So what to say about “Bonnie Old Scotland” except for the fact that we spent 11 wonderful days in a country of mighty fine whiskies, castles, amazing concerts, military parades and last (but NEVER least) very outgoing and happy-go-lucky people!

We left from Rome’s Ciampino airport on August 11^th, 2025 and came back on August 22^nd. We left with a temperatures hovering around 40 degrees, Celsius. Prior to leaving we checked out the weather in Scotland, which was (supposed) to be cooler, so we packed a few sweaters and long pants.

It was instead quite the shocker when we arrived at Edinburgh’s airport only to be faced with practically the same temperatures that 3 hours before we had left on the tarmac at Ciampino (talk about Python’s famous phrase, “It’s hot enough to boil a monkey’s bum”)!

We spent four days in Edinburgh because we had booked online tickets for their truly spectacular and superb “Military Tattoo”, an event which was 90 minutes long. This year’s show was special because it was the 75^th anniversary of the Tattoo and guest bands included the Ukrainians, the Swiss, the Poles, Highland dancers and also an American contingent. An idea of that special and unforgettable evening can be seen in the pics and in this magnificent BBC video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZ7iFuNGipY

The city itself was full of tourists from all over the world as they also had their “Fringe Festival”, which runs from August 1^st-25^th. Quite the selection of some pretty whacky theatre, music and also street events at the city’s famous “Royal Mile”. And indeed VERY impressive their free “National Museum of Scotland” which just happens to also host eleven original 12^th century pieces of the famous “Lewis Chessmen” (they’re carved from walrus ivory).

Just the thing for the chess aficionados that we are!

Very nice their "Royal Botanic Garden" which with a (rather long) bus ride took us directly there.

Our Holiday Inn Express hotel was conveniently located close to the tram and also to the Royal Yacht Britannia (it dates back to 1953). The impressive yacht, which for decades was owned by the Royal Family, is anchored at the Port of Leith. For about 40 pounds (for two tickets) we spent close to 3 hours visiting the yacht that had been for many reasons also a second home to the Royal Family, as you can see by the pics. It had hosted a myriad of VIPs, including old Blue Eyes himself, Frank Sinatra. But under former Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair the Royal Family had to sadly, due to rather high maintenance costs (ie, for the British taxpayers), “abandon ship”, and forever.

A pleasant surprise while we were there as Edinburgh’s “temple” of rugby, the Murrayfield stadium, was hosting the first of three concerts by that great Manchester band, Oasis.  We didn’t try to get tickets but we took instead the VERY convenient city tram (it takes you all the way to the airport) and sat outside the stadium to listen to some of their great old songs (although the acoustics weren’t all that great).

And some scenes of downtown Edinburgh.

Off then with a rented car to some other famous (and not-so-famous towns), starting with St. Andrew’s where not only was golf invented (back in the 15^th  century) but where, they say, a young Kate met her Prince William at the city’s famous university.  That was just a pit stop for a few hours as we then proceeded to Dundee.

Our hotel in Dundee was conveniently located right in front of their wonderful (and free) VA Museum, which was right next to the old RRS Discovery ship, the very same one which Robert Falcon Scott explored the Antarctic, and which also turned out to be quite tragic for his crew.  We stayed there for just one night even though in the long run it would have been better had we stayed for at least two nights.

From Dundee, which is also famous for its two soccer clubs (their stadiums, or should I say “stadia”, are located very close to each other, like only 183 meters), we drove to two very small towns which can be for the average person rather insignificant, but NOT for many diehard AC/DC fans out there (like yours truly): Forfar (population: 13,150 people) and Kirriemuir (population: 6,000 people).  So what’s so special about these two small Scottish towns?  Forfar is where the late, great Bon Scott was born, he who one day would become the lead singer of that great band.  Kirriemuir instead is where he grew up, which just happens to also be the birthplace of Peter Pan and the man who created him, James Barrie.

And there in Kirriemuir is the wonderful statue in honour of Bon and with bagpipes too (Bon plays them in their inspiring song, “It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock’n’ Roll”).  Silly as it may sound it was quite the moving moment for me as I’ve been following the boys since 1974ish, and just four years later I got to see them live for the very first time (of the ten times that I’ve so far seen the band) with Bon at the old Winnipeg Arena. As Angus was playing his guitar that evening, and while riding on Bon’s shoulders, they both ran right under my nose as I was standing on the floor area of the old Arena!

To further honour Bon I brought along a small bottle of Scottish whiskey and poured a few drops on his mouth, raised the bottle and said, “Have a drink on me”!, in clear reference to another great old AC/DC’s song and with Brian Johnson on vocals.

Nice to also see that the statue/area hosts the yearly “Bonfest”.  A friend of mine has his name engraved on the commemorative plaque at Bon’s feet.  He, along with other diehard fans from around the world, raised the necessary funds (more than 50,000 £ from their own pockets) to get Bon’s “shrine” up and running.  So God bless Chris and his mates for having given us that stupendous statue!

When I saw Bon live at the old Winnipeg Arena with his old mates in 1978.

So here was a fully grown man of 66 years of age who was rather sad to have left Bon, someone who had also been to a great degree a very dear friend and who had always been there when times got tough (at least for me when I was a teeny-bopper) during the rather short time he had spent with AC/DC.

We bid adieu to Kirriemuir and drove to see other castles, starting with one called Glamis (it dates back to 1372).  Glamis had been the childhood home of HM Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, and also the birthplace of Princess Margaret, Elizabeth’s younger sister. The grounds are simply amazing, and ditto for the Italian garden.  A funny coincidence as the castle had inspired William Shakespeare’s play, “The Tragedy of Macbeth”, more commonly known to many as “Macbeth” (Macbeth had been a courageous Scottish general who had killed King Duncan).

I made friends with Andy, the local bagpipe player who was there to greet the many tourists who were visiting the castle.  I also told Andy just how much I LOVE bagpipe music!

On the road again (to paraphrase old Willie Nelson) after our Glamis tour and to the (very) small town of Dinnet. We stayed in their charming hotel for two nights as we weren’t too far from some other very interesting castles, including Balmoral (where Queen Elizabeth died), Kildrummy, Braemmar (where we also got to play chess on a large garden chessboard) and the Ballater Royal Station area. As far as Balmoral is concerned it was a pity as just a few days before they had closed it to the public. We did though manage to see one of the venues where the famous Scottish Highland Games take place.

In between our visits and (trying) to safely drive a car on the so-called “other side of the road” (some Highland roads were rather narrow, a tough thing to handle when in the one and only opposite lane a massive “Discovery” Range Rover about the size of a tank would be coming at you) we had a few delicious Scottish (beer) pit stops.

And so how do the Scots drive? I hardly saw anyone driving while talking on their cell phones and on their motorways, ditto for their city and country roads, they DON’T drive up to your rear bumper, as they do in Italy (it drives me NUTS when they do that), suggesting that you either speed up or get the hell out of the way. No, they keep at a certain distance from your car and they patiently wait for you to move out of the way. Admittedly, Italy’s highways though are perhaps better because we have to go through tollbooths and those costs go towards, we hope, the maintenance of our highways (I didn’t see any tollbooths while driving around Scotland).

At this point of our grand tour of Scotland as we were going to make our way to Perth (no, not the one in Australia) we kept on coming across truly wonderful Scots, always ready to give you a hand with information, including the local police who resolved a parking conundrum for me in Perth. I guess that when I’m travelling around Great Britain (we had been to Scotland about 30 years ago) many take me for an American. With a touch of pride I tell them that I was actually born in Canada and I seem to get even MORE respect, not only because it’s a Commonwealth country but many Scots emigrated to that other great country (on the outskirts of Winnipeg lies the town of Selkirk, named presumably in honour of a Scotsman by the name of Lord Selkirk, the founder of three colonies in Canada which had hosted Scottish farmers who had lost their lands back home).

Perth: a nice town but after 5 pm, do I dare say, a wee bit depressing because all the shops close for the day. It appeared to resemble a ghost town. This was because, as the locals explained to us, of online shopping that was slowly killing the traditional stores. Interesting our hotel room as it had hosted the likes of Rick Wakeman and Sir Bob Geldof.

The town which is on the river Tay has its interesting points, like its splendid park (where we also played chess on the picnic tables) and their free “Perth Museum and Art Gallery” which is also home to the historic “Stone Of Destiny”. It’s basically an ancient symbol of Scottish monarchy and kingdom and is 1,000 years old. This iconic artefact is still used today to crown king and queens of the United Kingdom, including the coronation of King Charles III in May, 2023 (his thrown was actually sitting on top of the Stone).

With that said, we took advantage one day of driving for about 6-7 hours around the area to visit a few more castles/sites, such as Drummond, Elcho and the very large and impressive Scone Palace where some live owls, peacocks and falcons were on display. Again, the folks running these places were exceptionally helpful and warm, things that one won’t easily forget!

Thursday, August 21^st brought us back to wonderful Edinburgh (and it was still hot!). We managed to hand in our rented car on time and had covered in nearly 7 days 468 miles, or 753 kms, and without a single scratch on the car. Trust me, it’s NOT an easy thing to do when you come from a country where they drive on the OTHER side of the road!

Truly AMAZING the gardeners in this castle!

King Charles III sat on this stone for his coronation ceremony.

And so who was born in Edinburgh's Royal Maternity Hospital? None other than the man himself who used to drive this great little Aston Martin in his early Bond movies, the late, great Sir Sean Connery!