Bid ye farewell to Alba - onward to der Nederlanden

Well, we wrapped up the week with a great visit from friend Mark and his wife Wing, hailing from London. They were in Scotland for a wedding, so came by to visit.

We had perhaps our best meal yet, Susannah, Wing, Mark and I at a local fish restaurant. The seafood was INCREDIBLE. We ate heaps of both hot and cold seafood - oysters, prawns, mussels, langostinos, lobsters, salmon, gravlax, pate, and on and on. The beauty of the food was matched by the charm of the company.

Then back to the Castle for a "Beers of Scotland" tastefest, courtesy of Mark and his mate, who has recently become a Publican and whose Pub they visited on the drive over!

Mark and I have met only twice in 3 years, but have always held open invitations to the other, so it was great to fulfill that promise. He and Wing are off to Tibet in another week, so we shared our experiences there in exchange for their tips on Peru! Nice to meet folks who like to eat, have interests similar to ours, and who trek as we do.

They had to dash off early, so we gifted them the same silly raincoats we took to China/Tibet that we packed on this trip but didn't need. Hopefully, a pratical gesture, certainly not the best gift I could give someone.

Before retiring after excellent victuals and libations, we played silhouettes on the Castle at night, quite fun!! I don't know if I mentioned, but the sun sets around 10:30pm and is up by 4am, so we get a couple hours of outside illumination, and found out quickly what pranks can be had. Too tempting, especially as all the weapons come down off the walls!

Yesterday to Dundonald Castle, quite a nice little surprise, and we had the entire site to our own, with just as much input from the docent as needed, and then his wish to us to roam about and enjoy it! A little pub food (Steak Pie, Fish and Chips, Belhaven and Stella) and we decided to come back and take it easy.

A final dinner with the family last night at the Castle - Haggis and Spaghetti - two separate dishes, not combined!! The Phillips/Knapsack clan hit the road for their flights before 7am, so we are lazily packing, and enjoying our rare moment as the only inhabitants. After a fortnight here, this has been the only time without our "court"... A nice little breather before our 3pm hopover to Am-dam.

We hope to keep the blogging going there, if #5 Binnen Weiringerstraat has the hook-up and we have the inclination. I don't have to tell anyone how much we look forward to the next 5 days with Clan Petrastella (Kel-e and Bob, Chrispy and Susannah)... Our Clan motto - "Dum Vivitas, Vivitus!" - "while we are living, let us LIVE!"...

Haste ye back