Off to Edinburgh

My dad had been in the country all of two weeks when we got a very panicked call from his brother of a suspected second stroke. James and I immediately booked tickets(Grant had already booked a camping holiday) to fly out early the next morning. The tickets were not easy to come by as it was the last weekend of the Edinburgh festival. It was certainly an answer to prayer that there were only two tickets left on the Saturday and two left returning on the Sunday. James and I arrived Saturday morning and caught buses straight to the hospital. My dad was in HDU(ICU), and looked weak but at least he was able to talk to us. This is the first time I had seen my dad since his first stroke. We stayed with him until visitors had to leave at 8pm, and then we caught a bus into Edinburgh to have dinner. The place was so busy due to the festival, and the streets filled with street artists. We had a bit of fun getting on wrong buses and having to get off and catch another.
James walking down Princes street.
A view of the castle. What a beautiful city.
The architecture is simply breathtaking.
On our way home that night we caught a bus that didn't quite go all the way to my Uncle's house. We both had our (heavy) bags for the weekend and it was dark and raining, and we really didn't know exactly where the house was. We walked a fair bit, and finally found our way due to a combination of the GPS on our phones, and phoning Grant who had been there before. What would we do without mobiles, and imagine being in this situation in SA. At least worrying about crime was the last thing on our minds. Of course my dad's brother thought we were mad not catching a taxi straight to the house, but to be honest the whole experience was quite an adventure.
We went back to the hospital the next day and spent the day with my dad. It was a very good trip to have made. We could see that my dad could definitely not stay with his brother. The house was not suited for a wheel chair. Ian is not capable of looking after my dad, and we knew that we had to look down the road of care homes, and were hoping to make plans for him to move into one that would be much closer to us so that we could see my dad on a weekly basis.