We flew from London to Toronto today. We were told that we would have to clear both Canadian and US customs and board the plane in about an hour and 15 minutes. We rushed through to the Canadian Customs only to find out we were misled. We moved onto US Customs where the line was pretty slow.

Despite our challenges, we made it to our second plane without any trouble. I even had a bit of time to pick up a bottle of scotch from the duty free in Toronto.

We are in a newish Air Canada Airbus with a touch screen TV, emPower, and a USB port to recharge. The TV provides on-demand programming (movies and TV) and games. The power doesn't require an inverter as it boasts a standard plug.

When we got back to London, we were trying to decide where to go. The Eye? The Science Museum? We decided on the Tower of London.

The Tower is very touristy. The place was packed even during an afternoon over the week. The Tower has been well restored with additional sections being restored while we were there.

The Tower boasts great views of the Thames and the surrounding country. I do think that much of the Tower's displays are too modern. I found myself a little off put by the chrome pipes moving down to plexiglass panels with information about 16th century fabrics or tiles dropping from the ceilings. Projecting video onto Tudor walls was strange. The information was quite interesting but offered in ways that contrasted too heavily with the structure itself.

My faith in Grayline Tours was re-kindled today. We took a coach tour to Loch Ness, then up to Inverness and back. Thank you Graham. Photos are being flickred right now. I warn you, I am uploading more than 300 right now.

It was an early start to the day. We headed over to a local hotel where our pickup was supposed to happen. There was some kind of accident on the motor way causing our ride to not turn up. We caught a taxi to a second pickup point where our journey began.

The lowlands in Scotland are gentle rolling hills with many sheep, cattle, and fields of crops. Quite idyllic. When you start coming up into the highlands, the land changes entirely. It becomes quite harsh and very hilly/rocky making farming impossible. We saw lots of farm animals, but no crops until the land became so treacherous to make it impossible for animals to be bred either.

We arrived in Wycombe by train yesterday. My Aunt and Uncle put together a little barbeque of chicken, pork chops, and sausages. We had green beans and potatos from the garden. We also had lettuce and tomatos that came from the garden too. It was a very nice meal.

After eating we got dressed for the theatre. Every year my uncle and aunt attend the local theatre's children's production at the Wycombe Swan. In this case it was the last night of Kiss Me Kate. The performers are between the ages of 8-18 and I must say were quite good for such a young cast. It seemed like there may have been over one hundred in the cast. I was please, because it gave a young group the chance to work with a proper orchestra in the pit.

Cambridge was a whirl wind tour. We arrived in early afternoon and had a lovely lunch with my Aunt and Uncle at their house. It was a terrific sunny day--we've had great luck with the weather so far--so we ate outside in the back garden. After we finished up our lunch, we took a taxi into the downtown--there is very little parking downtown--where we wandered about town. We saw parts of Queens College Cambridge with wonderful Tudor architecture. Once again, I marvel at how something built so very long ago is still being used.

We took a peek down the river Cam and continued down to Kings College Cambridge, where my father was a chorister. Kings has the most amazing chapel with amazing vaulted ceilings. There are buttresses on the outside that allow a "curtain" of stained glass inside the building. The Chapel has an amazing screen between sections of the building.