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Wrap-up

   Upon arrival back to Edinburgh, we settled back into the same hotel we had previously stayed in and then made a mad dash through town for some last minute gift shopping for our families and to get one final look at the city we had grown to love so much so quickly before meeting our group for dinner.

    We had a very special dinner planned for our farewell in a fancy restaurant at the top of a high-end department store. The views and food were wonderful and we all enjoyed socializing one last time. At the beginning of the tour, we were assigned to get something very inexpensive (a 2 pound price limit) for our buddies based on what we had learned of them. There were some great ideas! David's buddy had hiked Hadrian's Wall prior to this trip, so he created a "make your own Hadrian's wall kit" for his buddy out of stones he collected throughout the tour and some glue he purchased from a hardware store. His buddy gave him a random power cord she had found at a thrift shop because he was always the technologically savy one to help when we were having technical glitches. Tamara's buddy collected sheep's wool from our farm visit because she had learned that Tamara is into crafting. We all had a lot of laughs and great fun reviewing what we had learned about each other!

    We were not prepared for how much we would learn from our guide. Anne is a lovely, kind, intelligent, funny woman who pours her heart into sharing her love for her country with her tour members. She taught us so much about history, culture and art. Her passion for Scotland is contagious! Having such an experienced guide was invaluable!

We also really grew to love our bus driver John. He is a "Glaswegian," that is, he is from Glasgow, and he brought a different perspective to the tour. It was astounding the tight places he could squeeze his giant bus through! He was always so kind to us and became one of the family!

    We were a bit nervous about the group dynamic going into the tour. We had never been on a tour before, and we had concerns about how it would work. Would everyone get along? Would there be difficult people, or would people complain or fight and diminish our enjoyment? Apparently we didn't have to worry for a minute! We really believe Rick Steves' "no grumps" policy must work! We enjoyed getting to know every tour member! Our group (shown below) was full of intelligent, kind, positive, well-traveled people. It is amazing the collection of talented, acccomplished people these tours attract. We even got to know an individual involved in the production of Rick Steves' shows! Some of our favorite times were spending group dinners or bus time listening to the adventures other members had already gone on and adding things to our bucket list. We had an amazing time on our tour, and there isn't a thing we would change. We have memories we will cherish forever. And to be honest...we began planning our next tour before we were even home! Next up: Germany, Austria and Switzerland in 2015!!

Speaking Scottish

 

We learned that "numpty" is a Scottish term for a stupid or foolish person. We were numpties for hesitating to sign up for a Rick Steves' tour!

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