Scotland - Rosslyn Chapel, ghost towns, whiskey and Jack Russels

Thursday

We arrived on the Royal Mile near the castle for our tour at 9:30. The bus was small and had really uncomfortable seats that were made for much smaller butts than mine. There were a mix of people on the bus, a couple from Ohio was sitting in front of me and another could from New Zealand was beside me. Behind was a young man and his parents from Scotland, they were showing his aunt from Canada around the country. The rest of the people were English and Scottish. Our bus driver Michael was a rotund, jovial Scot that talked incessantly about everything except the tour. By the time we were ten miles out on the road, half the bus was ready to revolt when he told his tenth story about the people he knew, the town he grew up in and his Jack Russel Megan.

We arrived at Rosslyn Chapel first and departed the bus to tour around. It was about 8 pounds to see the chapel. It had been free before all the De Vinci Code stuff had started all the hoopla about the chapel, but now with all the people wanting to see it they were charging. I really can't blame them, more people equals more damage, and why not charge if it means being able to restore the chapel? The chapel is beautiful. Very ornate and detailed. There is a window that supposedly shows corn about 100 years before it came to the old world...hmmm...Interesting...It did look like corn, but who knows. By the time we left the chapel it was pissing down rain outside. We decided to walk down the hill to try to get a glimpse of the castle that was supposed to be in the area, but no luck, we couldn't locate were it was.
After a short trip on the bus we arrived at the templar church. The church was a ruin in the middle of a graveyard. We were told that the ruin that was there really didn't have anything to do with the templars, but was built on the site of a templar church. Still very atmospheric, especially in the rain.
We then headed out to the town of Gifford for lunch, it was still raining and the town was almost completely deserted. Sharon said it reminded her of the town in the Stepford Wives. It just had a really weird vibe to it. After lunch we went over to the church and looked around, followed by a stroll around town looking at nothing really.
We then headed to Glenkinchie Distillery for a tour. It was interesting to see how whiskey was made, but it was really hot and I felt light headed for much of the tour. After the tour we got a taste of the whiskey and were set free in the gift shop. It was way too expensive so I skipped it and headed back to the bus. At this point we headed home. This tour was much more reasonable in regard to time then the Loch Ness on we had taken. It was from 9:45 to 5:30 so we didn't feel completely dead afterwards. I really liked this one and would love to explore this area of Scotland more with its farm lands and rolling hills.