Apologies for not being more regular. I arrived in Scotland Sept. 1, surprisingly solid on sleep. My friend Amelia spent the night watching movies that are hard to find in the States, so she crashed while I wandered around my new old home place.

The view from our flat window is lovely in every time of day and every type of weather. I only had a few days to enjoy this as we arrived on Tuesday and headed to Edinburgh to start the tour on Sunday, but it was enough to get some exploring done.

The town has two sections: the working market square (four thrift shops! :] ) and the Old Town down by the harbor.

Once Amelia revived we explored the Old Town portion, stopping to admire the statues that line the walkway to the harbor. More about these later as they deserve their own post.

If you look closely in the picture of the town, at the far back right, that’s where our flat sits, right next to the North Sea. But comfortably protected from tidal surges. :]

We hiked to the War Memorial, which is a nearly-vertical climb, but in its desperate need to be ever-improving, WordPress is now using AI to insert photos “the best way” so they are mostly coming out sideways. I will have a serious chat with them about this and hopefully be able to post those later. The War Memorial has eleven columns, each with the name of a significant battle on it. It was meant to be for World War I, but by the time they had the land and the architect, World War II was upon the world. So they waited and did both.

Incidentally, the house of the architect who created the memorial is for sale now , for 710pounds and commanding glorious views of the harbor. It’s called Haamar House, in case you’re interested. :]

Talk soon, tour group is waking up and I must get my best extrovert self on.