The Traveling Idiots-Where The Tuck Are They Now?: Bill's no Willie!

Edinburgh is a really nice base for a visit to Scotland.  It's very historic and an easy city to navigate on foot.  The city center is fairly compact and divided into the "old town" and "new town". We've spent practically all of our time in the city in the medieval  "old town" section. The main street in this section is called the Royal Mile. It runs from the Edinburgh Castle which sits at the highest point in the city center down to the Palace of Holyroodhouse. This palace is the Queens official palace when she is in Scotland.
The Edinburgh Castle sits on what is known as "Castle Rock". Historians have evidence that people have lived in the Castle Rock area since the second century AD. The castle itself isn't quite that old but dates back to the 12th century.
We walked the entire length of the Royal Mile and much more. When we were down near the palace Beth reminded me that we had toured it on our last visit. Ben and Sarah were pretty young at that time.  We got a good chuckle when we started thinking about all the places we drug those kids to as they were growing up. They were mostly good sports about it and hopefully appreciate all the cultural exposure we provided them.
https://www.edinburghcastle.gov.uk/
https://www.royalcollection.org.uk/visit/palace-of-holyroodhouse
Another nice feature of Edinburgh is that it is easy to access other areas of Scotland from here. When we checked in to our hotel the front desk clerk suggested visiting the South Queensferry Area. This area was just a 15 minute train ride and was a great suggestion. It's just a small city located on the Firth of Forth. While that name may sound a bit confusing it's really quite simple. The river is the "River of Forth" and the word "Firth" means "mouth of the river".   We enjoyed a nice lunch at a small place overlooking the river that also provided great views of one of the more interesting bridges I've ever seen. The Forth Bridge is a railway bridge that has been in operation since 1890. It's unique design was quite interesting and it was made even more spectacular looking with the fog and mist as a backdrop. The bridge underwent a major restoration project that started in 2002 but has basically operated "trouble free" since opening close to 130 years ago.
https://www.visitscotland.com/info/towns-villages/south-queensferry-p240281
http://www.forth-bridges.co.uk/forth-bridge/facts-figures-rail.html
On our second day we decided to get out of the city even further and tour the Highlands. To accomplish this we booked a tour that was mostly a "driving tour". The drive passed through some magnificent forests and national park areas as well as a number of lakes in what makes up the Scottish Lake District. There were about 12 of us on a bus that would seat 30. Thankfully it wasn't full because although it was a brand new bus it didn't have the most legroom.
Along the way our driver (Bill) shared with us some interesting stories. Several of them were about William Wallace who may be better known to many folks as "Braveheart". He was quite an inspirational person to the Scottish people and actually lead his men to a victory over the English army at the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297. This was one of the few victories Scotland has ever enjoyed over the English either in war or rugby since folks have been keeping score of these things. Unfortunately it kind of went down hill for Willam after this victory. He was caught and executed in 1305 and according to Bill it wasn't an ordinary execution. He was first hung but cut down before he died. Next he was "gutted" (Bill's word not mine) and his insides set on fire and finally for good measure his arms, legs and head were cut off and placed on top of a spike on the London Bridge.
There is a Willam Wallace museum in the town of Stirling and Bill shared with us that because there are no portraits of him that when they made the statue of him for the museum they actually made him look like Mel Gibson. He said this caused an uproar amongst the local people who have always referred to the monument as a monument to William Gibson!
The highlight of the Highlands was seeing Loch (Loch=Lake) Ness. This is the largest of the lakes and they are very proud of it's size. We were told it is over 26 miles long, a mile and a half wide at it's widest point and over 800 feet deep. A young man who did a great narration on a little cruise we did on the lake told us that the lake has more water in it than all the lakes and rivers in England and Wales. Additionally he was quite pleased to let us know that if it was drained that the entire population of the world could fit inside it several times. Not sure how they figured that one but I hope they don't drain it and make all of us get in there, doesn't sound like much fun to me.
The cruise was very interesting and when you get to the pictures you'll see who we spotted as we were cruising around.
Now about Bill, our tour guide. Bill was a really nice older gentleman with a pretty thick Scottish accent that made it fairly hard to understand him. He would narrate a while and then play us a song or two which most of the time had terribly depressing lyrics. They were about things like the Glencoe Massacre or somebody being hung by the English which I guess was a pretty common thing.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/scottishhistory/union/trails_union_glencoe.shtml
We liked old Bill but we decided that Bill just wasn't Willie. If you've been following the blog you may recall Willie was a tour guide we had back in New Zealand in the fall. Willie was the tour guide extraordinaire! Willie would be driving along pointing things out to us, sometimes with both hands at the same time. He sang to us, had us singing with him, made balloon animals (not while driving) and much more. Bill could learn a thing or two from Willie but unlike Willie at least he kept one hand on the steering wheel most of the time!