July 20-July 25: UK Urlaub (vacation)

Here it finally is, the long-awaited write-up of our trip to Cambridge-England, Glasgow-Scotland, and Edinburgh-Scotland. It is seriously long (8 pages), but there is a short re-cap at the beginning if you don't want to read all of it.

In case you are not up for reading the long long long blog w/ details from our trip, here are some of the highlights:
Friday: bus fiasco, dinner at Pickerel, Castle Mound, Harry Potter mania
Saturday: English breakfast (beans, tomatoes, ham, sausage, toast), Harry Potter book purchased, English walking tour guide, Kings College, ‘nerdy’ plaques, pizza dinner w/ Pims.
Sunday: lunch in the park of cow dung by the river Cam, flight to Glasgow, taxi ride, dinner at Bay Tree w/ Zach flirting. Art cannot understand a word of English w/ the Scottish accent
Monday: Scottish breakfast is same as English, walk downtown, Celtic store, Pound store, drunk guy in garden, People’s Palace, town square, St. Mungo’s cathedral, subway –no strollers, ate Haggis.
Tuesday: Edinburgh, cathedral, outside of castle only (11 GBP ea to go in), Royal Mile, Textile Mill, small streets called closes, Art goes to Rangers v. Ajax ‘football’ match.
Wednesday: University of Glasgow, attempt to see XXX museum, Botanic Gardens, bus to airport, flight to Stansted, then flight to Düsseldorf.






Friday: After a rocky start (us missing the bus, Art forgetting his wallet and running back for it, etc), we landed safely at the London-Stansted airport. Zach did well on the flight – he slept nearly the entire time. Our flight was delayed taking off, and he played w/ a little girl about his age in the airport. So by the time we got seated on the plane, he was tired. He played with his new cars and the airsick bag for a bit, then I read him a story, and he curled up and went to sleep. So A+ for that flight. After waiting for ages for our stroller and the travel bed, we finally went to the train station to take a train to Cambridge. We bought tix and RAN for the train – unnecessarily – and got situated w/ no problem. It was pouring rain in Cambridge when we arrived. I had to call the B&B to find out which direction to take the #3 bus, and what stop. The bus system is really strange there. The driver does not announce the stops, and you have no idea where the stops are, even the bus maps don’t really show you. We were so relieved to be headed to the B&B – until we got kicked off the bus b/c it’s wipers stopped working. There was a bus right behind it, so we were not concerned. But that bus left! Us, plus 2 older ladies were left to wait for the next one. It arrived, late, and would not let us on b/c there were already too many prams on. We couldn’t fold ours b/c Zach was asleep. But, a bus pulled up behind, so we thought it would be ok. Then THAT bus started to just leave us, and Art lost it, chased it down, hit the door with the baby bed, and yelled at him to pull over for us, and another lady w/ a stroller. Sheesh. More walking through the cold rain, and we finally found the B&B (Amber Lodge). We laid around a bit to warm up and relax and eat the lunches we brought w/ us from the plane. After a bit, we decided to venture out again and see the city center (or center city?). We took the bus back downtown, and walked around a bit. We went inside an old church and paid a pound to view a special exhibition on the history of Cambridge, which was very nice. Zach enjoyed walking around the church and flirting with the volunteers. Art and I were able to take turns reading the info while the other wrangled Zach. One of the girls there suggested we try dinner at the Pickerel – a favorite pub of C.S. Lewis’. We walked around the town a bit more before venturing over there for dinner. By coincidence, we happened to be in Cambridge during graduation weekend. There are more than 30 colleges in Cambridge, and they all were having graduation ceremonies throughout the weekend. It was very neat to see all these graduates walking around in their fancy robes. We went to the Pickerel for dinner, and, unbeknownst to us, were unwelcome. I went to the bar to order the food while Art got Zach started on dinner. When the bartender brought our food she said “Oh NO. I didn’t know you had a child. Well, you can eat, but then you have to leave. No children allowed.” So we felt pretty badly about that. We looked as we left, and sure enough there was a sign on the door (that had been open when we entered) saying no one under 18 allowed. Oops! But it was good for bar food. Art had fish & chips, and I had some sort of chicken and veggies, which were all good. We left there and walked to Castle Mound – a big mound of earth left over from medieval times. Interesting was a sign saying stay off the mound due to harmful erosion. Of course there was a man and woman, standing right in front of the sign w/ their 4 kids playing on the mound. Sheesh. We let Zach run around and splash in puddles until his heart was content. Then we changed him into jimmies and put him in the stroller w/ his bottle. He fell asleep about 20 minutes later, and we proceeded back downtown where we were to wait for the Harry Potter Queue parties to begin at 9pm. Borders was open, but Waterstone’s was staying closed until 9pm. We hung out at Borders, watching the magician perform, and the kids already in line. There were plenty of adults in line as well, and adults dressed up for the occasion. So much fun to see all of the craziness. Art and I were pretty darn tired though, and just sat down in the bookstore, on the floor, waiting for Waterstone’s to open so we could compare the queue parties. Waterstone’s had a minstrel and a magician of course, who spoke to me some before he got set up (he caught me yawning and asked if I was going to last). I passed some parents who brought their kids and overheard the mom say, ‘ok good, the coffee is on the third floor – you all are on the second”. Poor her. It was only 9pm. We stayed for less than an hour, and finally made our way back, exhausted, to the B&B.






Saturday: We woke up to another English breakfast – at least I really enjoyed the toast! They had some spreadable honey that was more solid than liquid that I adored. Then we hopped on the bus and headed back downtown. First stop: Waterstone’s, where I purchased the UK version w/ the Children’s cover of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. For 8 Pounds 99pence. Half price. And, since Zach had fallen asleep on the way to the store, Art graciously suggested we find a coffee shop and sit down so I could read for a bit. I got a large hot chocolate and got started. There were about 3 other people (all older than me I think) in the shop doing the same thing – very intently reading Harry. I knew when the guy near me got to page 52 – the first shocking death – because of his reaction. Art was reading the newspaper (a treat to get in English!) and it was full of articles about the HP mania and how well sales were and such. I read for about 45 minutes before Art started getting antsy, so we moved on. We headed to the tourist information place to purchase tickets for the 2pm walking tour. Then off to a grocery store to get lunch items. They all had pre-made sandwiches and wraps and things, also a nice salad bar where I was able to get a small bowl for 1.49 and fill it with anything I wanted (for Zach’s lunch). The wraps were about 2 pounds, so it made for a pretty cheap lunch. Art of course needed to get a bag of variety crisps (chips) in odd flavors: ground pepper, ketchup were two of them. We ate lunch on a bench in front of one of the colleges. We had to hustle to make the meeting point for the walking tour. Our guide, James, was fabulous. He is exactly how you would picture an English professor: a bit older, white hair, loquacious, effusive, and wearing corduroy pants and jacket set. He just talked and talked. We ended up getting through only about ½ of the tour by the time our 2 hours were up, but we didn’t mind, since we felt we got so much info from him. Zach was a bit difficult – got bored being in the stroller and wanted to walk around everywhere. So Art and I had to take turns ducking out of the tour, or staying in the back to keep him from being a nuisance to others. We walked around quiet a bit of Cambridge, sticking mostly to the colleges. We learned, which is very interesting, that all of the colleges are independent. We thought they were all branches of Cambridge University, but that is not they case. In many cases, there are 30 colleges, and each one has its own professors for a subject, with very little (but some!) overlap w/ the other colleges. How such a small town can support 20-30 Physics professors is beyond me. Also, the colleges are so small that they don’t have classrooms, per se. The students, maybe 3 in a class, meet in the professor’s office or personal quarters (if he lives on campus). What a great way to get an education. Kings College of course is the most grand of them all, and we did get to see the inside of their chapel. James taught us how to recognize where parts of the school are (library, dining hall, chapel, etc) just by looking at the architecture. That was very cool. We also saw very nerdy plaques such as “the structure of DNA was discovered here…”, and “here was discovered the electron is the first fundamental particle of physics…”. It was a wonderful walking tour. From there we went to a large park and Art let me read HP on a bench while he and Zach went running around, until Zach, exhausted, just stood there and started to cry. So to sleep he went in the stroller and Art and I walked around the downtown area some more. It started to rain, so we headed to the pizza place/bar we had scoped out earlier and sat down. Zachary woke up by the time the food arrived, and he got to eat his mini pizza sitting on Dad’s lap. After eating, Art insisted this was the last chance for me to partake of a traditional English drink that I had wondered about since reading one of my favorite books: Can You Keep A Secret by Sophie Kinsella (a book I don’t own for those of you looking for gift ideas). So, I ordered a Pims. I had no idea even if it was alcoholic or not (it is), but wanted to try it having read about it. The bartender asked what I wanted in it, and I had to admit I’d never had it. “REALLY?, You’ve never had Pims?!” was his shocked reply. So he went on to tell me that you could have it with mint, or orange, or lemon, and when his parents make a pitcher of it, they put cucumber in it. After talking later w/ our Brit friends Jake & Maddy, here in Düsseldorf, they explained that Pims is an alcohol that you put in lemonade and is a famous summer-time drink for the Brits. They make pitchers of it at home and add fresh flavors to it. So this guy, in his zeal, gave me some lemon, orange, AND mint. It wasn’t bad and I could see how it would be a refreshing drink in the summer w/ ice. So there I was, drinking a Pims, and getting to read HP while my wonderful husband was walking my son around the outside of the bar/pizza place. Wonderful. After that, we headed back to the B&B, after making a pit stop at a little convenience mart to get some cheese-puff things that were recommended to us by a Brit in our youth group: Whatzits. SO GOOD. We put Zach to bed, and went into the dining room of the B&B (adjacent to our room) where I read and Art first watched 70s videos on tv (like YMCA by Village People) then worked on his paper. What a great day.






Sunday: Today we met someone staying in the B&B with us – a Dutch girl from Daventer. She shared with us some of her goodies from home, Daventer Koek. We decided to not chance the iffy bus system and take all of our stuff with us back downtown. We had to wait 25+ minutes for the bus to the center city (or city center – I am sure that young bus driver is still making fun of me). Once there, we walked around another of the colleges – so odd to think that students are asleep in their rooms as we are walking through the courtyards and peeking into dining halls. We stopped at Boots to get lunch – wraps and things. Then off to a park near the river Cam (hence the name of the town). We found a wide open park overlooking a little inlet of the river which we thought would be perfect for Zach to run around in once he woke from his nap. Unfortunately, there are cows roaming around those parks, and where there are cows, there are large cow patties – everywhere. Alas, it took us so long to get there, we stayed, picking the cleanest looking area. Art read the paper, and I read HP of course until Zach woke up and we ate lunch. After a bit of careful frolicking about the park, we headed back to the train station where we had plenty of time (no running!) to catch our train to the airport. There were several people again, reading the HP book….so see, I am not alone! 11 million books in 10 days can’t be wrong. :) The train ride back to the airport was uneventful. We had seats this time, and it was no problem. The airport was PACKED. Our flight was not even listed on the board showing where the airlines were checking people in, so we just started walking the length of the airport, hoping to see Air Berlin in the mass of people. Luck was with us, b/c we easily found it, and there was no one in line. They are not so popular at that airport the attendant explained. I had to taste Zach’s milk at security again, and we were perilously late for our flight we thought. The monitors said ‘last call’, but the gate attendant told us the plane had not yet arrived. Whew. Zach did fine on the flight. He got a little fussy, because he was so tired, and then he passed out on our laps. The flight attendant would not allow him to stay lying down in our laps. He needed to be sitting, face forward, for take-off. Zach stirred quite a bit, but stayed asleep until we arrived in Glasgow. Getting our luggage was much easier this time. I stopped at the information desk and got my first taste of the wonderful Scottish accent – one of my favorites! I am glad we stopped to ask her, b/c our directions to the B&B included a subway trip, and she informed us that the subway shuts down at 6pm on Sunday! She advised us to take a taxi (even w/out a car seat!), so we did. The driver was crazy, and did not want to use his Nav system, and kept saying “I think that is off Clive Rd”, instead of looking at the map where the info. lady circled. So he dropped us off at the wrong B&B, but nicely took us to the right one w/ no extra charge – just means his tip dwindled quite a bit, since I paid 20 pounds for an 18.60 ride, that turned into a 19.23 ride. And, when I opened my wallet to pay, I opened to the wrong section, and said “oops, that’s Euros” sort of under my breath, and the driver said “we don’t take those, and we hope we NEVER do”. Yowzers. But, he helped take our luggage up the hill to the B&B, so he wasn’t too bad. The B&B (Belgrave Guest House) was fabulous. The shower head was in the ceiling which was wonderful, there was a computer in the room with free internet use, and a flat panel tv/dvd player combo. Very nice. They put a pack-n-play out for Zach even at no extra charge. We thought – why didn’t we stay here the entire time?! No time to revel in it though, as it was dinner time. The lady at the reception gave us several maps and circled good things to do as well as good kid-friendly restaurants, ones her daughter takes the baby to. Much better than in Cambridge where the B&B lady did not even know the bus schedule for the bus near her B&B. Sheesh. We ate a Persian place called the Bay Tree. Very affordable and quite yummy. I got a veggie burger that I thought would be like a boca burger (soy), but it turned out to be actual veggie pieces (carrots, corn, broccoli, etc) mashed up and deep fat fried in a burger shape. Odd, but quite tasty. Zach fell in love with the waitress, which of course made dining a pleasure instead of a struggle. She played hide and seek w/ him, and he did not want to leave. Finally, back to the B&B for some well-earned sleep!










Monday: We almost missed breakfast! They stop serving breakfast at 9am, and I woke up at 8:45, with a start, realizing that Zach and Art were still asleep – Very unusual! Zach had woken a few times in the night (we later realized how very uncomfortable his hotel pack-n-play must have been b/c there was no bottom to it, we added pillows and he slept soundly after that), and was pretty tired I guess. We bolted upstairs and were served in the nick of time! The day was gorgeous, blue sky, and just slightly chilly in a long-sleeve shirt. We walked the 20-25 minutes to the city center where all the shops and things are. I went into The Pound Shop, because it was just like the Dollar Store, where everything was a pound…so neat to see that some things are universal! We stopped at a Swainsbury (must be a UK chain) and got some pre-made lunches and another variety bag of odd chip flavors (brown sauce, roast beef, pepper, and grilled chicken – all pretty gross). We walked and walked, looking for a nice green space to eat lunch at. As we were about to settle down on a small strip of green, a nice guy told us to go about 15 minutes further down the road for an excellent garden. He was right, it was a marvelous park. Zach was asleep by then (late for his morning nap), so Art and I ate on a grassy slope by the river. We saw some people crewing which was nice. Then a guy came over and asked if he could borrow a pen, so we let him. Unfortunately, shortly after that a woman came over and started yelling at him about prostitutes and such, and hitting him. He kept his arms crossed and walked up the hill, where there were witnesses, while she was hitting and yelling at him. He was obviously drunk. Needless to say, I didn’t get my pen back, and it was a nice Pilot pen! :( We decided then would be a good time to leave, but the drunk guy wanted to apologize to us for the outburst and the evil woman. We walked along through the park a bit to the botanic gardens. We found the People’s Palace, which is now a free museum with the history of Glasgow and it’s people. Art loved to learn that they are called Glaswegians. It was a wonderful museum, and I was sad when Zach woke up and was ready for lunch. We ate lunch outside in the park and watched all the people around us. After letting Zach play around for quite a bit, we started heading back to the center of town, where the tourist information place is. It is located in the big town center, which is similar to Trafalgar Square in London, in that it is a big square for people to sit surrounded by amazing old buildings. The tourist info place was a bust, because no walking tours were available for that afternoon, or Tuesday, though one was avail for Wed – when it was supposed to rain. So we decided to see some more sights, and went off to see the famous cathedral – St. Mungo’s cathedral (perhaps that is where J.K. Rowling got the idea for her fictitious hospital.) It was gorgeous inside. If I wasn’t already so darn tired, and in pain (my knee had been giving me trouble for the past few days), I would have loved to explore it for a bit more. Plus, it was after 4 and Zach had not gone down for his afternoon nap yet, and was irritable, which of course generally makes me irritable. Art and I took turns staying w/ him at the entrance cloister while the other explored. It was one of the few cathedrals that allowed you to go into their crypt and several other usually-off-limits places. After leaving St. Mungo’s (just typing that reminds me of Harry Potter), we hopped on the underground, which was no simple feat, to head back to the hotel. So we buy our tickets, and get down the stairs with no problem, but once we got to the train platform, we were told by a train attendant that the stroller could not go on the U unless it was folded up. By this time, it was late in the day, and we had been amassing more and more things under the stroller, so that was a huge debacle, just trying to clean that out, fold the stroller, and get ready in the 4 minutes until the U came. Sheesh. Then, once up, in order to exit, we had to lift the stroller over the turnstile b/c no one was around to open the wheelchair exit. This procedure was repeated every time we used the U. Their underground train compartments are very interesting-nothing like I have seen before. I felt like we were riding inside a coke can. They were rounded, and very small. A tall person would have an issue. Pretty claustrophobic. And so so loud. You could not carry on a conversation. A 6 minute walk and we were back at the B&B. We put Zach down for a nap, even though it was late, 5pm or so. He was just exhausted. So Art watched tv for a bit, and napped, and I READ READ READ my Harry Potter. I had not brought the book out with me today, b/c I thought any down time should be spent chatting w/ my husband and son, since I had been ignoring them to read for the past few days. Off to a late dinner, to a place recommended by one of the B&B workers. We got there and there was no room in the bar area, so we had to eat in the restaurant area. The waiter in the bar area told us that the restaurant will give you the bar area menu, which is about ½ the price of the restaurant menu, so that’s what we did. And, since we were in Scotland, we thought we should do a Scottish thing and order haggis. Art made the mistake of asking the waitress “I think I know, but can you tell me exactly what haggis is”, and she answered with a happy outlook “sure, it’s the heart, liver, lungs of a sheep. It is quite good.” Then we were both like UGGGH. But we ordered it. It was like ground beef, seasoned a bit and served with mashed turnips and mashed potatoes. The whole thing wasn’t bad really, and once you got over what it was, it was pretty tasty! Even Zach liked it. The rest of the food was pretty good as well. Then back home to put Zach to bed – late for him – around 9pm. More Harry reading for me, and tv watching for Art.









Tuesday: Today we decided we would take the train to Edinburgh. Many people had told us it was so beautiful and much nicer than Glasgow. Those people are on drugs. After a full-protein breakfast (Zach enjoyed feeding himself a mini-muffin), we headed to the Underground then the train station. The trip to Edinburgh was pretty short – less than an hour. We spent most of the time entertaining Zach. Once we got there, we started heading immediately towards what we thought was the castle. Then we popped into the tourist information center to see what walking tours they offered. Almost all the tours were underground and along narrow streets called closes, where poor people used to live, or ghost tours. The ghost tours did not appeal to us at all, and the ‘vaults’ tour was too narrow and too many stairs to take the stroller. So official tours were out unless we wanted to do the bus tour. I think we will in the future try that at least once, especially after our walking tour w/ Zach in Cambridge, where he was a bit of a pill. If we do the bus tour, we can get off at any stop and deal w/ him if he needs attention. So we headed back towards what we thought was the castle. We found a Boots and bought our pre-made lunches again. After eating on a park bench somewhere, we stared really examining the map, which showed us that we were headed to something other than the castle we wanted to see. Oops! But where we were headed looked just like a castle! So we started the long trek back to where we needed to be. We walked along the Royal Mile, and the castle was at the end of it. Along the way, we saw the Edinburgh cathedral which was nice, though nothing like St. Mungo’s. We also saw a SERIOUS camera guy – not with a crew or anything, just w/ his family. I really hope he was doing a documentary and not just an uber nerd! Once we got to the castle, we saw that it was an enormous 11 GBP to go in. Way too steep for our budget. So we looked around it a bit. They had all these portable bleachers set up for their annual Tatoo – a military presentation by military bands from all over the world. So it seemed very odd – like walking onto the football field during game day – like we were somewhere we shouldn’t be. Then Art was nice enough to walk around the courtyard for a bit w/ Zach so I could read HP for 30 minutes or so. Then it started to rain, so we ducked into the Scottish Whisky museum, but it too was pretty expensive (9 pounds), so we walked across the street to a mill museum. It was like a 3 story gift shop filled with working looms making all the tartan plaids. We looked at several Fraser ones (in honor of Joy & Joanna). Every floor also had different museum-type areas of information. We spent over an hour in there – and it was all free!! We had gotten spoiled in Glasgow where all the museums are free. Then we walked along the Royal Mile some more and stopped into a toy museum w/ the history of toys and baby things. It was pretty neat to see what strollers they used in the 1800s. Then more walking before I decided I would like for us to catch the 4:30pm train – the last train we could catch w/ our “saver” (non-rush hour) tickets. Otherwise we would have to wait until 6:30pm. I wanted to get back and see if Art could possibly go to a football (soccer) game. The Glasgow Rangers were playing the Amsterdam Ajax that evening. So we hustled back to the train station and got on the 4:30 train with just a few minutes to spare. Zach was asleep so I got to read while Art dozed. We made it back to Glasgow and took the U to the Ibrox station, where the Rangers play. There were several people already around ready for the game, even though it was not yet 6pm (kickoff 7:45pm). Art waited in line at the ticket trailer to see if any tix were available and how much. Two security people came over to me while I was waiting and talked to Zach “hey there big guy, do you get to come to the game tonight?”, I said “no, it will be past his bedtime”, and he said “past your bedtime, oh, you have such a mean mommy”. Cute. Art came out, having purchased a ticket for 18 pounds (I was thinking if it was 20 or less than I would be ok w/ that), and very excited to be able to go to a football game while in Scotland. It was a friendly (game before the season officially starts – like a practice game), so the tix were cheaper. We headed back towards the hotel to eat dinner – a nice Italian place where we were the only people. Then Art headed back to the B&B w/ us, got some money, the U ticket, the key, and said goodnight and goodbye to us both. Zach and I played for a bit – he loved going up the stair into the bathroom to look at himself in the wall mirror – then he was put into bed. I finally finished reading HP, and decided to spend some time on the computer. Art got back just as I had turned off the lights. He said the wait for the U was about 45 minutes or so after the game! But what a thrill for Art to be able to see the game.








Wednesday: Today we go home – boo! We were to check out at 10am, but our flight was not until 6pm. Belgrave was nice enough to let us keep us our luggage there until later in the afternoon. It was rainy and muggy, not the best day to be walking around. We consulted our finances and discovered we did not have enough money to take a walking tour, nor did we have enough to take a taxi back to the airport. So given the amount of money we had, we decided to just walk around a bit and see some free stuff. We walked to the University of Glasgow and bummed around there a bit. We went into the gift shop and of course, since we were nearly out of money, there were tons of things that I wanted! After sadly leaving the gift shop, we went upstairs to a free museum, the XXXX. We were hoping that Zach would fall asleep, but alas, he not only did NOT fall asleep, but was a total pill. We had to leave the museum and let him play on the stairs for a bit, hoping to tire him out. So we went back into the museum hoping to see the rest, but ended up leaving with Zach screaming, tucked under my arm, Superman-style. Sigh. So we let him run around a bit in the courtyard, and was finally exhausted. We walked to see the botanic gardens, which we heard were excellent. We were hoping to find a particular ‘fast food’ chain that has pizza sandwiches for very cheap. But, it was getting late and we needed to make sure we bought lunch when we saw a Boots. So we bought our trademark sandwiches, which of course meant that we saw a XXX the moment we left Boots. Sigh again. We headed to the Botanic gardens and found a nice bench to eat lunch while Z was still sleeping. After a bit, Zach woke up and we fed him, then let him run around free for quite some time. He chased pigeons, splashed in puddles, and generally had a fabulous time. We decided to brave the greenhouses of the Botanic gardens and went inside. There was an exhibit on KILLER PLANTS which was interesting. They had pitcher plants and venus flytraps and some other mossy thing. We had no idea that the only place to find pitcher plants is in Georgia and North Carolina! By the time we got out of the steaming greenhouse, it was time to start heading back to the B&B to get our luggage. Then off to the Underground for the last time. We had to switch to a bus to get to the airport, and that was uneventful. More milk tasting at the Glasgow airport security, then off to the gate – finally early for once. Zach, hours past his nap time, finally crashed and took a nap on the chairs at the gate. We were hoping that he would stay asleep when we transferred him from the chairs to the plane, but alas, he did not. He did just fine on the flight though, playing with his toys and playing in the empty chair between us. Then we were at the London Stansted airport with little time for dinner, and next to no money to purchase it with. One of the cafes did take Euros, but I didn’t find out until too late that they did not give change in Euros, only Pounds. So our dinner ended up costing a small fortune AND we were given dinner on the plane! Zach was in his jammies on the plane ride back to Düsseldorf, but had no interest in sleeping. We did not have the row to ourselves this time, but Zach was great…except for the few times that he kicked our row-mate and giggled furiously! He STILL was not asleep when we picked up our luggage in Düsseldorf, and STILL not asleep after we took the train home, and STILL not asleep until we almost finished the 20 minute walk home. That made it nearly 11:30pm when we got home. Then we were greeted by an orange bullet that NEEDED some attention. It was easily past midnight when we got to bed. I think I took two naps the next day to recover! Still, it was a great trip and totally worth the effort! I would love to go back to Scotland and see some of the Highland areas.