To Edinburgh

We left Paris for London on the Eurostar, the high speed train that runs through the Chunnel. Getting through customs was a bit of an adventure as the British clerk had many questions for us – he seemed quite suspicious of an American couple traveling in Europe for three months. The trip itself was uneventful – much like a short airline flight (with about as much legroom). Fortunately the station we were catching the train to Edinburgh in, King's Cross, is right next door to St. Pancras so al we had to do was walk across the street and wait.

The trip to Edinburgh was quite nice. Initially we sat next to two older women, sisters, heading back to their farm in Yorkshire after a visit to their sons in London. They were originally from Belgium and came to England during the war. One came for nurses training and married a British officer and the other married a farmer. Because of their experiences their mother refused to let their younger sister come to England! Both of their husbands are dead and they are living together in Yorkshire. Their sons were quite concerned that someone helped them get their luggage at their stop which I did of course. They were a delight to spend time with.

After that we sat with a couple of ex-pat Brits who are living in Kuwait. He works in southern Iraq rebuilding the oilfields and she teaches in an English school in Kuwait. We had a lovely conversation with them ranging over politics, living abroad, education, etc. They were here visiting their children in Berwick upon Tweed. They graciously and generously shared a bottle of Bailey's with us and were delightful to spend time with.

It is always a treat to come out of Waverley Station in Edinburgh and see the castle – it is without question the best view of any station in Europe. It was chilly and windy and we had to walk around to North Bridge to catch the bus but it felt very, very good being in Edinburgh again. If I weren't such a Scottish Swede I would done quite the happy dance. When we got to Dalkeith we had quite the surprise – the grounds are being cleaned up and restored to their 18^th century look, which means that the shrubs along the path to the house are gone and the great bridge can now be seen from the library – the new Duke is having all the undergrowth and a lot of trees taken out. I was so surprised when I walked into the library and looked out the window – I just stared for a few minutes. It was such a surprise. I think when the project is done it will be quite a transformation but right all the heavy equipment is there, fences are blocking off sections around the house and it looks like the construction site that it is. They are also tuck-pointing all the chimneys so there is scaffolding up around the house. It was still lovely to be there again. I went out one day to the oak grove and renewed acquaintances with the old trees – some of them are 700 years old and it was my favorite spot when we lived there in 2003. I even did some tai chi by the tree I used to it under and read – quite a powerful place. The River Esk, which splits into a north and south branch just before Dalkeith, comes together at this grove and for Druids a river that comes together in an oak grove was a very holy, very powerfully spiritual place and you can, if you pay attention, really feel it. It is the most remarkable place of nature I have ever been and it is always hard to leave it.