Out of Lurkdom with Vacation Stories

[Marsha]

I usually don't post because I belong to so many HP groups and get 
so much enjoyment out of just reading the posts, but I wanted to 
share my vacation story with everyone.

First of all, I attended Nimbus with my daughter and her husband-
lots of fun, well organized, etc...and we did the Disney World thing 
while there.  A week after I got back, a friend and a took a 
combined professional/leisure trip to Scotland (15 days)-stayed in 
the Freshman dorms at the University of Edinburgh, and bussed around 
the city and also toured the entire country on the weekends.  The 
Fringe Festival was happening while in Edinburgh, which is the 
largest cultural arts festival in the world.  Here's a partial list 
of things I saw and questions that were answered for me.
Sights seen: The now Chinese Buffet that was the coffee shop where 
Rowling wrote HP, the bookstore a block down the street where I 
purchased all five books, Glencoe, where they just wrapped up 
filming, the Glenfinnan viaduct from the Chamber of Secrets movie, 
and Glen Nevis, where they filmed the Quidditch scenes.  Beautiful 
country.  Questions answered: Breakfast.  I have never seen so much 
cold toast in my life.  Racks of it.  I'm taking my film in today to 
be developed and put on disc, so if any of it turns out, I'll upload 
some of the prints-I took pictures of a man made up as a ghost 
sitting on a toilet outside a castle in downtown Edinburgh, a sign 
at Glenfinnan that said Harry Potter film location, and of course, 
the scenery.  The Chinese Restaurant/ex-coffee shop now sits atop 
Black's coffee and tea shop.  Quite an experience.  Oh, and the 
professional purpose of my trip was to tour the mental health 
facilities, so I saw the psychiatric hospitals in Edinburgh, which 
was also interesting from an HP perspective.