The hall is ancient but refurbished inside and they clearly use it for school camps etc. It was so newly refurbished in fact, it had a digital shower...
On the road we decided to drive to Edinburgh via Worksop, which is where my father is from. We drove through some pretty snowy areas on tiny little roads, and spotted someone who had taken a corner a little too casually - he, the car and the dry stone wall will never be the same.
Worksop is a funny little town in between Nottingham and Sheffield. It's not really that interesting, so I guess I can understand why dad left. The highlights are Sherwood forest and a medieval priory which we sadly did not have time to see.
Conscious of the time we left quickly, only to be stopped in traffic on the freeway. We plodded on for a bit, and eventually spotted what looked like Puffing Billy smoke. 'Twas not Puffing Billy. 'Twas a Landrover on fire. The fire had completely ripped the vehicle apart. A sight we will not forget in a hurry. The occupants it appeared had escaped safely and were observing from a safe distance while waiting for the fire brigade.
Despite the relatively short distance between Derby and Edinburgh it took forever to get there. The freeway was good for most of the way until they blocked a lane for no apparent reason which banked the traffic up ten miles for an hour. We had fortunately been warned that overnight traffic jams were a possibilty and so had food drink and warm clothing.
We got to Edinburgh after dark and found our hotel eventually after being directed to locate the giant Balmoral Hotel for orientation. The Balmoral is indeed huge, however it has *no* signage that can be seen in the dark.
Our hotel was a bit like Fawlty Towers - the manager was pleasant but bitter and had a strange sense of humour. The balcony was gorgeous, but the door wouldn't open. The bed was inconceivably uncomfortable. Breakfast was hilarious confusion.
Edinburgh castle is a completely different animal to any of the other castles/palaces we visited previously. It's a real man's castle. It's a don't-mess-with-me-I-have-a-6.6tonne-cannon kind of castle. The views were spectacular however.
The whole atmosphere of Edinburgh was great, as we had arrived just as Hogmanay had started. (3 day New Year Festival) One attraction was these giant fire displays which apparently threatened to set the Royal Mile on fire. One newspaper claimed "Hogmanay revellers flee Royal Mile flames". We were there. There was no fleeing. We were more
annoyed that they had blocked the whole street off because occasionally the fire display was slightly caught be the wind. Eventually we got through for dinner. They neglected to bring the flames back for NYE but they returned afterwards, swinging wildly towards St Giles Cathedral. Apparently that wasn't a problem.
NYE itself was spent in -3C in a giant street party/carnival with lots and lots and lots and lots of fireworks. :)
The next day we found that our Aussie friend Rhiannon couldn't get a bus frrom Northern Scotland to visit us, and we didn't have enough time (or energy) to drive to Forfar. So instead we went and saw "Off Kilter" a dance performance mixing traditional Scottish dancing with other cultures and contemporary dance. It was incredible. They mixed all sorts of things, including indian dances, aerial acrobatics and 50s rock. To top it off they then told the audience it was our turn. A very sweet young lass came and grabbed Tom and taught him and everyone else the Dashing White Sergeant.
And she taught me the Gay Garland! It was a great way to finish off our Scottish leg of the trip. It was exhilarating and exhausting but we are definitely up for more Scottish dancing!
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