Former tour members of ETBD Scotland, use of free time

You're not hearing from former tour members, so I took a look at the itinerary and have some comments for you. It looks like you've got good tours of the Castle and the Museum of Scotland. Those will ground you well in the history of Scotland and set up for the rest of the trip. My favorite parts of the Royal Mile are Gladstone's Land and I like Holyrood Place at the foot. If you're interested in contemporary Scotland and government, a tour of the parliament is very interesting. An native would be to go over to New Town and see Georgian Edinburgh. There's a wonderful museum called The Georgian House and it's one of my favorites. In the evening consider Sandy's Bells to hear some Scottish music. There are lots of good restaurants. Inverness is the capitol of the Highlands and as such is a busy city. It's good for some shopping. There is an Ortak store with wonderful jewelry. Also, look for Hazel Passmore's jewelry studio. There is nice walk along the Ness river through the Ness Islands. Eden Court can have theatre productions. Check out Hootenanny for live music. Leakey's Second Hand bookstore is fun to explore and serves good soup for lunch. In the Victorian Market there used to be a CD store with lots of traditional Scottish music. I'm not sure it is still there, but the market is nice to dip into anyway. If it is a beautiful day, think about a dolphin tour. Even if you don't see dolphins the view of the Moray Firth is excellent. Cont. Pam

Portree doesn't have a lot of sites. You'll want to walk about a bit and get a picture of the pastel houses on the harbor. There's a good view of them not far from the TI. If you walk up the A855 to the north it becomes Staffin road and you can look back on lovely harbor view. Then just explore the town. We had lovely tea at the Granary in Somerled Square. Iona is a small island and doesn't have a lot of "sites" to visit. It's home to the ecumenical center for peace. I visited the church and museum as you will and then just wandered. I explored the nunnery ruins and then had a snack near the ferry. There was an issue with the ferry and I actually enjoyed just sitting there watching the activity. Ultimately, they took us all back in small boats to Mull. For me, this visit to a very peaceful place ended in total shock, for as I was contemplating the Abbey and it's message, the 911 attacks were going on. It wasn't until I got back into my car on Mull that I found out about them. To this day I wonder about the contrast between my day on Iona and what was happening back home in NYC, Washington and Pennsylvania. BTW I just noticed that you get very close to Stirling, but it doesn't look like there is time to visit the Castle there. It's a wonderful castle and has just been restored. If you are staying over at all, it would be a good day trip by train to go back to Stirling and visit the castle. Have a great trip. Pam