Edinburgh!

 9/1: We checked out of our place by 10 am hoping to catch the 1030 train to Edinburgh, but when we arrived at the station we saw it had been cancelled (the 1100 one had also been cancelled). We sat in the Starbucks for an hour until the 1130 train. We did not have assigned seats, but were told to get in a certain car that should be relatively empty.

We were standing on the platform, and when the train arrived, we could see that it was jammed with people. The aisles were full of people standing from front to back of every car. We could barely board the train as there were people and bags in the entryway to the train. Bob and I sent the kids in, and they weaved their way into an aisle. We shoehorned our 4 bags and ourselves into the train and the doors barely closed behind us. We were standing shoulder to shoulder with a bunch of new friends for the 2 hour journey!

We were actually surprised the train was allowed to run so packed with people.

We made it to Edinburgh, and finally figured out where to get our rental car. We all tried to psych Bob up to drive on the left! Our car was *just* big enough to get all of us and our bags to our place (fortunately only a 15 minute drive).

Jammed in!

We made it to our place (with Bob and me frequently chanting, ‘left, left, stay to the left!’), dropped the kids and the bags, and went to the grocery store. It was a 15 minute trek across town which gave Bob some more driving practice. Ha! Come to find out later there was a ‘supermarket’ one mile away from our place that didn’t originally show up when we entered ‘grocery’ into Apple Maps. Annoying! Home to make dinner and plan our travels for tomorrow.

9/2: We awoke to a cloudy, drizzly day, but set off on our 2ish hr roadtrip to Alnwick to see the castle where a lot of Harry Potter was filmed. On the way we stopped at Melrose Abbey.

We arrived at Alnwick Castle at the perfect time when a ‘behind the scenes’ tour was starting. It was really fun for all of us to see these real life spots from the movies we’ve been watching at home before bed! Fortunately the weather cooperated and we were able to explore outside.

We made a quick stop at Bumberg castle on the way home. The fog had returned so we didn’t linger too long. We made the 1.5 hr drive home, made spaghetti, and watched more Harry Potter (frequently pausing the movie to say, “we just saw that!”)

We crossed the border between England and Scotland on the way.

Simone had fun with it 😊

9/3: After we got the kids fed and started with their schoolwork, Bob and I took a morning walk to Nelson Tower with beautiful views of the city.

We came home for lunch, and decided to drive downtown to walk around with the kids instead of taking a bus or an Uber (mistake). We could not find the parking lot we had mapped out, and the meters on the street didn’t seem to be working. We drove around and finally found a spot on the street.

The kids did great with lots of walking and stairs repeating some of what Bob and I did in the morning. We walked up to Nelson’s Monument and the mini-Parthenon (we learned that Edinburgh had been called ‘the Athens of the North’).

We walked part of the Grand Mile and saw the castle and lots of beautiful (old and dirty!) architecture. The air pollution in Edinburgh in the late 1800’s (Industrial Revolution) was terrible resulting in the concrete buildings turning black.

Bob and I walked up to the castle

Seems very Scottish: ‘coffee, whisky’

We came back to our car to find a ticket. Ugh! Apparently we had parked in a ‘club area.’ While parking Bob had accidentally scraped the curb and scratched the hubcap, so now we were doubly annoyed that we might get charged by the rental car company upon return as they seems to scour the cars with a flashlight! Why did we drive?!

We drove home and parked the car and walked to a recommended restaurant about 0.5 miles away (The Orchard). It was great food and fun service - we tried a few traditional Scottish items including the soda Irn Bru and Haggis (a savoury pudding containing sheep's pluck (heart, liver, and lungs), minced with chopped onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and cooked while traditionally encased in the animal's stomach though now an artificial casing is often used instead). Fortunately my family didn’t know this until after we ate it (I had learned the contents earlier!). It was quite tasty!

Quinn got so much energy from the haggis that he ran the 0.5 mile home :-) Bob and I logged 10 miles walking today!

9/4: Gorgeous sunny day! During our morning walk, Bob and I discovered a cricket match scheduled at 1pm. It was between Scotland and Australia, the #1 team in the league. We want to go! We took a walk through Dean Village (historic area), and went home for lunch while watching educational videos explaining the game of cricket! We headed out to the game through the Botanic Gardens (beautiful and free!).

Dean Village

Cool archway in hedge at Botanic Gardens

We arrived to the game entrance to find a super long line down the street and around the block. Yikes! Bob sent the three of us to find the end of the line while he went to speak with someone at the gate about buying tickets. The kids and I had not yet found the end of the line when Bob called me to tell us to come to the front. We turned around, and found him waiting at the front of the line with tickets for us! He had spoken to one of the event staff workers and explained he had a family and we were visiting and had never been to a cricket game, etc and the guy told Bob to bring us to the front! We bought our tickets, and the guy laughed at all my layers of clothing in my bag! I was thinking, well, it’s not usually this beautiful! We were actually hot in our seats!

We had a few kind older gentlemen sitting near us that explained some rules as the game progressed, which made the match more fun to watch. One of the best moments was when some young guys sitting near us at the edge of the field caught a fly ball. They were clearly having a blast, and when one of them caught it, they celebrated by dousing him with their beers and tackling him on the ground. So entertaining!

We enjoyed the Botanic Gardens on the walk back home, then settled in for HH with hearts before leftovers for dinner. A cozy evening at home was great as Simone was coming down with the head cold Bob was recovering from.

9/5: The three of us seem to have caught Bob’s cold, with Simone feeling the worst. We had discussed doing a day trip to the Scottish Highlands, but that would be at least a 1.5 hr drive to do a hike and possibly see another castle. It would have been a long day in the car, the kids did not feel great, and they had schoolwork to do. The trickiest part, though, is that we’re no longer on strictly vacation - we’re balancing school and trying to make the most of our time in each place. Bob and I have acknowledged that we probably need to schedule longer stays in each place because we can’t pack each day full of exploring.

We decided to stay put in Edinburgh (itself a UNESCO heritage site). We got the kids settled with ibuprofen, breakfast, and schoolwork, and Bob and I headed out to hike Arthur’s Seat. It was a cloudy, windy day, but no rain (but it always looks like it’s about to rain). It was a good trek to the top, and a nice view of the whole city.

We came home for lunch, did a bit of trip planning, and took the kids on a short drive to Queensferry. It is a cute town with The Forth Bridge (a UNESCO heritage site) built in the late 1800’s. We found a great spot for a snack and beverage on the water with a view of the bridge.

We had planned on going out to dinner, but the kids were not feeling well. We enjoyed our last evening in our place with an easy dinner and another round of Harry Potter.

Final thoughts on Edinburgh: beautiful, old architecture that is very black/dirty. Lots of overcast weather, looks like it could rain at any minute. We wonder about the rate of depression here. We lucked out with some lovely days! Rolling hills with lots of green. So many people smoking/vaping (we notice this throughout Europe). Our place was in a great location that we could walk to so many things - loved walking through downtown and enjoying gothic architecture. Beautiful botanic gardens (free!). Lots of pride in Scotland. Loved our spontaneous find of the cricket game.