Exeter

We flew from Edinburgh via Flybe, a local UK airline, via Manchester to Exeter. We were surprised to be greeted at the airport by our friends, Megan and Gillian, who we met on our Med Cruise in 2007. Gillian had driven down from her home on Bromsgrove, near Burmingham, and it was a reunion of sorts for them as well and we were glad to have been the catalyst.
After a bit of trouble exiting the car park, in two cars because of the luggage, we were taken to Megan's home for tea and a short visit and catching up. Later, Megan drove us to our guest house, the Silversprings Hotel where we found our room on the third floor (and no elevators) and had a good cardiac workout trundling our suitcases upstairs.

In the morning, the ladies greeted us at around 10AM and had a day planned for us sightseeing. We drove out to Topsham, a town on the Exe river which was a key port in the early 1800's. Ships from Holland would venture up the river, dump their ballast of bricks and take on their cargo of wool and other fabrics and products of the region for export. The port was also used to load miscreants onto prison ships bound for places like Port Arthur ( we visited on our S. Pacific trip) in Tasmania, Australia.

The town features houses created from the Dutch 'ballast' bricks along the narrow, cobblestone streets with their distinctive arched facade design. After a walking tour of the town, we hopped aboard a small ferry for a 30 minute trip down the river to 'Turf' a small settlement featuring a great little English pub where we lunched on fish and chips and washed it all down with local beer. It was a hot day, and after a few too many minutes under the sun ( and a large glass of cider), Sabrina felt a bit woozy and we moved into a shady area to await the return of the ferry.

at sea

Iwill be very sporadic in updating this dueto time a(and cost at 55 c /min) constraintes as wll as a crappy keyboad.

Suffuce to saythat the Eclipse and her crew have met and has EXCEEDED our expectations. Too many featurs o mention, but will post aload of pictures once home.

Leaving Edinburgh

Ready to board our FLYBE flight to Exeter after 4 nights in Edinburgh. We leave with found memories of the city and surrounding areas; the historic buildings, beautiful countryside, our great Victorian vintage Mcdonald Guest house (hosts Marion and Norrie AKA Pots), and reconnecting with Wilma, her family Sean, Lyndsey, and Jennifer and Sean's beautiful wee daughter, Aniece.

We toured Edinburgh castle, walked the Royal mile, and strode the decks of the Britannia. Yesterday, we loaded into two cars and drove up to Loch Lomond. Had a nice Scottish lunch ( Brian had haggis, neeps and tatties) at Corries, and then took a 1 hour scenic boat ride out the canal from Benloch and out onto the Loch. The Loch's shoreline is dotted with old castles which have been converted to luxury hotels and estates. In the distance we saw Ben Lomond rising out of the highland hills that sit on a fault bisecting the storied lake.#

On to Exeter

Edinburgh, Day 3

After a 8.5 hour flight on a cramped BA 747, we arrived at Heathrow airport. Two hours later, after de-planing and winding our way through customs and immigration, we checked in at BMI for our flight to Edinburgh. We each managed about 3 1/2 hours sleep overall on the two flights, arriving Edinburgh just after 6PM.

We were greeted on arrival by Wilma Punton, Peggy's long lost cousin-in-law, and her daughter Lyndsey. Her son, Sean greeted us at the car park and bore a striking resemblance to his dead father, Gordon which brought Peggy to tears.

We all headed into town and checked us in at Mcdonald house, our B&B. Later, we went down th e street to Favorita, a great little Italian restauraunt for dinner and animated conversation, trying to bridge 30 years of time passage. We parted company around 1030 and went to bed and slept soundly until the traffic noise started around 6am.

On Friday, we had the delicious 'breakfast' part of the B&B served up by our hosts, Norrie (Pots) and his wife Marion. Pots recommended we walk to Leith, a seaside port suburb about 1.5 Km from our position to see the ship Brittania. We took a few wrong turns en route ( we are the Griswolds) but finally arrived and thoroughly enjoyed the self-guided tour of the Queen's now-retired (1997) yacht. We last saw the ship in Victoria harbor in 1984 but this time we were able to view the royal quarters and other areas of the vessel.

After a light lunch in the Oceanside mall, we caught the number 22 bus to Princes street and started to walk up towards Edinburgh castle. We finally hailed a cab for the last mile or so and spent two hours exploring this 800 year old site steeped in history. The oldest building is a chapel atop the site with great panorama views of old and new towns of Edinburgh. We saw a 4500 pound cannon that was given to the reigning monarch in 1400's which fired 300 pound stone balls over 2 miles to protect the citadel.

Later, we walked and shopped our way down the Royal mile, until we ran out of 'mile' and then caught a cab back uptown for dinner. We found a great meal at a little hotel/restauraunt, the Metropolitain served by the comely Rebecca and then walked the 8 or so blocks back to the B&B.

Unfortunately, Peggy wore a blister on the 'fat pad' of her foot, so we will be not perambulating as much today! Wilma is coming back into town to pick us up and take us around some of the other sites of town and more 'catching up'.

One more sleep....

Girls are off getting beautiful from head to toe (Hair salon and Pedicure) before we leave tomorrow.

Bags not (yet) packed, but we have foreign currencies, British Pounds, Euros, and US Dollars (for use in Russia (!)). Cats and house have capable sitters in Mike and Irene Baker while we are absent. I understand cats have NO concept of time, so we will hardly be missed (we hope).

We will catch the 1PM ferry and the PCL bus to YVR to catch our flight tomorrow evening. Dave Shearer has volunteered to shuttle us and our 'freight' to the ferry terminal at Swartz Bay.

Whatever we have forgotten, we either don't need or can buy on the strength of our Canadian exchange rate.

The weather in Europe right now is about the same as it is here, around 16C in the daytime and 10-11C at night.

Bon voyage!

The countdown begins....

We are now two weeks away from "D" for departure day and the anticipation builds. We are really looking forward to re-connecting with friends in Edinburgh and Exeter in Britain before we head off on our Baltic Cruise.