Edinburgh - Last Day!

10 July 2015

This morning, Gabe and I went down to breakfast, as the other two wanted to sleep in. We read up in Rick Steves on Edinburgh Castle and the National Museum. After we got them up and at 'em, we headed down to Elephant House coffee shop, since the hotel has really bad coffee at the breakfast, and they only give you instant in the rooms, sans milk as we have no fridge. We had a lovely time there, enjoying the warmth, and reading the Harry Potter graffiti in the loos. Toria drew a really cute elephant, titled, "Harry Pottelephant, the elephant who lived" with a lightning bolt scar on his head. The waiter really liked it!

After we caffeinated, we hit visited the National Museum of Scotland, which is really massive and interesting - maybe the best museum of the trip. We didn't see anywhere near all of it! We wanted to hear the one o'clock salute at the castle, so we climbed up the hill and made our way inside. We were just in time for the big event, then we grabbed a bag of crisps to tide us over until they started serving tea, since we had decided to have afternoon tea instead of lunch. We learned in London that the afternoon tea is very filling! The castle holds several museums, so we saw one on the way up to the tea room, then were seated for tea, which was delicious.

With full bellies, we ventured out to see the rest of the castle. We saw everything! It took us about four and a half hours, but it was great fun, and the sun even peeked out a time or two. The temperature would really swing; sometimes it was really cold and windy, and we all layered, but then it warmed up when the wind stopped and the sun shined. Layering is key in Edinburgh! We talked to some locals over the past few days, and they did say that while the weather always sucks here, it is colder than normal for July… I guess the fates are paying us back for dying of heat in France and Belgium! We even hit the whiskey shop on the way out, and they let us taste a whiskey liqueur, which was good though quite sweet.

We actually did not buy anything in any of the shops in the castle, but we hit a couple on the mile, and grabbed a couple of souvenirs. Then we hit some of the street vendors, and Gabe listened to the street performer guy. I got a bracelet made out of a fork, a hedgehog scarf, and rings with the kids' birthstones. Birthstone jewelry is huge here. We could not afford any of the real scarves, because they're quite expensive, but the hedgehog one from the street vendor is cute! As we decided to look for dinner, we passed a little cart that had leather books and bags we had seen this morning. They had the most beautiful leather books with handmade paper, and both kids got one - lovely green with flowers for Toria and brown triquetra for Gabe.

Everyone wanted different stuff for dinner, so Gabe got Subway, which he pestered us about for three days, and Toria got falafel. They took them to the room, and Hedge and I got went Italian again. They like having that bit of independence and time alone. We hooked on the wifi from the patisserie next door, then actually bought some stuff from them on our way back to the hotel: éclair, truffle, and macaron, with a cup of tea. Hedge got a beer back at the hotel. We're packing up now… totally dreading the trip, but looking forward to being at home, and seeing our furry babies!