This morning, with it starting to rain, we checked out of the unit and caught a taxi down to the Hertz car hire at Picardy Place. We drove out of Edinburgh, crossed over the Firth of Forth Bridge and headed up into the mountains via Perth. It was a damp and misty day which seemed appropriate for the location. We stopped for lunch at Braemar and then headed off the last few miles to Balmoral Castle. Almost magically, the weather turned sunny while we were at B...

This morning, we walked up to Edinburgh Castle, and took an audio tour. Afterwards we walked down the Royal Mile for a bit of souvenir shopping and then we had to go looking for new shoes for Chelsea as she had broken one on the cobbles.We spent the afternoon riding on the hop-on hop-off buses for a bit more sight seeing and had dinner at The Elephant House where J.K.Rowling had done a lot of her writing.

This morning we bought combined Royal Edinburgh Tickets and boarded a bus to the nearby port of Leith where the Britannia is moored as a museum. We went for a great audio tour through the entire ship and really enjoyed it. Afterwards we had lunch at the adjacent Ocean Terminal before boarding the next bus.Next, we visited the Palace of Holyroodhouse which is the Queens official residence in Scotland. We took another interesting audio tour but unfortunately the...

This morning we sadly had to say goodbye to London. The doorman whistled us a taxi which took us up to King's Cross Station where we caught the 10:30 East Coast train to Edinburgh. Before leaving we watched the kids having their photos on Platform 9 & 3/4 and had a look through the Harry Potter Shop where Chelsea bought a Hedwig.The train was quite comfortable with some pleasant scenery particularly as we got closer to Scotland. We bought lunch from the tro...

This morning, we took an audio tour through the Houses of Parliament at Westminster. It was a great thing to see. We went through both houses and a lot of other areas but unfortunately there was no photography allowed. We stood next to the Queen's throne in the House of Lords which she uses when she opens parliament. We saw the marks on the door to the House of Commons which are made by the Queen's representative, The Black Rod, when she summons the low...