Friday, May 23, 2008

Scotland, First Installment


Alice, Debbie, Kathleen, Kim, Me and the rest of the Scotland team arrived yesterday -- or thereabouts -- in Linlithgow, a lovely town about twenty miles west of Edinburgh. The above picture is the Bonsyde Hotel, with which our cabins share grounds. It is a lovely place to stay, on a high hill overlooking the small town of Linlithgow.

The bright yellow flower shown here is called a "rape," which is grown for fuel in Scotland, but is better known as Canola Oil in the U.S. Alice talked with a Scot, who told her either 17 or 70 percent of the Scottish population is allergic to the flower. She couldn't decipher which from the conversation. In any case, I was sneezing like a fiend until I took some allergy pills.

We are in "self catering" cottages, so we are shopping in the town market, the Tesco, and this aisle sign was pretty hilarious. Bacon and Toilet Paper. If you have one, chances are you'll need the other, I guess.

The walk to town is about a mile and a half, and we pass along a lot of farms and parks and fields along the way. Cows and sheep are everywhere!



The is the Cross, the Main Square in Linlithgow. Here is where the ancients had their public hangings, festivals, and where they watered their horses. Now, it is a tourist attraction.

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