Scotch Whisky a Go Go: Part, the Fourth

We encounter no more angels; we start planning ahead; we play castle keep.

Funny how insomnia can follow someone not only through a lifetime, but from one country to another. After a restless night and a substantial breakfast, I spend over an hour helping the B&B's owner figure out how to attach photographs to email, among other computer problems she has endured. I learn much about her, including the fact that she was once a cook aboard a merchant ship. An old man eating breakfast says his wife travels all the time, and she hates flying to/through the United States because her airport experience has included "being locked up in waiting rooms with armed guards." He seems not to believe me when I tell him I've never experienced anything like that. He also says that he's never really known his mother, who'd apparently abandoned him before settling in Phoenix after spending many years in Alaska.

Wanderings today include a visit to the Scottish Museum, which offers displays on the country's "geologic and societal evolution." The guillotine is especially interesting, though much smaller than I would have thought. I also wander, mostly by accident, into an old friars' graveyard in Old Town. Edinburgh is full of graveyards that are parts of the city rather than separated from it, something I've seen in places like Boston, MA, and Hartford, CT. Stepping through these cemeteries and touching the headstones reminds you of the impermanence of things, of people.

At some point in the afternoon I recognize that the previous night's restlessness was caused by mental preparation/ planning for the return to London, where I will spend one night before heading down to Dover. I have 2 nights in London for which I have no lodging reserved, so I'll have to take care of that as soon as I can.

I visit the castle today and am a bit disillusioned by the Disneyland-like quality of it all. I'm not sure of what I expected; perhaps I am more suited to castle ruins.