Day 2 - The Haggis Tour

Wow! The Haggis tour was an awesome way to see some great sights. We checked out Doune Keep (Monty Python's Holy Grail castle), saw some amazing views and learned some neat history in the Scottish highlands, and of course Erich's favourite - a tour and tasting at Scotland's oldest whisky (no spelling mistake there, good whisky has no 'e' in it) distillery. Also saw "Hammish", a 14 year old coo, or highland cow - think Chewbaca meets bull. Pictures at the top are Doune Keep, Scotlands most painted water feature as a lunch break at some falls in the Loch Lomond national park in a cute little town, and some picturesque landscape typical of the highlands. Had an intersting night last night in the hostel, but that story will have to be told in person. Out for a pub crawl tonight.

Finally Here!!!!!

Hey all, we're finally here in Scotland, safe and sound, flight was smooth sailing, and we're picking up the language pretty quick. Hostel is great, already met some cool people and had a great meal...they know how to treat students right here with 2 for 1 dinners! The pic of emma is from on top of Edinburgh Castle, and the pic of Erich is below it. The old city is great...will post some more pics later! Heading to the Highlands tomorrow to see Nessy, another Castle, and taste some scotch. Signing off for now.

Home stretch!

Our apartment is a disaster zone of boxes and bags, but we have photocopied all our documents, figured out what we're bringing, and Erich has even packed. I take back what I said about ordering Eurail tickets from TravelCuts... We picked up our schedule books yesterday. And since it's right across the street from us, walking there saved on tranportation emissions and packaging required when ordering online.

There are still some small things we need to pick up, and I'm sure I'm going to have about 3 more lists made and cross-checked before we take off. Only one week to go!

Trip Preparations Nearly Complete

So, being the compulsive planner that I am, and wanting to procrastinate studying at all costs, I have created a rough itinerary to make sure we aren't trying to do too much; this includes contact info for potential hostels that had good reviews. I'm hoping this will save time on the road.

We purchased a 10 days in 2 months Eurail pass, a Prague Excursion pass, will get a Chunnel pass once we're in GB, and are flying from Edinburgh to London. We still don't have our train schedule book as Travel Cuts only has 2006's version, so I was using the rail europe online schedule just to gauge how long our trips would take. Word to the wise: order your Eurail tickets online so you are sure to get all the updated info (see links section). Using the schedule online is annoyingly long.

Up next, is figuring out what will fit and what won't fit in our packs. For all you over-packers, nothing cures it like going on a limited-luggage trip. My 60L looks ginormous now; well, compared to the panniers on the back of my bike on the last Emma and Erich adventure.

Europe is coming soon!

Less than 20 days left.

Special note: MEC's 4th quarter earning are greater then expected due to Emma's purchasing habits.

Emma's Packing

Emma has started packing...keep checking to see the status of Emma's packing!