The young ones

Saturday October 3rd and Edinburgh lived up to its epithet 'The Windy City'. A howling gale swept the town and also swept the felt off my shed roof!. I met with James and Joanne a delightful young English couple who were in Scotland to arrange their upcoming wedding. James is a relative of a neighbour of mine and he had arranged for me to give them a tour. They had a thirst for the origin of sayings so that was the major feature of the afternoon. Parts of the Castle were closed because if the wind and I dont know how Joanne survived the cold with only a light skirt, blouse and cardigan on! Have a happy life kids and I look forward to seeing you next time you are up.

Next up was lap 2. A 4 hour walking tour with german students of English. I was working for Samantha, a friend and colleague who has a business similar to mine and we support one another often. Again, the wind was a factor and as the afternoon sun went down, a chill factor. A four hour tour is really too long for the attention span of the average 18 or 19 year old but the kids wer egreat cinsidering they were so cold and some of them had better English than others. I took them to the Tass, a pub on the Royal MIle just to get warm and despite the fact that their Ursula, their teacher, could vouch for their being of age to be in a pub, it proved to be a bit of a hurdle when not all of them could produce ID. A sympathetic barmaid with lots of common sense saved the day, but if you are bringing students into Scottish pubs, be sure they all carry ID. Auf weidersehn pets!

2 walking tours in one day? 7 hours walking? Tough!