We are still heading north and will be entering Scotland later today. The weather is cooler (which we love) but still no rain. We have been lucky so far.

During our early morning drive John entertained us with one of the episodes of a BBC production called the “British” which had been produced for the 2012 Olympics. It was pretty good and I intend to try to see it all when we return home.

Our first stop today is at Hadrian’s Wall, the rock wall ordered built by the Roman emperor, Hadrian, staring in AD 122, to keep out the barbarians,i.e., the Scots, better known as the “Picts” because they painted their faces to look fierce. The Romans had tried defeating them but were unable to. They finally decided to build the wall to hopefully keep them out of England.  The wall is quite large, ranging from 10-20 feet in width and extends some 73 miles across the upper part of Britain. Most people think it forms the border with Scotland. It does not. Where we are it is 68 miles from the border. The author of the Game of Thrones visited this site and patterned the fortress in the north in the Games of Thrones TV series on Hadrian’s Wall.

After taking the all important photos of us standing on the wall we adjourned to a nearby 300 year old pub where our tour director, John, treated us to a mid-morning snack of cream tea. The scones here had a lot more clotted cream on them.  They reminded me of the cream puffs we used to get at the Wisconsin State Fair. While there we saw several groups of people who were on the multiple day hike of the entire wall. This area was only day 2 of the venture, and the road ahead had a lot of ups and downs in elevation. I am glad we are on a bus!

Soon we were at the border with Scotland. It was hard to miss with a big sign, a large carved rock, a flag and even a bagpiper welcoming us to their land. John also extended the welcome by breaking out a bottle of scotch for us to have a wee bit before we carried on. More pictures and off we go into Scotland.

We started to see more stone fences and noticed that there was a top row of stones that were slanted in one direction or the other.  This is an area of much fog and the stones would point a farmer, lost in a heavy fog, in the direction of the nearest gate. Pretty clever solution.

We stopped for lunch in the small village of Jedburgh, the site of an abbey built in 1147 and partially destroyed in 1409. The skeletal remains still stand and make for a good picture. We ate at one of the two local restaurant/gift shops. The offerings are surprisingly good, the prices are modest and the service is quick. We were only slowed down by our meandering through the gift shops.

The last leg of the day found us passing several substantial wind farms and more and more sheep. We arrived at our hotel in Edinburgh late in the afternoon. The hotel was only a few blocks from the Queen’s summer palace here in Edinburgh, and one mile from the famous Edinburgh Castle.

Most of the tour group chose to attend the optional dinner and show in Edinburgh, which highlighted Scottish cuisine, music and dance. Between courses they offered the famous Scottish dish-haggis. We all tried the small bite sized sample served on a slice of potato. I actually thought it tasted pretty good and even finished the portion Yvonne left. It is no way the terrible tasting food that people say it is! The entertainment was OK; the highlight was the bagpiper and young lady singer.

Tomorrow we tour the castle.