Day 1 - The Tour Begins
I awoke early on Sunday, the first day of the Beatonite tour. After learning the night before that Amy was stuck in Newark, I awoke at 5am to learn if she and Erin had made it on either of the Saturday flights. Unfortunately neither made the Saturday flights. All that I could do was to send her another text message to let her know that I knew of her plight and would continue to check in with Continental.
There being nothing more I could do, I prepared for the day and joined my fellow travelers for breakfast. Joining us for breakfast was, of course, Alex and our coachmen for the journey, my now old friend Mr. Barry Austin. Barry had been our coachman on my previous two tours and had proved to be a hale fellow well met and I looked forward to his company. I stuck to my now regular fare of porridge with a touch of museli for crunch and coffee along with toast and a chocolate muffin. I added a few sautéed mushrooms and a rasher of bacon for some protein and was ready to face the day, sans Amy.
For the first day of the tour, Alex planned a visit to the Scottish Borders starting with a tour of Abbotsford, the home of Sir Walter Scott at the time of his death. Scott is the 19th century poet and novelist and author of such classics as Waverly, Rob Roy, Ivanhoe and The Lady of the Lake. He filled his home with relics and items that he had collected from all over the world. He also was a contemporary and acquaintance of such Scottish greats as Robbie Burns and James Watt. The grounds also include a small but exquisite garden. After leaving Abbotsford, we stopped briefly at Scott's View, where Scott and his friends often came for picnics and for inspiration. At the time of his funeral, as his horse pulled his hearse past Scott's View, it stopped out of habit.
Leaving Scott's View, we proceed to the Ruins of Melrose Abbey. Melrose Abbey is situated in the border town of Melrose, but it also happens to be the name of the street that I spent most of my childhood, Melrose St. I might also add that it is the home of one Barry Austin! The abbey dates back to the 12th century and at one time was probably the richest in all of Scotland. The abbey is also believed to be the site of the burial casket of King Robert the Bruce's heart! After touring the abbey, I stopped in at the little pub of Ship Inn, at Barry's suggestion, where I had a light lunch of lentil soup, a ham sandwich and an half pint of Foster's (no Tennents served here).
After leaving Melrose, Alex determined that we had time to visit another of the five abbey ruins in the Borders, that of Dreyburgh Abbey. This abbey lies on the banks of the Tweed River and I find it to be much more interesting than Melrose. I believe it is due to the more pastoral setting. The mystery of the ruins of the abbeys is easily explained. They were destroyed by Oliver Cromwell during the Protestant Reformation in an attempt to abolish Catholicism throughout Britain.
This ended the day and we returned to our hotel for dinner which consisted of a buffet and “carvery”. The carvery include the largest roast turkey I've ever seen, a lovely roast beef and roast gammon (which turned out to be basically a large ham).I was unable to wrest any additional information out of the Continental folks and again had to go to bed without knowing if, in fact, Amy and Erin would be arriving the next day. I should point out that, due to the time differential (five hours between Edinburgh and Newark) I would not know if she got on the 7:50pm flight until after 1am Edinburgh time. So I fell into a fitful sleep still unsure as to the fate of Amy and would not know with certainty until the next morning.
Day 2 - A Good News Day