Travel can be too much work...

.....and not enough fun. So-when did water become our enemy any how??? When did toothpaste become the Evil Mr Snidely? Our experience going through Edinburgh's airport was less than satisfactory....the Buchenwald trained ServiceAir employee lecturing waiting passengers to NOT cross the imaginary line bewixt steerage and Elite First Class was just plain stupid. And then we personally experienced the "oops we forgot to tell you you cannot have more than one carry on"....fortunately I managed to circumvent their evil plan by cadging a free large plastic bag that we could put all our carry on into... gosh- two bags all of a sudden become one bag...SHAZAM...anyhow-I'll stop my rant about the "joys of modern travel" and just leave you with the photo of the "Employee of the Day with Service Air in Edinburgh" What a maroon.

Unbelievable art in Edinburgh

Today we went to three galleries-the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, the National Gallery of Scotland and the Royal Scottish Academy Building. BY far, the National Gallery had the most incredible work by Ron Mueck. He creates oversize humans that defy your imagination-they are so real. Then he has lilliputan size humans....all very realistic down to their toenails...check him out on the web....

We're back in Edinburgh!

Good old Edinburgh-we arrived mid-afternoon from Glasgow-Toni dropped us off and we said fond farewells til we meet again on one or another continent!
Yesterday we went to two museums-the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art that had a fabulous exhibit of Robert Mapplethorpe's work. Who ever curated it did a great job.
Then we went on to the Dean Gallery-just across the street and saw the Van Gogh exhibit. Again-a good show and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
Off to lunch and then we strolled down Dundas Street and went in and out of many llitle art galleries. Some better than others. But most of them practise a most uncharming manner of ignoring the customer....their loss....we did come across a few galleries that were actually very friendly-so we were able to have conversations about the art "scene" in Edinburgh.
We did find two small pieces that we will hand carry back. Really lovely contemporary works.
Here a a few shots of our day-

Another day-another pub and yet another ale to taste....

I would post another photo showing our very rainy drive down from Fort William-however our web attachment is tenous-so this will have to do...cheers!

Thoughts about and some photos of Scotland

Scotland is a country full of dramatic vistas and simple understatements....
A stormy blustery day will bring a remark of " tis a good day for a brisk walk isn't it?""
Whereas we'd be saying" Man- it's nasty out"..........Here are a few photos of the absolutely beautiful landscape taken in the West Highlands.. come visit- you'll fall in love with it too!

A walk in Scotland is a hike at home!!

Yesterday we took a "walk" with Toni and her friends Andrew and Sue. We drove to Abiemore, which is a ski resort in the winter and then a bit further where we walked up the hill
Meall a Bhuachaille. We started at about 1pm and were back down around 5 pm. Stright up and straight down!!!! We walked about 5 miles and gained about 1500 feet in elevation The hill is about 812 meters high. Here are a few shots:



Looking down from the top....

On the top....

To Amsterdam and beyond!

Here we are at Chantal and Berry's house and here is their darling baby Mauri...3 months old and perfect as perfect can be! We stayed here with them for 4 days and now we are in Scotland. For more photos go to my flickr site to the right of this......


The most important thing I learned in our short stay is how sensible the Dutch are....no nonsense-just common sense and very family oriented...more later!