All Aboard! Our first train ride and we are off from Grantham to Edinburgh (pronounced ED'n-burah), Scotland. It was an easy trip seeing as though there were no change in trains- just a straight shot there. The trains here are so nice. We got a table to ourselves and read Rick Steves along the way! We arrived in Scotland and found 
our Hostel very easily. I was quite nervous as this would be my first hostel experience, but it tur
ned out to be really nice! We were in a 6 person room and had some asian roommates. That afternoon we went into Edinburgh and explored. It was a lovely city- very old, medieval architecture. We promenaded down the Royal Mile between the Edinburgh Castle at the top and the Palace of 
Holyroodhouse (the queen's vacation home for a week a year) at the bottom. We went into a Whisky store- where the famous Scotch comes from, and then we found my favorite store, Ness, which has the cutest colorful plaids in clothes, purses, shoes, scarves, etc. I went in there a couple of times. There was a wedding going on and a nice man in the wedding took his picture with us in his kilt. Love it! That evening we had reservations to take a tour of Mary King's Close. A close is an alley leading to a courtyard or square and this tour provided a unique look into the past as we took a trip through the excavated underground where people once lived. Our guide told us some ghost stories and interesting historical insight into what it may have been like to live in Edinburgh hundreds of years ago. Next we went to Viva Mexico, a delicious Mexican re
staurant that gave us so much needed good food. We were celebrating my roommate, Andrea's, birthday a little early too! Her 21st! That night we dug right into the Scottish culture and went and saw a movie. haha. The Switch with Jennifer Aniston, I loved it. The little boy in it is so cute! The next morning we went off on an adventure to hike up Authur's Seat, an 822-foot extinct volcano. I couldn't be the lazy one! So I did it..and I enjoyed the view of Edinburgh from the top. It was so windy though. I almost blew off the mountain.Following our last look around Edinburgh we hopped on a bus to Berwick-upon-Tweed, a small coastal town practically on the border between Scotland and England. There we took a
taxi to Coldingham where we were staying at our first with Dorothy and Sweetheart (that's what Dorothy called him). It was so cute, we got our own little bedroom and it was just so cozy. We stayed in that night to prepare us for the best day of Shelby's life- the day she could see Siccar Point. Although the story of finding Siccar Point with give it no justice, I will attempt to describe our adventure, and oh was it an adventure, in every way. Sweetheart took us to the city of St. Abbs that morning after a d
elicious breakfast prepared by Dorothy, complete with Black Pudding (she wouldn't tell us what was in it, but we looked it up...thank goodness I tried just a nibble - blood, 
yum) Anyways, at the drop off point we were told it was a couple of miles and it shouldn't take us too long to find the famous Geological Point, Siccar Point. It started off great, we were seeing gorgeous views of Scotland's coast. We were following all the signs for the 'coastal path' and all was well. We even found the light house that we were told about. The path we took was simply dir
t and sheep were freely roaming EVERYWHERE. It was a great way to truly experience this area and it's beauty. Then a few hours past and everyone we saw had never heard of Siccar Point and the mountains were getting steeper. We had to be close, right! WRONG. But the coastal path continued, so we did too. Then, in the middle of a field, not so close to the coast, the coastal path abruptly ended. Now what?! We made our way across a field intentionally running into an older couple that was hiking. They had heard of Siccar Point, but bad news, we were still about an hour away. We felt good though, they gave us directions and we were on our way. The first landmark we should come across is an old farm house, check. There we met a boy who offered to drive us, but didn't have a driver's license, great help. haha. So we climbed the fence and came across our next l
andmark, the car park. It was like Dora the Explorer. Then we continued along the road...at one point climbed a barbed wire fence, now it was more like The Bourne Identity. Lol. An hour past, and we were still walking. At this point, I was walking with my eyes clothes because I was so tired. Far down a busy road we saw a nice looking lady mowing her lawn. We asked if she knew how far we were from Siccar Point. She had no idea, so she got her husband, Paul, and he had a map for us to look at. We could see the cliff from their yard! But...he said it would still take us another couple of hours!! I'm sure he saw our dreadful faces when he told us this news and offered to drive u
s as close as he could. Now don't get the impression that I will just hop in the car with any stranger...but I saw Paul as an angel from God! They were such a nice couple and I was glad to have any other mode of transportation besides walking. We took us to an area, said climb up that cliff, and left. So up we go and there was a sign!! "Siccar Point". We were so excited that it even had a sign! Down the 80 degree slope Stephanie and I had fun sliding down, and Shelby climbed. We had finally made it! How excitin
g. We saw the unconformity in the rocks and Shelby was in heaven.
Not only did Paul take us there, he said his wife felt bad and told him to come back and get us so he took us all the way back to our Bed and Breakfast too. Such a nice man. He even gave us a ton of cards that they had made with portraits of the area. We need to send him a thank you card!
That day was finished off with a much needed large Big Mac Meal that we devoured. After 6 hours of hiking we were hungry!
Made it back to Grantham that night and woke up for British studies quite sore and stiff. We made many memories in Scotland and pretty much guaranteed that Shelby will be a famous geologist one day--her picture's already all over WKU's campus!
Next stop, York and Birmingham.
-Aunt Kate
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