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| Happy Ladies with blue teeth... my favorite picture from the whole trip! |
The girls had another week off school (I swear
they are out of school more than they are in) so what better way to spend
Winter Break than exploring a new country! I found a great deal to
Scotland, so me being the cheapskate, figured it was the perfect place to spend
a few days. I have to admit, it is going to be hard adjusting travel
expectations when we move home... these $9.99 plane tickets are irresistible!
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| Figured out the wifi in the apartment :) |
We headed out Tuesday night after work. A
quick flight over the pond and we were in Edinburgh! We found a great
little apartment right in the heart of the city, which made getting around to
all the fun things, very easy!
People over here seem to be much
more likely to use places on AirBnB for accommodations, so when I came across
the Dunedin apartments, we figured it was worth a try! Needless to say, it
was awesome... a full size apartment, kitchen, laundry... for less than the
price of any hotel. With two little ones, having a place we can retreat
to with all the comforts of home kept spirits up for everyone!
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| First trip up the Royal Mile |
On our first day we ventured out and headed
uphill the Royal Mile to the Edinburgh Castle. The Royal Mile is the name
given to a succession of streets forming the main thoroughfare of Old
Town. The thoroughfare, as the name suggests, is approximately one Scots
mile long and runs downhill
between two significant locations in the history of Scotland, namely Edinburgh
Castle and Holyrood Palace (the Queen of England's residence when she visits
Scotland). The street is lined with lots of shops, pubs and
cafes. In good form, insisted on
venturing in to 64 different souvenir shops before we made it to the top of the
hill. Finally, after some coaxing and
promises for trinkets to remember the sites they hadn’t yet visited at a later
time, we entered the castle.
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| In front of the castle! |
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| Looking over the city! |
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| She particularly liked this 'talking-phone' because it was about the marching bands. |
Edinburgh Castle is a historic fortress
which dominates the skyline from its position on the Castle Rock.
Archaeologists have established human occupation of the rock since at least the
Iron Age (2nd century AD), although the nature of the early settlement is
unclear. From the 15th century the castle's residential role declined and by
the 17th century the castle was used primarily as military
barracks. As one of the most important strongholds in the Kingdom of
Scotland, Edinburgh Castle was involved in many historical conflicts.
Historians believe the castle has seen 26 sieges in its 1100-year-old history,
giving it a claim to having been "the most besieged place in Great Britain
and one of the most attacked in the world". Few of the present
buildings pre-date the 16th century. The most notable exception is
St Margaret's Chapel from the early 12th century, which is regarded as the
oldest building in Edinburgh.
The castle had lots of tiny nooks and crannies to
explore, cannons, crown jewels, morbid tales of days long past.
Surprisingly we made it a good 2.5 hours on
the castle grounds before everyone was chilly and ready to move on.
Some of the highlights within the castle
while touring was trying to pick up and load the cannon balls, having a spot of
tea (or hot chocolate) and crumpets (or lemon cake) in the Tea Room,
watching/hearing the one o’clock cannon fire at precisely 1pm, being
rambunctious in St. Margret’s Chapel (yes the very old one mentioned above) and
going deep down into the dungeons.
All
in all, despite it being more of an adult itinerary item, I think the girls
enjoyed themselves and even learned a bit.
They were really impressed by the fact that Mary Queen of Scots became
a queen at just 6 days old and was coronated at 9 months old.
Loralye kept referring to her as “the baby
queen.”
They had a quite elaborate
family tree when we entered one of the exhibits which Annelyse could have spent
days at.
She is very interested in how
everyone is related and how you become a queen… A few weeks ago we got a
different library book about the Royal Family and she was keen in understanding
how and when Princess Katherine is going to be Queen.
I explained that the existing Queen has to
die and then her son, Charles has to die and then William and Catherine will be
King and Queen, to which she replied, “So when you die, I’m the queen…”
Good thing we aren’t royalty or else I think
she would have started plotting my demise that very same evening.
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| View from the top!! |
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| Picking up canon balls |
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| Bad place to stand... once I told her why she shouldn't stand there... she just kept laughing and looking in! |
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| Insisting everyone come help her pick these up! |
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| Group effort... when it moved a little, both girls got really excited and inspired to keep trying. |
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| Gloomy, cloudy day... but picturesque nonetheless |
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| Danger Jones... why did we have to climb on the craters... we don't need to end up in the hospital in a foreign country Lo! |
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| Best Friends... long enough for me to take a picture and pretend :) |
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| The Guards - Just a serious as those who guard the Queen! |
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| That's a bit better... |
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| As still as a statue, minus the ever-present smirk ;) |
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| Tea / Hot Chocolate Time... |
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| Watching the Tartans being made in the mill. |
After getting the educational part of our day out
of the way, we moved back down the Royal Mile and wandered into a facility
where you can watch Scottish woolen tartans being woven. We had checked some books out
from the library ahead of our trip and Annelyse was particularly fascinated
with the fact that the different families had different patterns of tartan,
unique to them. She was keen to find a
pattern for ‘the Chmiel’ clan while on vacation.
Funny enough, as we wandered through this facility, we found the names,
Lindsay, Russell and Scott were all very well-known family names in
Scotland. Annelyse was beside herself
and so excited that there were tartan patterns for these names. The sad part was when we had to tell her they
were last names, so our family didn’t have a pattern. Lo too was disappointed because “her name
wasn’t on anything!” Welcome to my world little lady. :-)
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| Those blue teeth... came from the candy she has in her mouth in this picture |
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| Waiting our turn... patiently... yeah right :) |
One of the other very unique exhibits was a
rooftop demonstration called the ‘camera obscura.” At the top of the
building/tower there is a giant pinhole camera and a periscope which captures a
view of the entire city. The mirror
captures the images which passes through three lenses before projecting a
stunning image of the city onto a large white wooden table. The guide turned
and tilted the mirror to give a 360° tour of Edinburgh. The best part is with the image being live,
you could “pick people up” on little cards or make bridges for the buses and
cars to drive over on the table. The
girls were quite fascinated with this whole illusion!
After a long day of walking and
sight-seeing we headed back to the apartment.
On the way, we ran across a bagpiper which was great fun! Lo didn’t seem to be nearly as concerned
about this guy as she was about the street performers in Barcelona. Good thing too because I was able to get some
cute pictures of them next to the Scotsman!
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| Lo agreeded to stand by him... but the distance between her and him.... a good 3 ft. And the junky blue candy makes yet another appearance :) |
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| NEVER.STOPS.MOVING |
We visited a couple other museums
briefly along the way home, one to warm up and two because they are free! All museums in Scotland are free!! What a
nice perk!!
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| GIANT TUNNEL |
Day 2: After a good night of rest and warm
bellies full of coffee/hot chocolate we were ready to meet the day! We headed up Princes Street for a change of
scenery. Along the way, we passed
through a tunnel which was by far the grandest tunnel I have ever seen. Loralye and I were discussing that it must
have been built for giants because only a giant would need such a large
tunnel. There was a strip of lights that
she was walking along in the tunnel and she said she was “covering up the
lights up with her feet so the giants wouldn’t find us!”
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| National Gallery of Scotland |
The Edinburg skyline is quite picturesque!
Along our walk, we passed by the Scots Monument, Princes Street Gardens and the
St. Giles Cathedral, Our first stop
(more to check the box) was the National Gallery of Scotland. Lots of paintings from famous artists and
surprisingly Lo remembered the ballerinas from Edgar Degas… now, to be fair,
she didn’t remember his name, but she did remember the ballerina’s… I will take
what I can get. They were quite well
behaved and quiet, which impressed the both of us… while their whispers were
still louder than anything else in the museum, at least they were trying.
Put it this way, if there was a mouse in the gallery, we could have
heard him squeak! Needless to say, we
did a good 25 minute pass though, pointed at the Van Gogh's, Rembrandts, Monet’s
and headed out.
After this museum, we promised the
girls some souvenir shopping…ugh. The
day before Annelyse had found a scarf that she liked, but like most things, I
figured it was a fleeting thought and she would find another she liked just as
much (plus, the one she liked was the most colourful of all the scarfs we saw
while browsing) Wrong… again. Shop after shop, we looked for the scarf
pattern that she had eyed the day before.
No dice. After giving up, we
placed the very tired girls on our shoulders and headed back up the hill to the
shop that had the ugly scarf. The reward for
the family for making the trek was a nice, cozy, wool blanket that the girls
commandeered for the night. So much for
those scarfs they had to have!
After a snack our final stop of the
night was the Museum of Childhood. Lots
of interesting trinkets, toys, games and dolls from years gone by. The girls did seem to get a kick out of this
place, but of course would have liked to touch more of the stuff. Needless to say, dolls from the 16th
century were off the table for handling!
Along our walks, the bagpiper was
given a run for his money by the guy who was standing on a tight rope, dressed
like a true Scot, playing the fiddle. We
also had a run in with a man who looked like Mel Gibson in Braveheart, but the
half-blue face was too much for the girls.
No takers for the photo-op with the Braveheart guy!
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| Tight-rope walking, fiddling, leprechaun-like entertainment. |
It was a long day filled with lots
of walking and exploring and by the end of it, both girls were tired and
slipping into silly-mode. Loralye
especially has a laugh that is utterly contagious. Once she gets going, it is hard for her to
stop not to mention, even harder for us not to start laughing right along with
her. She finds it particularly funny to
start this laughing routine at bed time.
Well tonight, Russ took the laugher to a whole new level. The word butt-checks is said way too often in
our home and insights hysterical laughter each and every time it is said. Tonight, after Russ said, “your butt checks
smell like pollo”, both girls started laughing so hard they could barely
breathe. I of course started laughing,
which always happens when Lo starts this and I often “snort”… this snorting
sends the laughter into a new galaxy and ends with bedtime coming 20 minutes
later than planned. Tonight she herself
snorted and I swear I thought we were going to have to give her CPR. Laughing, snorting, laughing, snorting, it
kept going and going and going. Finally
after we calmed them down, and they were all settled into bed, Lo says with a
completely straight face, “Mommy, I have to tell you something. Innocently I lean down and she whispers in my
ear “butt checks” and proceeds to snort… OMG… this child is such a nut, but
truly keeps us laughing through everything!
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| Pointing at our mission :) |
Day 3:
We started the day with a brisk walk up Arthurs Seat. Arthur's Seat is the main peak of the group of hills which form most of Holyrood
Park. The hill rises above the city to a
height of 822 ft. Like the castle rock on which Edinburgh Castle is
built, Arthur’s Seat was formed by a volcano which became extinct approximately
350 million years ago. While we didn’t
make it all the way to the top we gave it a good go! Along the way, we had lots of dogs inspiring
us to keep trekking.
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| the peak behind was the top... we all decided we weren't game for the entire trek. |
Along our walk we passed by the Holyrood Palace, which is the official residence of the Queen when she is in Scotland! Located at the bottom of the Royal Mile at the opposite end to Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood Palace has served as the principal residence of the Kings and Queens of Scots since the 16th century. We opted not to take the tour seeing that we had already done so many museums and castles… no one seemed to disappointed by this decision.
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| In front of the Queen's Shop... darn... it was closed :) |
Later
in the afternoon we headed to another great place called Dynamic Earth. I must say, Edinburg had more things to do
than we could ever cram into 4 days and really caters to kids. Very educational, interactive and
interesting… impressive nonetheless. Anyway, Dynamic Earth is a journey through time to witness the story of planet Earth. Through a series of interactive exhibits, we felt the heat of a bubbling volcano, felt the chill of polar ice, and flew across the globe before crash landing in a tropical rainforest. The simulations made it feel very real, with dust flying, rain falling, the floor moving and wind blowing. Very neat experience.
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| Laying on the magma! |
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| She loved the huge scorpion |
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| I do not understand this child.... how this primitive man is not scary, but the street performed are is beyond me. |
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| Russ feeding Annelyse to a Saber Tooth Tiger |
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| Cooling off under the iceberg... this huge piece of ice made this room quite chilly!! |
Friday
night we headed out to the neighbourhood of Leith, for a change of scenery and
to be closer to the water. Leith is a district to the north of the city of Edinburgh
at the mouth of the Water of Leith.
On Saturday, we kept things pretty low key and planned a visit to the Royal Yacht Britannia. On our way to boat, we stumbled upon an exhibit full of all kinds of different owls. The girls were totally intrigued and even had a chance to hold some. Of course, with all the different choices, the very tiny ones were selected for holding. They kept calling them the 'baby owls' and the gentleman who was running the exhibit, kept correcting them, however they weren't having it.
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| My favorite owl... obviously the lack of other people around me, it is evident this wasn't their favorite! |
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| So happy to be holding one of the 'baby ones' |
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| Petting another one of the babies softly... Annelyse's definition of softly is drastically different from someone elses! |
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| The girls and their babies! |
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| Standing next to a Lego replica of the ship |
After the owl visit we headed over to The Royal Yacht Britannia which was home to Her Majesty The Queen and the Royal Family for over 40 years, sailing over 1,000,000 miles around the world. Now docked permanently in Edinburg, tourists are able to explore the many rooms and levels of the ship.
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| View from one of the many portholes |
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| Hanging out in the sailors lounge by the fire! |
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| Where Russ wishes he could have hung our for the duration of the tour. |
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| Or this one... seemed to be a lot of bars on the ship... |
Edinburgh Castle is a historic fortress
which dominates the skyline from its position on the Castle Rock.
Archaeologists have established human occupation of the rock since at least the
Iron Age (2nd century AD), although the nature of the early settlement is
unclear. From the 15th century the castle's residential role declined and by
the 17th century the castle was used primarily as military
barracks. As one of the most important strongholds in the Kingdom of
Scotland, Edinburgh Castle was involved in many historical conflicts.
Historians believe the castle has seen 26 sieges in its 1100-year-old history,
giving it a claim to having been "the most besieged place in Great Britain
and one of the most attacked in the world". Few of the present
buildings pre-date the 16th century. The most notable exception is
St Margaret's Chapel from the early 12th century, which is regarded as the
oldest building in Edinburgh.
The castle had lots of tiny nooks and crannies to
explore, cannons, crown jewels, morbid tales of days long past. Surprisingly we made it a good 2.5 hours on
the castle grounds before everyone was chilly and ready to move on. Some of the highlights within the castle
while touring was trying to pick up and load the cannon balls, having a spot of
tea (or hot chocolate) and crumpets (or lemon cake) in the Tea Room,
watching/hearing the one o’clock cannon fire at precisely 1pm, being
rambunctious in St. Margret’s Chapel (yes the very old one mentioned above) and
going deep down into the dungeons. All
in all, despite it being more of an adult itinerary item, I think the girls
enjoyed themselves and even learned a bit.
They were really impressed by the fact that Mary Queen of Scots became
a queen at just 6 days old and was coronated at 9 months old. Loralye kept referring to her as “the baby
queen.” They had a quite elaborate
family tree when we entered one of the exhibits which Annelyse could have spent
days at. She is very interested in how
everyone is related and how you become a queen… A few weeks ago we got a
different library book about the Royal Family and she was keen in understanding
how and when Princess Katherine is going to be Queen. I explained that the existing Queen has to
die and then her son, Charles has to die and then William and Catherine will be
King and Queen, to which she replied, “So when you die, I’m the queen…” Good thing we aren’t royalty or else I think
she would have started plotting my demise that very same evening. 
After a snack our final stop of the
night was the Museum of Childhood. Lots
of interesting trinkets, toys, games and dolls from years gone by. The girls did seem to get a kick out of this
place, but of course would have liked to touch more of the stuff. Needless to say, dolls from the 16th
century were off the table for handling! 
Along our walk we passed by the Holyrood Palace, which is the official residence of the Queen when she is in Scotland! Located at the bottom of the Royal Mile at the opposite end to Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood Palace has served as the principal residence of the Kings and Queens of Scots since the 16th century. We opted not to take the tour seeing that we had already done so many museums and castles… no one seemed to disappointed by this decision. 
On Saturday, we kept things pretty low key and planned a visit to the Royal Yacht Britannia. On our way to boat, we stumbled upon an exhibit full of all kinds of different owls. The girls were totally intrigued and even had a chance to hold some. Of course, with all the different choices, the very tiny ones were selected for holding. They kept calling them the 'baby owls' and the gentleman who was running the exhibit, kept correcting them, however they weren't having it. 
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