DAY 1 OF RICK STEVE TOUR OF SCOTLAND

Day 1 of Tour of he Best of Scoland ...
Saturday ... Moving Day
Clear weather, cold but lots of bright sunshine.
Packed our things, had a good breakfast and made sandwiches for lunch to take with us.  By 9:15 am we were downstairs with our luggage and called the number we'd seen on a taxi yesterday.
Within 5 minutes we were on our way to the Queen Street Railroad Station in downtown Glasgow.  Since we'd had trouble with the ticket machines yesterday, we asked for and found the of site ticket sales with live clerks who you could talk with!  Purchased tickets for the 10:15 train and the train people put us on the platform early... Jim's cane wins again.
By 1 PM we were at the The Place Hotel in Downtown Edinburgh. Checked in and left the luggage. 
We had until 3 PM to explore the city.  We managed to visit both the nearby Scottish National Protrait Gallery and then the Scottish National Gallery where we enjoyed a special exhibit of the Best of Rembrandt. Museums are donation only entrance fees but we paid dearly for the special.  But, Jim said it was well worth the price as it was the largest display of Rembrandts work in one place that he'd ever seen. They had gathered his work from all over the world for this exhibit.
Walked back to the hotel and found we'd been assigned to a huge suite with two large beds and a view of the rooftops of Edinburgh all the way to the mountains with the Firth of Forth in the center...a large bay off  of the North Sea.
We later found that several of the tour members have large rooms like this. 
At 4 PM our tour group of 27 met to learn the rules, schedule and each others names. No name tags and we each chose another person  we didn't know as a buddy.
Instead of counting noses, a buddy check is called and we are each responsible to verify that our buddy is with the group.
We then went on a walking tour for about an hour through the local neighborhood to see the Georgian homes including the childhood home of the author  Robert Lewis Stevenson.
Soon we were at a beautiful restaurant called Harvey Nichols (since 1831) with a nighttime view of the city from the top floor location. 
Wonderful dinner as we continued to work on learning names.  A great first day.