Cranstouns at Cranstoun Church

Dad went and got the Volkswagen Jetta hire car from Europcar at Edinburgh. We headed off out of Edinburgh to Pathhead to the Cranstoun Church. We got there just as the ladies were closing up after church. We took some photos. We walked to the Oxenford Castle behind the church for a look before the lord of the manor's son (Lord Dalrymple) came back to his home and told us we were on private property!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We drove to north Berwick where dad and I had cheese and ham toasties at the sea life centre. We were looking out at the Firth of Forth and saw an island with a lighthouse. It had great scenery with big windmills that generate electricity. We drove to Newstead where we are staying at Speycaster cottage. We had dinner at Burt's pub in Melrose. Dad is trying haggis (dad says it's certainly a step up from faggots).


Hi again Riley's Mum here: Riley has gone to bed - he's exhausted so I'm jumping on his blog . It's the 24th now - Happy birthday Mother. Hope you had a wonderful day.
I didn't want to add on Riley's actual Sept 24 blog as he has to come back to it as he missed a couple of days after being without Wi-Fi connection in the cottage we were staying in Newstead, 1 mile from the delightful Scottish village of Melrose. We saw some absolutely glorious countryside yesterday - just how I imagined Scotland would look. Weather was superb too as you can see by these pics - blue skies and warm. Not so today!! I'll let Riley tell you what we did today.
Well the boys managed to drag me away from The Cotswolds. We drove out of our cottage at 6.15am for the trip to Cheltenham and the train. Ross decided to take a short cut to the main road - I felt I was in a Beatrix Potter novel with foxes and rabbits bouncing across the still dark narrow roads as we travelled through some tiny villages and farmland. Somehow we managed to find our way eventually to a main road with a sign pointing to Cheltenham.
The train trip passed quickly despite being more than six hours with a delay. Riley had free wi-fi on the train and was happy. Unfortunately we didn't have time for breakfast and thought we'd get food on the train but discovered they don't provide a food service on weekend trains! The train got really crowded just before Newcastle - must have had a round-ball game there last weekend.
We passed some uninspiring scenery north to Scotland - those major cities/towns look very sad! Can't say I was all that impressed with Edinburgh either. As the train travelled through that early Scottish countryside and entered Edinburgh, I thought "Should have listened to Jen and gone to Paris.''
Every second shop in Edinburgh is a cheap tartan/souvenir trader run by Indians. But I did find a T-shirt I just had to buy for Baghwan (hope you are following Riley's blog, Baggie?)
However, the next day as we headed further away from Edinburgh we encountered some really beautiful countryside. Scotland is delightful - away from the big cities!
We are now in Sterling and tomorrow off to see the bonnie bonnie banks of the Loch Lomond.
The Scottish people are delightful and always up for a chat.
Off for a wee sleep myself. Much love to all. Jo XXX