I brought my mother and then 10 year old daughter who is now married to someone from Europe who is a lawyer there. However, this was her and my first trip to Europe. We especially liked places like Edinburgh Castle (which is the model for Hogwarts of Harry Potter Fame too) and we liked Aviemore in the Cairngorm mountains and seeing the reindeer which ran free in the Cairngorm mountains then too then in 1999. we Rented a car in Edinburgh at the Airport there after landing and Heathrow Airport in London and the Edinburgh Airport in Edinburgh. The biggest problem I faced was jet lag combined with trying to drive on the left side of the road and shifting gears with my left hand and seeing a rear view mirror to my left instead of to my right. I finally realized to keep myself and my mother and 10 year old daughter alive I needed to leave the Edinburgh and Glasgow area and head north to Aviemore where there were less people and almost no roundabouts (which go in the opposite direction of roundabouts in the U.S. and Europe by the way.
This was a life saving decision on my part. So, we loaded up our rental car and headed north. We found an amazing town called Pitlochry which is a very historic town off the main freeway on our way to Aviemore where we stayed awhile exploring the Cairngorm mountains there. This was before the built the Funicular railway was built. But, my daughter and I took a chair lift up used by skiers in the winter as high as we could get on a ski lift then in the Fall of 1999.
Then we went to Munich, Germany where I rented a Fiat Diesel 6 passenger Camper Van which we drove in as far as Northern Italy through Germany (starting in Munich) through Austria and Switzerland to northern Italy in Aosta where my son and his friend from college who were traveling for a few months on a Eurail Pass then through Europe joined us in Munich with the Motor home and stayed with us until we reached Aosta, Italy.
Then my mother and I and my daughter flew back to London where we rented another car and drove to Glastonbury where King Arthur and Guinnevere are buried it is said.
This was a really amazing experience and as soon as I got within 10 to 20 miles of Glastonbury I experienced what I call the Saint Germain "Clear Energy" Consciousness which is a very clear and concise way of thinking much like reading the Shakespearean plays for the first time, especially.
Then we returned to California and my mother passed away in 2008. Then my younger daughter and older daughter and my wife and I went to Paris, then Nice, then Monaco and Monte Carlo in 2009. This was an amazing experience on many different levels.
Then in 2011 we returned to England and Scotland with our two daughters and one of our daughter's boyfriends then in 2011 and rented a car in London and drove to Glastonbury and various other locations and then dropped the Mercedes station wagon off at Bristol, England and rode the Train north to Edinburgh, Scotland. Then we rented another Mercedes and drove that north to Inverness and Aberdeen, Scotland where an English Friend of my wife's was married to a doctor and we all stayed a few days with them in Aberdeen, Scotland before we returned to Edinburgh and my oldest daughter and her boyfriend stayed in the Lake District nearer to London and my younger daughter and my wife and I returned to California.
So, 2011 was the last time we were in Europe (except for our daughters on their own without us ever since 2011.
This time we flew to North Carolina for a wedding and since I'm 77 I realized it might be possible for me to fly to Europe if we went business class which gives you sort of a bed to sleep on in Business Class which worked quite well for me and my wife this time.
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