There are some links scattered around this essay. However, pictures from Debbie's visit are presented much more nicely, with thumbnails, over here.
Debbie arrived in London on 29 December, 1997, so I ventured forth to retrieve her from the airport. Heathrow, by the way, is one messed up institution. I'm not sure what it's like for the traveller, because I was shepherded through there when I arrived with the Marshalls, but it's quite annoying to pick someone up. There's no access to the gates, so hundreds of people gather in the meeting point (sounds like a really dodgy club, no?) to greet friends/family/whatever. Of course, no one bothers to indicate which flight the current crop of arrivals had been on, so the only thing to go by is the arrival time. Which is only vaguely relevant to 'appearance time'. Anyway, we found each other.
We jumped on the tube, dropped some things off at London House, where a friend had donated her room, and I immediately rushed her off to the British Museum. We saw the Elgin Marbles and I posed by some art. After a few hours piddling around the British Museum we hopped on the train to Edinburgh.
That first day in Edinburgh was probably the one day both of us were healthy. The weather turned atrocious and Debbie promptly got sick. And then, a few days later, I did. Go figure. Sick or not, we had lots of fun. I had agreed to throw a New Year's party, and although some of the people who had promised attendance didn't make it and some of the people who made it are still utter strangers, it was a good time. And there was lots of food and bevy :-). Afterwards we wandered around the Hogmanay street party and saw the fireworks.
We also got lots of culture. Because the weather was icky we didn't do too much walking around (although I think Debbie would have preferred to have taken a few more taxis than we did). We went to the cinema and saw LA Confidential, Regeneration, and Chasing Amy. We experienced a great production called the Bloody Chamber, which was staged below the city chambers in the relics of a haunted apartment complex dating to the time of the plague. One night during Hanukkah we dressed up and went to the opera to see Tosca. Another night we saw Grease in Edinburgh Playhouse. It's always strange seeing British actors performing US musicals. It must be a similar experience when a Brit watches an American trying to do Shakespeare.
Of course, we also went to Edinburgh Castle, where I got to put on the great kilt, and Holyrood Palace. To complete the catalogue of Edinburgh sites, we ventured into the Whisky Heritage Center, which was surprisingly good.
Then we went to London for a few days. I'm not a huge fan of the city, but there is plenty to do there. We saw the Royal Shakespeare Company do a version of Hamlet at the Barbican Theater and went to the West End and saw a production of Fame, the Musical. During the day we went to Madame Tousad's Wax Museum (where Deb met Crocodile Dundee) and the adjoining planetarium (which was very overpriced). They weren't too far from the Sherlock Holmes museum, where Deb got dressed up.
And that pretty much sums up Debbie's visit. There was plenty of other stuff that went on, conversations and the like, but that's none of your business so you'll have to be satisfied with this. Cheers!