolutely no body image issues. A couple of you have said that, based on the pictures in the blog of me and the meals I have been eating, I am starting to look a little chunky. I don’t want to carry any extra weight on the Camino and decided that any meal I ordered at The Buttery would involve too many calories and would put too many excess pounds on my already overweight carcass. So I decided to foregoing dinner at The Buttery and drink my dinner instead.

Kelly recommended that I check out a downtown pub called The Counting House.

Great recommendation Kelly.

A Hendricks gin and tonic was 3.70 euros, half what I have been paying at other pubs.

This pub used to be a bank building so it is very open with nice high ceilings and a magnificent skylight.

That’s it for today. I hope everyone had a great Thursday.

Good night from Glasgow.

After a good nights sleep last night and a full English breakfast this morning, I hit the road at about 9:30 AM to continue my exploration of Glasgow. My first stop was the Glasgow Museum of Modern Art.

I am not a big fan of “modern” art. I don’t really know what “modern” art is, but I know I don’t like it. They say ignorance is bliss and I have been pretty blissful about “modern” art all my life. Well, I thought I would give Glasgow “modern” art a try. What do I have to lose.

Right away I ran across one of those iconic Andy Warhol soup can paintings. Did you know that he did one of these paintings for every soup that Campbell’s produced, 32 in all. Andy had the same lunch for most of his adult life, a bowl of Campbell’s soup. Campbell’s was going to sue him for displaying and selling these paintings without licensing the image. But they quickly realized that they were getting millions of dollars of free publicity out of these wildly popular paintings and instead of suing Andy, they sent him a couple of cases of soup.

The GoMA wasn’t half bad and I actually liked some of the “modern” art. I need to keep a more open mind on art and experience it before I say I don’t like it. Modern art is kinda like sushi 🍣. Don’t say you don’t like it if you haven’t even tried it.

After I completed my tour of the GoMA, I decided to take a break in George Square.

The guy on top of the pedestal on the right hand side of the picture is Sir Walter Scott. He was a Scottish born poet, playwright, historian, and the inventor and of the genre of books we now call the historical novel.

As I was sitting on a bench in George Square I couldn’t help but notice that this was a popular place for people to sit and feed the flocks of resident pigeons. I also noticed that while the pigeons were fighting over the breadcrumbs thrown to them by the kids and old people hanging around the Square, a flock of seagulls were dive bombing and attacking the pigeons. Alfred Hitchcock could film a sequel to his movie classic, The Birds, in George Square.

I spotted this letter to the editor in a local newspaper outlining the problem and a potential solution.

Hey Lizzie, how stupid are you? First off, pigeons are nothing more than rats with wings. Haven’t you noticed the white blotches all over the monuments and benches in George Square? The pigeons, and the people who feed the pigeons, are responsible for this mess. You are outraged that the seagulls are attacking, killing and eating the pigeons in the Square. Stop feeding the pigeons and they will stop hanging around the Square and maybe they will find a safer spot to eat their meals. With your breadcrumbs you are luring the pigeons into the Square and creating a veritable pigeon buffet for the seagulls.

Do you really think that putting a few hawks in the Square would eliminate the seagull menace? Lizzie, do you know anything about hawks? Do you really think the hawks would eat the seagulls and would not attack the pigeons. Why would the hawks take on a large combative sea gull when they can feast on pigeons who are satiated, plump and slow to react from all the breadcrumbs you have been feeding them? The hawks would just team up with the seagulls and it would be a pigeon bloodbath in the Square! Hey Lizzie, what were you thinking?

In America we would exercise our Second Amendment right to bear arms, grab our shotguns and a box of shells, and head down to the Square and shoot the seagulls. Seagull problem solved. But without the seagulls to control the pigeon population you would wind up with a Square overrun with pigeons and completely befouled by their noxious droppings. Then you could round up the pigeons and ship them over to Spain where they would wind up as chicken on the dinner plates of unsuspecting pilgrims on the Camino. Pigeon problem solved. I just might write my own letter to the editor.

I got tired of watching the seagulls attacking the pigeons in George Square and decided to walk over to Greggs for lunch.

Kelly highly recommended this chain of Scottish bakeries. In particular she said the chicken bake was to die for.

The chicken bake did indeed look good and the price was right. Unfortunately, when I ordered one, the young man behind the counter told me I would need to warm it up before I eat it. I asked him to pop it in the microwave for a few minutes to warm it up. He replied, rather sheepishly, that he was not “authorized” to operate the microwave. Nobody in the store was “authorized” to operate the microwave. Getting “authorized” to operate a microwave must be a pretty big deal in Scotland. I didn’t want to make a scene over a cold chicken bake so I decided to order a couple of chocolate chip cookies for lunch instead. 🍪 🍪

After lunch I hiked over to the Glasgow Cathedral.

They also call this the Cathedral of St. Mungo. St. Mungo? I attended St. Joseph’s Catholic School for 8 years and I was an altar boy for 5 years and somewhere along the line we had to memorize the names of all the saints, and I have never heard of St. Mungo. Did the Scotts make up this saint?

The Cathedral was started in 1200 as a Catholic cathedral and the Protestants took over in 1560.

As I entered the Cathedral Abe and St. Christopher spotted this candle stand and ordered me to light a candle and we all said a prayer for Anna, Mary and her family, Jay and his family and Wiley and his family.

This is the view from the entrance of the Cathedral.

This is a view of the Cathedral from behind the High Altar. Notice the two huge pipe organs.

Behind the High Altar there is a small chapel dedicated to St. James. I stopped and we said a prayer for our upcoming Camino.

This gives you an idea of what the Scotts thought about the Irish battle for independence.

In the basement of the Cathedral there was a prayer station where you could write on a card the names of the people you want the church deacons to include in their daily prayers.

I got a couple of cards and wrote down the names of everyone on my daily prayer list and put the cards in the deacon’s box. What a peaceful place to pray and reflect.

After we finished touring the Cathedral we went for a walk around the Glasgow Necropolis, next to the Cathedral.

The Necropolis was on a hill with a great view over the city.

This is my favorite headstone.

Being the self styled Laureate of the Nursery is a big deal and Wee Willie Winkie is a classic children’s book. I loved to read bedtime stories to Sara and Dana.

As I walked back to my hotel I decided to have an early dinner.

This is a mouth watering chicken curry I got at a fast food rice bowl joint. Yum!

I hope everyone had a great Wednesday.

Goodnight from Glasgow.