The Dogs Head to Edinburgh!

The 2nd GO Festival attended by The Olde Barking Dogs was 2008 in Edinburgh, Scotland. This was to be my first overseas Festival, and the first time I had been out of the States (not including Mexico for a day in 2005) since I was in Germany in 1978 and 1979 while in the service. The first item I needed to take care of was a passport! Once that was taken care of flights to and from needed to be booked. I find it interesting now that my round trip to Sydney this year was actually cheaper than my tickets to Scotland in 2008! Crazy.

Myself and three fellow Dogs met up in Mason City, then drove to Minneapolis, MN to catch our first flight.

Our second leg was from New Jersey to Edinburgh. Our flight was delayed for an hour and a half, so, we just sat and watched the world go by.

We arrived in Scotland on the Friday before the festival began to give us a couple of extra days to sight see and get familiar with our surroundings. Our Hotel, The Clarendon was right on the main drag in downtown Edinburgh, so close to many pubs and restaurants. Our accommodations were a little less "posh" than the Star City in Sydney to say the least, but we made the best of it.



Several more of our team mates arrived in the next day or so, and we met up on Sunday night to have a few beers and watch the Annual fireworks at Edinburgh Castle. They said almost 300,000 people were there to watch the festivities that night. I can actually believe that number. The city was packed!

The opening ceremony at the Castle was a great way to kick the week off. We marched through Old Town to an area park for three hours of food, drink, and music. Our week started off great!

The following day, Monday was our first match day. the Dogs recorded one injury. Jeff Lubbert, a former River City player who now lived in Colorado with his wife Diane, pulled his Achilles tendon in the 3rd half, and was relegated to crutches for the rest of the week. I was able to accomplish one thing in our sport that had always eluded me in my active playing days, I scored my first try!

The party tent at the Festival grounds was a great way to mingle, trade, eat, and drink after our matches all week. My best friend Bill and his daughter Megan are shown in this pic with me after one of our matches.

On Thursday, we were taken to Mussleburg racetrack for our mid-week picnic. I think I added about 30 new pins to my collection that afternoon. When we returned, the Dogs met up for our scheduled pub crawl. It was rumored that there were 32 pubs on Rose Street that needed to be stopped at to make it an "official" pub crawl. Well, strong ales, and old age only allowed us to visit perhaps 12-15, but we gave it the old USA try!

Friday was our last match day, and also the evening of our team dinner. The Dogs gathered at La Piazza, a Italian eatery a short distance from our Hotel. Excellent wine and food was shared by all during the two hour time period we were there. Afterwards, we gathered at our Hotel for our team "Kangaroo Court" to hand out awards for the week, and to share memories of our time in Edinburgh.

*** For some reason I can't download any photos. Sooooo, since I promised to get this posted, let's call this Part #1 for Edinburgh. I will complete this post when I can figure out the photo loading issues!***

END PART #1 For Edinburgh 2008