On the bus, Cassidy fell asleep. Again.
In Edinburgh we met our tour guide, a spritely fellow, named Bill, blue and green tartan from head to toe. From Bill we learned three things:
1.) You MUST roll your R's if you're going to pretend to have a Scottish accent
2.) Scottish people have a weird rivalry with the British, and were actually quite happy that the English lost to Uruguay last night, even though Bill admitted to having no knowledge of Uruguay's location on a map.
3.) The proper way to wear a Scottish kilt as a man, is to wear only the kilt on your lower half... with nothing underneath...
Otherwise, the city of Edinburgh is truly a beautiful city. On our tour we stopped at the Holyrood house, learning that the official animal of Scotland is a unicorn and their flower is a thistle. Before we left, Ian attempted to buy Buckingham Palace china from the Queens gift shop. As we toured the streets further, we were told about the old city, the new city, and the architecture of the surrounding buildings. Interestingly enough, because of the use of coal chimneys back in the day, most of the buildings in the city were stained black, and any building that was not, was chemically treated. The problem with the chemical treating though, was that it wore away the protective coating on the stone the buildings were constructed of, and allowed water to leach into the stone pores. So now the buildings treated are turning green because of algae! Continuing on, we drove up the side of Edinburgh's extinct volcano to see the views. After stopping to see some extremely adorable signets and their swan parents, we climbed out of the bus to take group shots above the city skyline of Edinburgh, and learned about the rocks and the lakes, called lochs in Scotland, before piling back on the bus to venture to the Highland show.
Upon arrival at the Showgrounds, Ian was instantly captivated by a band of drummers and bagpipers. After splitting off after lunch and getting lost in the crowd after the Champions parade, we again reconvened at the Young Farmers building, and were given a tour of the cattle barns. We learned that tomorrow we will be judging our classes in under five minutes. Yay. But we also got to hear about the breed differences and the characteristics they favor in their cattle, such as milk content and body capacity (which will be useful for us tomorrow, fingers crossed). After that, we had about an hour left on the show grounds, so we toured the tents, and learned all about British Blues (basically Belgian Blues), and their breeding for literally an hour, while Anne stopped at the Semex tent. By then we had to hike back to the bus.
At the hotel, we were surprised to find a bagpiper greeting us at the door, but it was solely because there also happened to be a Scottish prom at our hotel, so at dinner we watched Scottish teens roll up in suped up Audis and antique automobiles wearing break-neck heels and of course, kilts. After dinner we went swimming, that is all but Cassidy who conveniently forgot her bathing suit, and Ian decided to visit the scottish teens, which just happened to include the bagpipe player from outside the hotel. Ian asked if he was following the scottish tradition, (see rule number 3) though the question as phrased was misunderstood by the scot resulting in quite the good laugh by his friends and international visitors.Quote of the day: "Imagine King Georgie Porgie, 5 foot 2, 300 pounds, wearing pink tights and a mini kilt." --Bill
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