Falkirk

> Day 7 - Friday - Today we headed south towards Edinburgh. First up it was washing day so we stopped at the seaside town of Abroath where there was a large laundry. We put the clothes in the machine and a young girl working there offered to transfer them to the dryer at the end of the cycle thus allowing us time to walk around the town and explore. At 12.30 we returned and it was all waiting for us clean and neatly folded in a large white bag. What a lovely young lady. We drove onto Dundee where we stopped for lunch. From there we continued our trek towards Edinburgh and crossed the "Firth of Forth" Bridge. The new one is right beside the old bridge and we had heard it had been opened earlier in the week however on Friday everyone was still using the old bridge. What a fantastic structure the new bridge is. We returned to the hotel at Falkirk for Friday night as the rates were good value and the meals reasonable. We even had time to walk around the small town centre after checking in.
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> Day 8 - Saturday - Up early and left the hotel at 8am for the drive into Edinburgh. This took about an hour and we had to fuel up the car before returning it to the hire car place at Waverley Station. From Waverley we then caught the London train which departed at 11.30am. This was a good trip as it was a fast train with very few stops arriving into Kings Cross just before 4pm. Recalling our time spent in Scotland we were astounded about the number of round-a-bouts which you have to navigate on any of the open roads. They were everywhere, some large and a lot of them very small however they still do the job and the traffic flows evenly around them. Also in Edinburgh there were many of the old Hackney Cabs which to me means you are really in the UK.
> From Kings Cross we bought underground tickets to Heathrow airport where we were booked to spend the night. These were reasonable at £6 each. The trip took about an hour and we then had to transfer to a bus which took us to the Thistle Hotel about a mile from the airport. They had a bar with an open deck overlooking the departing planes and it was amazing to watch them taking off almost continually one after the other.
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> Day 9 - Sunday - Met up with the tour leader at Terminal 2 at Heathrow around 6am. But it was after 7 before all the rest of the group had passed through customs and collected their luggage. A bus had been organised to take us to the Millennium Hotel at Gloucester where those people who had just got off the plane were able to freshen up. Just after 9 we were off to the "Concours of Elegance" held in the Hampton Court Palace grounds. There were some wonderful old cars on display and we spent over 3 hours walking around and just checking them out. After lunch some of the tour group elected to walk through the palace but Gary did not want to do this so he suggested a boat ride on the River Thames which took over an hour and was most enjoyable. The bus then bought us back to the Millennium Hotel where we are to spend the night. Most of the group elected to eat at an old English pub about a mile away. Gary and I walked there but the others decided to take a taxi however we did join them on the return trip. There are 17 people + the tour leader in the group. Four women including myself and they do all seem lovely.
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> Until my next update, it's bye for now.
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> BarbRead more