What we loved and what we won't miss

Most of us agree that while our visit has been way over the top and in many instances, exceeded our expectations, there are some things we don't mind leaving behind.  For starters, single ply tissue and short flush toilets, along with low light bathrooms and duvets with no extra sheets! We also won't miss watery scrambled eggs, neeps, tattles and haggis, although we did try it all.  We won't miss instant coffees for breakfast.

We will miss our morning and afternoon tea and sweets nearly every day, bacon that is more like ham, many multi brown breads, our Walker Scottish shortbreads, and of course, our Guinness chocolate!

We won't miss getting on and off the bus multi times a day, getting up so early to put luggage outside our door, and packing and repacking to make it all fit.  We also wont miss the hit or miss

Internet connections or the free Internet that ran like molasses.  We did enjoy several great hotels with easy, free access to the Internet and we loved it. IPads, tablets, cell phones and net books fired up instantly.

We will miss the beautiful Scotland countryside, the wild, craggy seaside and the haunting mists of the Highlands. In Ireland, we will miss all the stone fences with sheep grazing on the farms, the brilliant yellow rape seed fields, the wild and beautiful County Donegal, all the castles and ruins way older than our entire country and the gorgeous eastern seaside areas of Dingle Peninsula  and the Ring of Kerry.

We leave the big cities with mixed feelings.  Edinburgh, while large for Scotland was quite navigable by foot traffic and traffic jams seemed far away. We felt comfortable in the ancient city.  Dublin and Belfast, on the other hand made us quite grateful for our skilled coach drivers as traffic was insane.

We are all wiser by far about much of the history of Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.  We will pay attention to future news items affecting these areas as we have been there, heard the stories and know much better the struggles that have lasted for hundreds of years. We have lists upon lists of queries for Google about places, people and events we want to know more about.  History came alive for us like never before, and now we look forward to learning even more about where we have been.