Jul 13

Got up early, packed up our gear, cleaned up the hall, then walked to the train station. We arrived early enough to pick up our train tickets to Edinburgh and the family passes. We had someone help us where to go so we could put all of our gear where the last car of the train would be. Then when the train arrived Trevor and I stayed at the back to load luggage into the “Guards Van” while the rest of the group boarded the correct passenger car. The trains only remain in the station for a couple minutes, so once the luggage was loaded we didn't have enough time to run to the car on the platform so we had to get up to our car through the middle of the train, probably about 8-10 cars up.

We did have wifi on the train for the 2.5 hrs trip, but didn't seem to have enough time to get done the blog. Too busy with the photos. There are tons of photos, which we'll have to figure out how to organize after the trip. I did get a few seconds to post a message on my Facebook account and to get email, but not enough time to reply.

We were met at the Edinburgh Waverly train station by 2 Scout vans with a utility trailer for our luggage. They drove us straight to the 71^st Haymarket Scout House and gave us a few pointers about where to go for groceries and the swimming pool etc.

We had a couple hours of free time where the Scouts enjoyed the sun and played around on grass. Some gymnastics, some fun games, some singing, and of course a rough game of British Bulldog.

We caught the city bus into town and purchased explorer passes, which get us into pretty much all the castles and other sightseeing attractions in Scotland, such as Edinburgh Castle, Stirling Castle, and Fort George, which are the planned uses for the passes.

From downtown we caught an Edinburgh bus tour, which was about an hour or so. Of course the Scouts wanted to sit upstairs on the open double decker bus. It was another good bus tour and there were hundreds of pictures taken. After the bus tour we walked about a half block up to Pizza Hut for dinner. It was pretty good. The Scouts were happy about it.

We left Pizza Hut about 7:30 and walked back down the square by the art gallery where 4 of our group had an issue with the seagulls flying overhead.

We then took the city bus back to the hall where the Scouts picked up their swimming gear and we caught the city bus to the swimming pool while a few leaders went to the grocery store to get our breakfast and lunch supplies. We got to the pool about 8:00, were in the water by 8:15 and out by 9:15. By the time we got showered and dressed and out of there we just missed the 9:36 bus back to the hall, so we caught the 9:51.

Back at the hall just after 10:00 the Scouts still had to set up their beds so by the time we got them all ready and quieted down it was about 11:30.