Scotland 2015 - Day 16, August 31, 2015

Our campervan and caravan park adventure ended this morning as we left Mosshall Park.  This was on a real working farm.  In the late 90's the farmers decided they needed to diversify and added a caravan park to their dairy cow operation.  We had a fun time getting to know the owners a bit. 

 I know that many of you have had nightmares when you dream that it is Finals Week and that you have never even attended a lecture in a class or two  My nightmare is that I am in a foreign country and am packing to leave.  There is too much stuff in our room and NO ONE is helping to pack.  But, we got two weeks worth of livng in a van to fit into our bags with no problem. 

The reason we chose this caravan park was it was because it was just down the road from the

Since Dad is an owl enthusiast (yep - I didn't know it either), he wanted to check out.  There were lots of owls and an owl flying show - it was interesting.

My favorites 

Our plan was to drive into Edinburgh and drop off our luggage at our B&B before returing the car.  

Success!

Now we had to drive quite a ways north of Ediburgh to return the car.  Just a small detour along the way.

I can not tell a lie - it was soooooooooo good!  It was as good as the Big Mac I got at the Kremlin McD's after two weeks of fish and borscht soup when we were in Russia in 2004.

Dropped off the car and just to show that we could travel on mass transit (and pay $65.00 less than if we had hired a taxi) we took a train and buses to get back to Edinburgh.

As soon as we got out of the train in downtown Edin, we knew something big was happening.  There were large crowds of people gathering.  I asked someone, "What's happening?  What are you lining up for?"  I'm sure they thought I was from another world, as they said, "It's the end of the Edinburgh Festival and tonight...in two hours...is the Fireworks Finale!  We're in line for the accompaning concert.   Lucky us!  Miraculously we found an empty park bench - empty becuse we still had to wait for 2 1/2 hours for the fireworks to begin.

By the time 9:15 came, the entire road in front of us was chuck-a-block full of people.  I couldn't help but think that this would be a perfect setting for some kind of unpleasant attack (can't say the "T" word).  But I was confident that all the yellow jacketed security people had everything well in hand.  Finally a humongus 'blam', and the firewoks had begun.  The fireworks were set off on the gounds of the Edinburgh Castle which is on top of a high hill overlooking the whole town.  It is a very picturesque setting.

The finale coincided with the last strains of whatever the orchestra was playing.

Took us about 45 minutes to walk to the B&B.  We were exhausted.

A couple of signs for you.  At home, when there is no more room in the parking lot - you go to the overflow lot.  Here you go to the Splash Over Parking or the Seepage Parking.  Not really!

And.....  Apparently there is a special kind of paint that is very thick and slippery, and is painted on metal fences and posts and other objects that people want to climb.  Who knew.