What would Queen Victoria have made of this -   she might have recognised the Victorian letter box and travelled across the Forth Rail Bridge on her way to Balmoral in the later years of her reign.   She would not have imagined that there would be huge ships without sails and capable of carrying 2000 passengers like the Zuiderdam which is just visible moored near the Forth Bridge.    She would have been surprised that a huge road bridge had replaced the ferry boats which crossed here from South Queensferry to North Queensferry until 1964.  It would have been totally beyond her imagination to realise that the volume of road traffic was such that a new bridge was being built to supplement the Forth Road Bridge.
What a pity that the weather was so cold and misty and deteriorated further so that we had to curtail our journey to show our young American guests some of Scotland’s sights.  There was no pleasure in walking around the quaint old streets or visiting any castles and palaces (extra) as planned in the pouring rain.  Tomorrow the forecast is poor so the plans are for places which offer cover if necessary but I’m sure that our visitors will still enjoy the sights of Edinburgh.