[By Sara]

We arrived safely after a couple of relatively unnoteworthy flights. We did encounter perhaps the only TSA agent with a sense of humour.

Sid has shown remarkable progress in his conversion to the carryon-only lifestyle. He managed to pack all of his items into one large and one small but rather heavy pack. I only had to pack two of his sweaters in my pack, and he ended up with the sneakers I nearly forgot, so I guess we're about even. If he hadn't insisted on bringing two cameras (in addition to my one) he might have even come out ahead. For my part, I figure I've earned bragging rights for packing my "wedding gown" into a carryon bag. In the end, each of our bags weighed about 18 pounds, except for my purse of course, which was considerably lighter.

We arrived in Edinburgh rather tired having had fitful sleep on the plane and we had to wait a bit for a taxi as it was Christmas morning. Thankfully, our hotel kindly let us check in early so that we were able to shower, nap, and eat.

By evening, we were ready to venture out and found our Christmas dinner at the only open restaurant we found not attached to a hotel: Rendezvous Peking Cuisine. The place was festive, offering a holiday feast complete with paper crowns. We opted out of the feast, but had a nice dinner and left with a 2007 bamboo calendar.