Edinburgh!

Unfortunately, even after checking with the Air Canada agent to confirm that there would be tickets waiting for us in Edinburgh, when we arrived in London at 11:45 am (15 minutes late for a connection that was only 1 hour and 50 mins – now 1 hour and 35 mins), the Air Canada agent that met us said she was not able to find them. So we walked as quickly as we could through security into Terminal 3, which turned out to be a mistake (oops!), so we headed back around for Terminal 1, through security again, through biometrics security, through customs, and then finally headed for the check-in desk only to find that not all of us were registered on the flight AND that we were too late for it.

Yup, you guessed it, they rescheduled us. This time however things went a little better than usual and the British Midland staff managed to schedule us all on the 4:25 flight to Edinburgh. By 5:50 pm we finally touched down in Scotland. Katie met us. All of our luggage showed up! And we were off on Sergio's bus.

Really, the remaining three hours of our time in Edinburgh would be better characterized as a kind of torture! The city would so obviously be exactly the sort of place that one would fall in love with and want to spend a lot of time getting to know, but not us. After a bus tour of a few sights, and 20 minutes to walk around the castle and the Royal Mile, we had to head off for supper at Jolly's.

After a counter-intuitive, and good, Italian meal (most had pizza, or pasta, a few went for fish and chips) we bused off to Symington to the quaint Tinto Inn, for the travellers first taste of European accommodations (small beds, strange shower and bath arrangements, odd door numbering).

All in all the kids are doing very well, and we now have to try to get over the disappointment, and on with the wonderful sights and experiences of the rest of the trip!