Edinburgh may be one of the biggest cities in the United Kingdom, but if you want to walk it, most of what you want to see is along the Royal Mile, the main thoroughfare of the old town.  It's where you find charming shops with kilts and cashmere scarves, an inclining cobblestone street that goes uphill towards Edinburgh Castle and, yes, every other tourist who makes their way to the capital city. But, if you can't imagine a trip to Scotland without seeing a man in a kilt, there is an excellent chance that this is where you'll find them.  This artist could not have found a better location to sell his works.
 
I spent a lot of time on the Royal Mile learning about tartans.  You can explore a museum, see how they are made, learn a whole lot about them and certainly buy  lot of samples.  In the United States, we might refer to the fabric as plaid but that doesn't mean the same thing in Scotland.  Your kilt is a tartan.  Your plaid is a kilt accessory that you might sling over your shoulder or use as a bedspread.  So, technically, I searched for a plaid or a scarf but not a kilt.   However, I was picky.  I didn't care what my plaid looked like.  I wanted my plaid to be from one, and only one, of the Scottish clans, the Martins.  There were magnets and key chains available.  Yes, I  purchased them, but I really wanted the fabric.
 
In every store I searched, clerks readily agreed there was a Martin clan.  Alas, nobody had any of the fabric.  Upon research, the closest clans affiliated with the Martins were the Camerons and the MacDonalds.  I didn't go all the way to Scotland to get anything from MacDonalds, no matter how they spelled it.

Across the valley from the Royal Mile and Edinburgh Castle was Princes Street.  Tucked away in a charming little bookstore, I found the traveler's guide 1,000 Places to See Before You Die.  And, right across the street from the bookstore was one of the thousand destinations, the Balmoral Hotel.  Not only was it grand and luxurious, but J.K. Rowling allegedly holed up there to write part of the Harry Potter series.

As interesting as all of this is, none of it is where I tell anyone to go to first when they visit Edinburgh, Scotland.  If you want my favorite spot in the city, stroll on down Princes Street until you get to 120.  This gets my vote as the most beautiful Starbucks in the whole world.  (Number two is in Cusco, Peru)  This caffeine café is in a beautiful art deco building that overlooks the Princes Gardens and the Edinburgh Castle through beveled glass windows.  There's no finer view in all of Scotland with or without caffeine.

There were three things I wanted to see in Scotland - men in kilts, lots of people with red hair, and the Loch Ness Monster.  If you must have a try at spotting Nessie, I strongly suggest that you don't make it a day trip from Edinburgh.  It's a very, very long journey.  Of course, you know what I did.  Along the way, I spied this rugged, red-head at Loch Ness.  However, after all those miles . . . er, kilometers, there was no sign of a kilt or Nessie.
 
Tours are not for me.  I don’t like them.  I hate time limitations when I travel.  However, when you have distances to go, limited time, and no knowledge of the place, they make a good option.  And, it must be said, the guide was the highlight of my trip.  Graham was an opinionated Scotsman, never missing a beat to blast the English, the British government, and any clansmen who were opposed to the Gordons.  He especially didn’t like the MacDonalds or the Camerons, so that probably included a dear old clan with historic association to them, the Martins. 

It was an all day journey to get to Loch Ness.  Upon arrival, I had five minutes to get to the boat, an hour cruise on the lake, and five minutes back to the boat.  I couldn’t be sure what the thirty people did who didn’t ride the boat.  There wasn’t much to do in the village.  And, I didn’t understand why anyone would travel so long and far only to opt out of a boat tour of the lake. 

Tales of Nessie go back to the 6th century to an Irish monk, Saint Columba. Perhaps he was the first person to visit the area who could read and write. He was the first to document that water beasts lived in the area. Little did he or anyone else ever dream of the tourist industry that would eventually develop around Loch Ness.

Modern interest sparked up in 1933 when newspaper stories and grainy photographs testified to the existence of a monster lurking in the loch. Monster or not, it didn't stop people from building some settlements and Urquhart Castle where the shores permitted. It isn't possible to walk the circumference of the loch because much of it doesn't have shoreline. And, you can't see very far below the surface. Peat runoff from the area makes the water very dark. I read that you can drink the water but it also has a "peaty" taste so it is best to mix it 50/50 with whiskey.  Maybe that's just an excuse?  Or, maybe it is easier to see Nessie after a wee bit of those whiskies?  After you have a few drinks, you may believe in the Loch Ness Monster, too.

If you are from Ohio, you know there is that state that must not be named to the north.  Okay, they aren't as bad as Voldemort, but we certainly make fun of them.  And, it's wonderful when Ohio State beats any football team from there.
 
As it turns out, other parts of the world have the same little rivalries.  As I prepared to move to Belgium, my Dutch friends warned me about their peculiar behavior.  And, when I landed in Antwerp, I learned that Belgians make fun of their neighbors to the north as well.  And, everyone agrees that the strangest people of all tend to end up in Amsterdam.
 
This young man sat at a train station in Amsterdam.  Not only did he have a unique fashion statement, he sat in front of a portrait of Vincent van Gogh, also known for unique ear fashion.

Van Gogh is my favorite artist.  Although he was born in the Netherlands, my best experience with him was in Arles, France. Vincent painted several pieces during his stay in Arles in 1888, and the people of Arles knew how to show it off.  There was a yellow path around the city to see the exact scenes where the master painted.  And, I have to say, it was so very cool to stand in some of the very locations where Vincent Van Gogh once stood.

I thought I knew most of Vincent's paintings.  However, I only recognized two paintings from his time in Arles.  The Yellow House, where Van Gogh shared a dwelling with Gauguin for nine weeks, was seriously damaged in bombing raids in World War II and later demolished.  However, at the intersection, there was a placard that described the building and showed a photo of the painting.

I arranged my tour accordingly to visit the Place du Forum, a small plaza area right in the center of Arles, at the end of my trek.  It was the location of the Café Terrace at Night, a painting I had known and loved for years.  I planned to have lunch there, and I didn't care how much it would cost.  Sometimes, you just have to enjoy the experience (and take oh, so many photos!)  However, I learned something about France upon arrival.  Cafés served lunch from noon until 1:30 in the afternoon.  After that, you can only get drinks.  So, I had a coffee at the café, multiple times, took lots of photos, and savored the moment. 
 
I definitely saved the best till last.  

You know what to do when in Rome.  And, when in Paris, you go to the Louvre.  But, be forewarned.  The museum is huge, very huge.  Chances are pretty good you won't see all 35,000 objects of art the Louvre has to offer.  If you spent 60 seconds viewing each object, for eight hours a day, it would take seventy-five days to see everything.  Not many people get to stay in Paris that long.
 
My advice is to plan your trip.  Yes, you must see Winged Victory and Venus de Milo.  And even though signs clearly say no flash photography, you possibly should fight the hordes of flashing tourists struggling to snap a picture of a very disappointing Mona Lisa.  (It's so small!)  But, after that, pick out a part of history you most enjoy, and find a quieter spot in the museum.
 
I head for Ancient Mesopotamia.
 
My favorite object in the museum is the stele of Hammurabi, which dates back to around 1754 BC.  The basalt stele, about seven feet tall and shaped like a finger, contains 282 laws that Hammurabi used to rule one of the earliest civilizations.  Not many other people wander into this corner of the museum.  I had all the quiet time I wanted to photograph and silently enjoy this piece of history.  And, it really wasn't just ancient history for me.  Good old King Hammurabi unknowingly changed my life.
 
I once took an online university class about using the internet in the classroom.  It was in 1998 when hardly anyone really had access.  The final assignment was to create a website.  So, I made a lesson for teachers with one of my favorite classroom activities.  You Be the Judge of Hammurabi's Code allowed kids to interact and write on table tops with whiteboard markers.  It had a bunch of my cartoons and was a hit as soon as I posted the lesson online.  And, when the lesson was entered into a contest for web lessons created by teachers, I won the grand prize in that little event sponsored by Microsoft.  I won a laptop back in the days when nobody had laptops.
 
Anyway, once my art was out on the web and seen, it lead to my clip art site which has made me the most non-famous world famous artist on the planet.  For example, my art has been spotted on T-shirts in a Manila mall.  I've been told it decorates learning tools in a Cambodian orphanage.  And, one of my friends in Moldova said he learned English from books with my art.  Just in case you are curious, nobody had my permission for any of this and I didn't earn a penny.

Because of my clip art site, I hear from teachers all over the world who use my art in their classrooms.  And, one email I received from Namibia changed my life.  A woman there wanted to use my art to decorate a day care for AIDS orphans.  Did she have my permission?  I said, "Yes, but I had to come help!"  So, I painted my first mural.  I knew right away that it was the first project but it wouldn't be the last one.  I just had no idea how many more murals would follow and how far around the planet it would take me.
 
So, anyway, you can see why Hammurabi and his stele hold a special place in my life.  I never asked this other photographer in the Louvre why he also wanted to photograph this piece of history.  Perhaps he had a story to rival mine?  I don't think so.  But, I must say, never in my life have I ever taken a photo looking so stylish.