Truth is stranger than fiction.

When my Father was a boy of 12 living in the coal mining village of West Wemyss, the time came to decide his future.

As a bright lad he had been offered a 'bursary' for full tuition and room and board by Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. A highly unusual event for the son of a simple coal miner.

At the same time, while attending the local village school he had become friendly with the son of the 'Laird'. Once a week, the boys from his class would be walked over to the castle to play games like football with the Liard's son who was privately tutored before eventually going off to school in England.

Most of the other boys resented the Laird's son as you might imagine but for some reason my Father made friends with him and would sometimes go over to the castle on his own and they would play together.

Now it happened that the Groundskeeper of the castle gardens did not have any children as was getting on in age. Normally, the job would have been passed down to his son but without children that obviously wasn't going to happen.

So when it came time for my Father's future to be decided, the Laird called my Grandfather up to the castle and made him an offer. He would give my Father a job working under the Groundskeeper with the intent of his taking over as Groundskeeper in the future.

This too was unprecedented since there were of course various other employees working under the Groundskeeper. The Laird ws proposing to move my Father ahead of them eventually. This was the result of my Father's friendship with the Laird's son obviously.

The third possibility facing my Father was following his Father and Grandfather before him, into the mines as a miner.

The decision was not of course my Father's to make. It was up to his Father to decide. My Grandfather weighed the options and decided my Father would be going down the mine.

Why? You might ask and the answer was simple. The bursary paid nothing into the family income. As the eldest of 4 children, my Grandfather needed my Father to bring money into the house.

The job with the Groundskeeper paid sixpence less per week than the job in the mine could be expected to earn. And for want of that simple sixpence, my Father went to work in a coal mine.

It certainly makese me wonder what would have become of my Father and by extension myself, if the decision had been otherwise.

As it was, after serving in WW2, my Father returned home and after a few years left the mine and emmigrated with his family (including me age 7) to Canada.

Now for the final twist in the tale. Years later, when my Father died, I returned to Scotland with my Mother to scatter my Father's ashes.

Having done so we visited my Grandfather who was still alive and still living in the village where my Father had grown up. While there, I left my Mother and Grandfather and took a walk on my own.

I walked up the road and eventually found myself standing in front of the gates leading into the castle grounds. As I stood there, a car came along and I moved out of the way. The window went down and an older gentleman asked if I needed directions. I replied no, I was just visiting from Canada and seeing the sights I knew only from stories my Father had told me.

Long story short, I told my story and the man was the son of the Laird, now the Laird himself, who my Father had befriended all those years ago. He invited me to take 'tea' with him and his wife and wanted to know how my Father had got on in Canada etc.

During my visit, I told him my Father had told me of their going into the dungeon as a 'dare' and being afraid they would see the ghost of the green lady there.

So he took me to see the dungeon which I found quite interesting. Neither he and my Father or he and I saw the qhost.

When I returned and told my Mother and Grandfather where I had been all afternoon, my Grandfather had a tear in his eye and said, 'I should not have coveted that sixpence, my Son would have stayed here with me if I had not.'

Perhaps, but where would I have ended up? A simple fork in the road and all the future changes.

A great yarn from Travelinstyle46, author of 3271 posts on the THorntree (Lonely Planet) forum.

(Google is your friend, they say.)

Thanks St Cirq :). Added to my to visit list.

That is only one of my many previous handles on that forum Peter. As well as various other handles on various other forums. I fail to see what is noteworthy about that. Do you only post on one forum? Or find some meaning in someone posting on more than one?

Edinburgh castle isn't listed? I have done Blarney and many ones in ruins, they are my favorite ones.I did one in the Dolomites and it was very good. We had orbs on all our pics. The torture room was crazy. I will try and find info on it. We took a tour with a military R&R group so not sure if it is open to the public. It is still home to a family.

Darn Improvisor I was going to list Sleeping Beauty Castle.

True story re Disneyland Scootoir. Not the castle but Disneyland's Matterhorn mountain.
http://www.google.ca/search?q=disney...iw=786&bih=645

On a visit to Switzerland, I was sittting in a bar in a hotel in Zermatt. A feature of the bar was a big picture window with a view of the real Matterhorn.

A woman sitting at the bar asked the bartender, 'what time will the lights go on?' The bartender looked at her in bemusement. She was of course expecting the mountain to be lit up with coloured lights as the 'Matterhorn' in Disneyland is. Obviously, she was not the brightest light in the world herself.

Only nine from the Fodor's list but my favorite was the castle we stayed in for a week in Sommersdorf, Germany. From the window we watched a German shepherd (2-legged) with his German shepherds (4-legged) shepherding, watched draining of the carp pond, visited the castle catacombs with the current baron and walked to Winkel - a great time!