While I have a more detailed trip report on the last few days sketched out on random pieces of paper, I only have a few minutes of internet time at the moment; therefore, this is just a summary of the last few days.

We left London Thursday morning after driving around the city a bit to see some sites from the bus.  We left for Windsor Castle, a short drive away.  We would only have a few hours there, but that turned out to be enough time to tour the castle, see the changing of the guard (very cool since you are very close), and stop for lunch.   In the afternoon we were off to Oxford and a tour of the college town.

Friday was our trip to York.  This is a very pretty city with a cathedral that we climbed to the top of for a view of the city.  Also on tap was the excellent castle museum which detailed life of people in the last few hundred years.  It was full of some more, um, detailed facts about life such as using urine to clean your laundry.  This reminded me of why I am quite happy to be living today.  I'm a big fan of clean clothes without a bodily fluid cleaning solution.

Saturday, we began our trip to Scotland, home of Scotty from Star Trek, J. C. Maxwell, and Groundskeeper Willie.  We stop at the border of England and Scotland for a photo op and continue to Hadrian's Wall (a Roman wall built nearly 2000 years ago across Britain).  It's not everyday I walk around ruins from ancient Rome.  In the evening we arrive in Edinburgh and check in to our hotel.  I was hoping to use the spare hour for some internet time, but none is available in the hotel and nothing is near by.  After dinner in the hotel, we have a major highlight of the trip tonight-the Military Tatoo.  This is a festival of bands in formation in the backdrop of the castle.  While I had not heard of this festival before, it is apparently world famous and was  a lot of fun to see and hear.

Sunday (today) was a full free day in Edinburgh.  Since we got back at close to 2am last night, we didn't depart the hotel until 10am today for the short drive in to town.  I toured the castle, the palace and the cathedral.  I was planning on hiking up Arthur's Seat for a fantastic view of town, but with the typical cold, misty, weather, it wasn't worth the effort.  This place has worse summer time weather than San Francisco.  Without the hike, I finish up with a spare hour, so I'm sending out this quick update; I want my loyal readers to know what I'm up to.  We'll be in the highlands next where there is basically no contact with the outside world.  Assuming I don't get eaten by the Loch Ness Monster, I hope to post an update in a few days, but I make no promises.

I'm sure many of you are curious about who is on the tour.  It's about half Australians (maybe more), More than a quarter Canadian, and about twenty percent American (mostly California).  There are a few couples and groups of friends.   Not counting the couples, it's nearly all women, which is quite a switch from Silicon Valley employment demographics.  I'm on the older end of things, but still get more done in my days than most others.   About half the group is only on the UK part of the tour so we'll have a bunch of new recruits when we start Ireland next week. Just like my last tour, I've gone touring with a few folks who are interested in the museums, castles, and major sites of the cities (as opposed to shopping).  I'm surprised how many people prioritize for what I consider the tourist rip off sites (for example, seeing the London Dungeon instead of the British Museum).  With a tour of 50 people, there is always someone with a similar interest to go sightseeing with. 

Thus far, the food has been surprisingly good considering this is Britain.  The salmon in the hotel last night was particularly tasty and the fudge today was also good.