Scotland


Edinburgh

We left Calgary at 10:00am on June 29 and arrived in Glasgow at 8:00 am on June 30.  Jaxon slept the most on the plane, about four hours.  The rest of us got less than that.   We are somewhat jetlagged.  The boys were troopers and spent the first two days touring around Edinburgh.  We used the Hop On and Hop Off bus which worked pretty good except for when we were delayed in heavy traffic.  The Queen was in town and was having a Garden Party (which you need to say that with an accent).  Lots of fancy hats, traffic and police were present.

Jet lag made us all sleep for 12 hours on the 2nd day and we didn’t set an alarm.  We were to check out of our flat in Edinburgh by noon but woke up at 11:58.  Needless to say, Jet lag sneaks up on you and we will be setting an alarm from now on. 

Funniest thing that happened in Edinburgh

      Quinn got scared by a talking cartoon character

Best things about Edinburgh

-       The Dynamic Earth (Kids)

-       Edinburgh Castle  (Kim and Tom)

Worst thing about Edinburgh

-       Traffic jams due to the Queen’s Garden Party

 

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Melville Castle

With the money we saved on flights to get to Europe, we spent on staying in a castle.  The Melville Castle is just outside Edinburgh and absolutely amazing.  It was built in 1791 and now operates as a hotel.  We took the bus to the castle which is probably an unlikely site for most people to see.  A family of 5 with all those huge backpacks. The bus dropped us off near the castle gates and we had to walk with our backpacks about 1 km up to the castle.

We are on the top floor and have a great view from the windows.  The most unexpected thing about the castle is the chickens.  The boys were chasing them around outside and were actually able to catch them and hold them.  One of them actually roosted on Quinn’s arm.  They named the chickens Fredrick and Brownie.

 




© VanKosh Family 2015