Thursday - Getting our bearings

We arrived in Glasgow to wonderful weather with blue skies and mid-60s.  After easily navigating customs and getting our rental car we headed through 4  roundabouts to get to the M 80. It's a logistical feat when you haven't had any sleep and you're learning to drive on the wrong side of the road with manual transmission . But Paul did a great job.

We headed over to Aberdour where our hotel is. the Forth View Hotel hotel is magnificent. It's an old Tudor house at the bottom of a cliff right on the ocean. The final 200 foot drive to the hotel is a little sketchy. Its straight down with no guardrail on the side. Our room is a corner room with three windows looking out on both sides of the Firth of Forth. (A firth is similar to a long bay.) We can see Edinburgh, King Arthurs Seat,  Inchcolm Island with an 11th century monastery on it, and lots of sea birds. 

After unpacking we sat down to have scones with clotted cream and lattes out on the front lawn just watching the ocean. then we headed to Kirkcaldy to investigate the museum and Archives and get our bearings. .

For a small industrial town Kirkcaldy has a beautiful library and archives that has just been remodeled in the last two years. The museum was fascinating to look at because I could see evidence of the industries that my ancestors were engaged in.  Peter Millar was a flax dresser in the mid 18 hundred's. Sometimes he worked in the Mills in Kirkcaldy and sometimes in Abbotshall. 

The archives had several resources that I want to go back and take advantage of for researching. There was another couple there from Washington DC who had just arrived to do the same thing.

Before too long we started to get pretty tired, so we asked for a recommendation and we got into a great little pub on Kirk Wynd. It was curry night, so we each ordered curry and a brew.  Afterwards, we walked around town a little bit, looking for the address where Isabella Millar Ferguson had her millinery shop. We found the address, but the building has been torn down. But we were able to see the buildings right adjacent to that one that would have been the kind of building she was living and working in.

We wanted to buy some whisky, so we asked some teenagers where we could buy some. They were able to direct us to the local grocery store.

Then we headed back to the hotel where we sat outside and just watched the beautiful evening descend. Good weather really was spectacular all day long. Finally, we went up to our room poured a dram of Jura 'Origin',  enjoyed it together and went to bed before 10, while it was still light out.