Twenty-seven brave souls departed Atlanta on March 16 for Kitzbuhel, Austria. We had a great trip over to Frankfurt, Germany. We had a transfer there that was wild (thanks to a screwy airport design). From there 25 CSC members departed, leaving two that were late to the plane. We arrived in Munich to meet our guide, Max. The other two joined us that evening after a pleasant train ride. We enjoyed a great hotel with fabulous food. We had fun that week either by skiing or doing side trips. The skiing was a little slushy due to warm conditions, but was still enjoyable. The side trips included going to an animal farm where the deer and other farm animals came up to you. We were there for a feeding of all of the animals. There was a pecking order too for who ate first. We also took sleigh rides, a trip to Zell Am See, a trip to Salzburg, and Swarovski world with a visit to a mountain restaurant where we made homemade apple strudel (same place Ina took us several years ago). We returned by way of Innsbruck by train.

Seven days later we departed for Munich to fly again by way of Frankfurt to arrive in Edinburgh. Another interesting connection – you would just have to be there to have had all the fun. We arrived in Edinburgh and met our guide, Joe Harrower. He was our guide three years ago. We enjoyed Edinburgh Castle, city tour, and spending the night in our five star hotel, The George. The next day we continued to St. Andrews, then to a city tour and night at Aberdeen. We also had a distillery tour, three nights in Inverness, a Culloden Battlefield tour, and a mountainside walk up to see the reindeer (some of us did not attempt the climb). We had the pleasure of going to a second distillery and continued up the scenic coast, going to the farthest point in Scotland. Some of us even walked on the beach there and waded in the 35-40 degree waters. The following day we headed toward Fort William and enjoyed a cruise of Loch Ness and had a live Clansman dress out show (featuring Janet Brooks and Buddy Jones). The following day we headed to Glasgow with stops on the way and had a scenic tour of the city. We had our spectacular final night dinner at the Corinthian Club and enjoyed a good night’s sleep (oh did I mention we departed at 3:30AM?). Our group departed again for Frankfurt for a transfer for Atlanta. And yes, we had a lot of issues again in Frankfurt due to plane trouble. We basically ran to the plane which should have already left. but when we arrived at the gate,we then had to stand on a transfer bus for 90 minutes. We will not transfer through Frankfurt again. Our fearless group arrived back in the states, and thank goodness, I am happy to report we had no injuries on the trip.