On Wednesday we drove up to Durham where there is a castle and cathedral on the top of the hill. We then went on to Hadrian's wall or a small part of it. The wall was only 75 miles long - from Newcastle-on-Tyne to the west coast. It was 9' high and 9' wide at the base. There were ditches on each side as well, forts and lookouts all along it, and 10,000 soldiers to serve on it. Much more extensive than I knew. We then went on to Edinburgh. Next day we drove around Edinburgh to see the old town and the new town, which was designed by James Craig in 1747. The view from Arthur's seat is all around the city. Arthur's seat is an extinct volcano - 300 million years old. We finished up at the castle. There are army barracks there, as well as the crown jewels of Scotland - the oldest in Britain. The jewels were smuggled out by 2 women and hidden from Cromwell. The oldest building in Edinburgh is there too, It is a very small chapel to St Margaret built about 1100 AD. We went shopping in town then - looking at all the tartans and clan information. In the evening we went to The Military Tattoo. It was great fun withh all the bands and dancing. The Australian Defence Force had a band playing, and there was a dance troup from Australia. One of the acts was a drumming troup from Switzerland, they were incredible with all the drum sticks playing in unison, and very fast too. It finished with a fireworks display. The BBC was there recording the show and it will be shown (here) on August 27th. Yesterday we drove north, having lunch at a small place call Pitlochry. It was a pretty little town. It was raining earlier but stopped while we were there. We then went to Blair Castle which is a Georgian castle built in sections from about the 1200's. The entrance hall has guns and swords arranged around the walls, covering the entire walls. There are 32 rooms all with the original furnishings, some quite amazing. It was a beautiful place and there are extensive gardens too. We then drove further north to a small country hotel in the highlands at a place called Laggan. It's situated in the area where 'Monarch of the Glen' was situated. Today we drove past the home used as Glenbogle House from that show and stopped to take a photo. We also went through an area called Glencoe before arriving at Loch Lomond where we cruised down the loch for an hour. After visiting Gretna Green where a couple was getting married, we drove down to the lake district along the scenic route. It was a beautiful drive past lots of dry stone walls, the lakes and lots of hills. There is a special type of sheep here - the lambs are born black, but lose most of their colour as they grow. The wool is not much good, too course so they are grown for meat. Tomorrow we have a cruise on Lake Windemere before driving on to Chester.