SCOTLAND
September 2019 

Seven days to explore Scotland is not nearly enough.   
It was a bit like taking one mouth-watering bite of a juicy New York sirloin, and being told you had to leave the restaurant! (I should have used Haggis, for my analogy-but that would have been rather disingenuous.) As with many of our adventures, our trip began with an invitation to a medical meeting, this time in Edinburgh.   I’m not sure exactly what I expected: guys in kilts playing bagpipes, a castle or two, maybe a Sam Heughan spotting…  What I wasn’t prepared for was just how beautiful and wild and warm-hearted this tiny country would be.  The scenery was awesome…even by my exacting standards.  Every twist in the road opened a window onto another impossibly green vista, waterfall, or lake.  If you are a history buff, you’ll be in a heaven of castles; their stony walls oozing with stories of battle and intrigue.  In less than a week we photographed eight without even trying…around every corner, you bump into another one!  Driving in Scotland should be considered an Olympic event.  Not a road in the country is as wide as the residential street in front of our house.  They have no shoulders, are impossibly curvy, with trucks and tourists careening around every corner.  Then just to make it a bit more challenging, you get to drive on THE WRONG SIDE and shift with your left hand!  I’d award Joe a Gold medal except for driving off the shoulder a couple times, and the near miss with the lorry that left me shrieking!  We did, however, escape with our lives and a lot of beautiful photos to remember this wee gem of a country!