The book is currently available from the iTunes Store and iBooks for reading on an Apple device! The Kindle version is in the works. Stay tuned!

Scotland at the speed of life at itunes.apple.com

Read a sample or download Scotland at the speed of life by Cynthia Fletcher Rothstein with iBooks.

Here’s a sample page:

The weather in Scotland was typically overcast all day as we toured the Borderlands. As we drove up the hill to the border with England, we could see sunshine. But then massive clouds began to roll in sweeping across the hills and at times enveloping them. I had never seen such fast-moving clouds; it was as if the DVD player was on fast-forward. Bursts of brilliant blue sky alternated with thick, white clouds that hovered practically in front of our faces. Such a dramatic end to our amazing Scottish adventure.

What do you do when you need to transport boats from one canal to another and there’s a difference of 80 feet in altitude? Create a wheel that can move eight standard-sized boats from one level to the other – four going down and four going up – at the same time. Genius!

Sometimes seeing a cathedral in ruins is the best way to get a perspective of its enormity. Get a load of the height of those walls and the diameter of the pillars!

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The flat we are renting in Edinburgh is in New Town on Scotland Street. I was thrilled to discover after we arrived that Alexander McCall Smith has written a series of books called 44 Scotland Street. You may know McCall Smith as the author of the delightful book series about the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, which takes place in Botswana. Although McCall Smith was born and raised in Africa, he is a Scot and lives in Edinburgh. He wrote the 44 Scotland Street books originally as a daily serial for The Scotsman, an Edinburgh newspaper. They were so popular, he turned them into a series of novels. The characters are very quirky and engaging, and I’m loving reading about the neighborhood we’re walking through daily. What a bonus for a tour of the UK that is based on British literature! By the way, #44 does not really exist.

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We love how the architect incorporated the old building into the new.

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A view of New Town descending down to Leith, Edinburgh’s port, the Firth of Forth, and the Kingdom of Fife beyond the Firth. (Note: A firth is an estuary. This is the estuary where the Forth River meets the North Sea.)

Again, the National Monument, the Greek-style columns on the right, looks two-dimensional even in real life. We walked right up to the foot of the monument, and it still looked like it was cut out of cardboard. Maybe it’s the light….

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Do these photos look like a model train set to you? They were taken from Calton Hill, a brilliant vantage point for views not only of Old Town on one side, but also of New Town and the Firth of Forth on the other side. We were amazed at how unreal the scenery looked from the hill, but it looks even more so in the photos.

Holyrood Palace and its environs (above), nestled in the valley, look like they’re pasted onto a cardboard cutout of Arthur’s Seat and the Salisbury Crags beyond.

And where did those hills come from? One minute you’re deep in the heart of Edinburgh with nothing but old buildings and chimney stacks on the horizon, and then you climb this hill and suddenly Arthur’s Seat pops up behind the city reminding you that Scotland is not all stone and mortar.

Below: What looks like Edinburgh-in-miniature is actually life-size buildings in Old Town Edinburgh.
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