Day 8- Splendor in Scotland and Kickin' back in Keswick

Another full and fun day-- packed it up at the Kenvie Guest House in Edinburgh and left it all safely in the car as we bused to the City Center to enjoy the Castle. It's kind of expensive ($16p each) but it's a full 2 hours of exploring. Best of all was the pageantry of the Queen's band (not sure of official title) who were there only because her Majesty is at the other end of the Royal Mile, at Holyrood Palace for her annual official week to be there in Scotland (we walked to Holyrood last night but didn't go in). What fun to watch the band and guards/soldiers go through all their traditional inspections and parading, playing and such!

We explored the grounds (saw Scotland's crown jewels), had a coffee treat and beat it to our next stop, the National Scottish Museum (free!). It's a huge and diverse collection of old and new (even the building itself) and we very much enjoyed the earliest church artifacts (of Scotland and from Iona, etc), various European treasures and Scotland history in general.

Lunch was via gift cards from Ken's students at Starbucks! There's quite an elegant one there at Edinburgh. We have generally found the servers who wait on us at eateries to be very hospitable and polite... (unlike other places in Europe)-- and in general, it's very easy to make your way around here. It's fun to ask for Pike Place drip and tell them we're from there! I like chatting with the locals!

We caught the bus back to our car (kicking ourselves for not purchasing the day ticket and paying full fare for the return-- won't make that mistake again!) and began our 3 hour trek to the Lake District. (By the way, the countryside of Scotland is gorgeous!) We are sure finding that 3 hours is about as much time as you want to spend on the road... and we are so thankful the sun is up so long here (still light out here at 10:11pm!) so we can see everything and even have some time to enjoy the new place as we arrive. (By the way, I'm not having any trouble with the sun-- PTL!) But before arriving in Keswick was a quick stop at a "Services" rest stop where there was of course, another Starbucks. This one was a lucky stop for us because they had a great collection of mugs (I want one from each major city) and though I had already picked up one at Edinburgh ($10p), I scored Wales and London for $7.95p each PLUS we got free grande drinks with them! You know me-- the deal made them extra tasty! And by the way, there's no half-&-half at the Starbucks so it's best to order a latte rather than a drip. Free tidbit for ya.

So now as we are heading back south, we found our way to the lovely Abacourt House here at Keswick  ("Kezick") and thought we'd go do a load of laundry at the "Launderette." No such luck-- closed at 6. Thankfully it's very close to our B&B, so it will be tomorrow's fun (can't believe we've been traipsing about for over a week!). Instead we enjoyed refreshment at a local hangout and took a stroll through the town and to Lake Derwent Water (I agree Marvin Klein, that is redundant!)-- but it's certainly beautiful! The outside temp is perfect (it rained here yesterday) and tomorrow is supposed to be lovely as well. This is a perfect respite for this point in the trip-- I'm feeling a bit run down and Ken's back is bugging him-- probably the tension of driving and lugging the bags... I still over-packed as careful as I tried to be... we keep taking things out to leave in the car and are so glad for the extra bag Neighbor Lois encouraged us to take at the last minute! :)

Tomorrow will be walking and resting and photos... and yay for staying in the same place for two nights, which is our pattern for the next week and a few days. Cheers!