Romani Ite Domum

Today I broke one of my cardinal travel rules.  Twice. I call it the "I didn't drive two thousand miles to eat at..." rule. It's actually my Dad's rule that I inherited. Growing up, the object of the rule was usually McDonald's. Today, we were glad there was a Starbucks across the street from our guesthouse. Since breakfast was not included, we needed a quick grab and go breakfast, and we knew we could find something there. One note to the restaurant people out there. UK Starbucks has proven that you don't have to use fried egg in a breakfast sandwich (yuck!) - scrambled works just fine.We walked to the bus stop for our day-long tour. When the wee red bus pulled up, a bald, kilted Scotsman hopped out. Once we were all on, he introduced himself as Euan. I was glad he pointed to a sign with the spelling, or I would have assumed it was like Obi-Wan, Ewan McGregor. Later in the day, I asked him if his was the more traditional spelling. For his answer, he gave me a brief history lesson, which I will share now.Scotland and France have been closely associated for hundreds of years. Mary Stuart (Queen of Scots) originally spelled her name Stewart, as was the traditional way. However, when she was sent to France as a child, the spelling was changed to Stuart, as there was no "W" in the French language. She kept the spelling when she returned, and now both Stewart and Stuart are common spellings in Scotland. Euan is the Scots-French spelling, and Ewan is the Welsh-Scots spelling. Our guide's parents intended his name to be the traditional spelling. They also intended his brother to have the traditional spelling of his name. They were wrong with both. His brother's name is Stuart.Our first stop on the tour was Rosslyn Chapel. This chapel was built by Masons and likely had a Knights Templar connection. Inside, we were looking around and taking pictures. Carrie was immediately chastised, even though we weren't using a flash. We had missed the small "no photography" sign. This brought out Carrie's latent ODD, and she surreptitiously took iPhone photos. There were intricate carvings, and lots of history. The chapel also figured in a movie both as a location and the apparent hiding place of the Holy Grail (I told him we've already got one, <snicker>). Down the hill, we walked to the ruins of the family home, across from a high bridge - which held Tom Hanks in the Da Vinci Code. The only bad thing about walking down a steep hill to visit a location is that you have to walk back up.Since the weather is still very warm (for Scotland), it felt great to be back on the bus with the air blowing.From there we headed to Melrose for lunch and a walk through the ruined abbey. It was really cool and reminded us of the abbey ruins in Quin, Ireland. We got some great pics, and walked over to get sandwiches to eat on the bus. Back on the bus, we headed south into England for our next stop.My sole request for the trip was to go to Hadrian's Wall, remnants of the time this was the far extent of the Roman Empire. While a lot of it in the east has been removed over time, providing locals with building materials, it ran the width of the island. The section we visited also had the ruins of a Roman fort. This required another trek up a steep hill. We made it to the top, then walked along the wall for a bit. It is amazing to imagine how old this is, and what events must have happened around it. The best part of walking up a steep hill to see something is being able to walk back down it.Back on the bus, it was time to head back north to Scotland. I think everyone was enjoying resting their eyes on the way back. Euan let us off in Edinburgh, and we walked back to our guesthouse. This was when we violated my travel rule for the second time. Originally, we were going to go to a nicer restaurant tonight, but we were so tired, we just wanted to grab something quick to take back. Enter Five Guys. We had turned a corner, and I saw the friendly red letters, and it was decided. I would like to extend a personal thank you to Five Guys for expanding to Scotland. Though I can have it any time I want, it was a fast, good meal.After we ate, we were going to get pictures uploaded and blog written. I got one missed day written and uploaded, but the second day will have to wait until tomorrow.  It is time to sleep.