We have arrived in Edinburgh!

Monday was the beginning of the new chapter of our new lives. We hugged Claude and Monique good-bye and loaded our lives onto a train from Tours, France to Paris. This is what a life in transit looks like: This was not an easy haul. But this was our view as we sped across the French countryside on the TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse or "high-speed train").I was so excited, I could barely stand it!
     Charles de Gaulle airport was not nearly as bad as its reputation (although they do need more elevators in the train station), and we made it to our terminal in plenty of time. We watched the crowd subtly change from French to Scottish. There are differences in bone structure, stance, dress, and expressions. The Scottish people are amazingly friendly and just tend to smile more than any other people I've ever met! We climbed aboard our EasyJet plane and an hour and a half later, we landed in Scotland. Again, I was so excited, the customs official was laughing at/with me. I couldn't stop smiling! Here's the lovely welcome at baggage claim:
So happy...
A quick taxi ride later through the town that has blossomed in this warmer weather with outdoor seating everywhere, and we arrived at our hotel in Simpson Loan. We paid our taxi cab driver who dropped us at the curb. And here was more proof of how nice people here are... Stan was about to go hunt down a caddy for our luggage while I waited with our bags at the curb. The taxi driver got out of his car and said, "Oh gads, this will take two minutes." And he helped us get our luggage to the hotel entrance (a bit away from the curb and after we'd already paid him). How nice!
     We settled into our hotel room and then headed to what, we hope, will be one of our more well used local pubs, Lister Square. What a welcome! The bartender is an expert in Scotch. A live musician played some of our favorite songs. And this is what bar fare looks like in Edinburgh:Stan had the salmon.

And I had the haddock and risotto.
It really is amazing how good the food here is - it's on a completely different level than anywhere else I've ever lived. YUM!!! AND, Stan and I were able to clink our glasses in victory for having finally made it to Edinburgh! Now we start apartment hunting. Wish us luck!