So we just got back from our Italy trip and were getting settled back into things - when Spouso needed to go on a work trip up to Scotland. Since he would be gone for a couple days, with free air fare and hotel - we decided to join. It was a bit of a last minute decision, but turned out to be a beautiful long weekend.
all the way up in Edinburgh
Day 0: Travel
Because he had already flown up, I had to travel with the kiddo by myself for the first time. It wasn't easy - getting from our house, on the tube, then walking through town to get to the train station, to get the train to the airport, then through security and onto the flight - but I managed ok. I brought as little luggage as possible, and relied on paw patrol on the iPad for the flight, which was thankfully just an hour. Then we landed at the airport, where Spouso was waiting for us - and headed into town. We had just enough time to grab dinner and get back to the hotel before the kiddo and I both collapsed.
playing with the huge Edinburgh sign at the airport
a quick pic with a bagpiper
Day 1: Kiddo and I Explore the Town
Since this was a working trip, he went off to the office, and the kid and I went exploring. First we went down to the Princes Street Gardens, which is a beautiful garden full of flowers and playgrounds to play. Then we walked through the New Town - which was built by the Georgians after the Old Town got too crowded. Like everything else from that era - it's super organized and lovely, filled with statues, and older than our entire country. We took a quick snack break in one of the many parks, swung by the Scott Monument (the largest memorial to a writer in the world), and then climbed the huge hill back up to the Old Town, where we stopped in the church and then went back to the hotel for a nap. After the nap, we went back down to the park to meet Spouso, who was finished for the day. We grabbed another amazing dinner, and everyone crashed.
Map of downtown Edinburgh (but it's not as flat as this appears)
Princes Street Garden
view of the castle above the garden
very excited about this bear statue
playground time
even the playground is gorgeous
a statue in New Town
another statue in New Town
snack picnic in a park
the Scott Monument
St Giles Cathedral
inside St Giles
St Giles from the other side
back to the park to feed the bear
Old Town up on the hill above the park
climbing the hill to Old Town
dinner - i think this was venison
night walk through old town (inspiration for Harry Potter's Diagon Alley)
Day 2: Sightseeing Together
Now that it was Saturday, we were all together to do some sightseeing. We started off with the city's main attraction - the castle- which is up on a hill looking down over the city. It's very old and beautiful, with a few exquisite rooms where Mary Queen of Scots lived briefly. After that, we wandered down the Royal Mile, which runs from the castle down to the palace (which we didn't quite get to), and passes through a lot of the old town. After the nap break, we tried to go to a pub famous for local folk music - but got thrown out. Apparently you're not supposed to bring kids into pubs - who knew? It's a real shame though, because it looked really charming, everyone wanted a break from walking, and the kiddo was very excited about the music. Instead, we walked on, and grabbed some street food, as we went back down the hill in search of dinner in New Town.
waiting to get into the castle
castle looking down over the city
not sure what this pose is
old castle
a rare family selfie
Mary Queen of Scots' bedroom...
...has great ceilings
walking down the royal mile in search of whisky
really winning the parents of the year award at a whisky shop
me and David Hume. (long story)
Day 3: Flight Home
We had just enough time to grab breakfast before heading down the hill and back to the airport to fly home.
Traveling with the Kiddo
So this was another difficult trip with him. After the last one, I vowed to make more of an effort to have a regular nap time, in a bed, at the right time - but it still didn't matter. He was just exhausted the whole time. Early the morning of the second day, our big sightseeing day, he was already crying to go back to the room because he didn't want to see any more stuff. I think it was a combination of a couple things:
- Instead of having an apartment with a different room for him, we were all together in a hotel room. We used the blackout curtains to make a tent around his bed to separate him from us - but it didn't work great.
- We were way north - so the sun didn't set until around 10pm and rose around 4am, so even with the blinds closed - no one got a lot of sleep- especially since our blackout curtains were being used for the tent.
- We had just gotten back from the long trip to Italy and hadn't gotten turned around yet.
- Because I was trying to pack as lightly as possible, I didn't bring any toys for him. So when he might've liked to just zone out with his trains for a bit, he wasn't able to. Instead, he got hauled around to see the sites.
sleeping in the tent bed
Food
So Scottish food was kind of a weird mix of things. On the one hand - the city is very close to farms, so there's a great farm to table thing going on with really fresh ingredients prepped very lightly. Our first two nights were just delightful, and not at all what I expected. On the other - there is clearly a very long, cold winter here, and there is food to match. They drink a lot, so there is some heavy, fried street food to go with it. We tried to grab a small snack for the kiddo a couple times, and had a hard time finding anything. We ended up with a huge, deep fried steak pie and french fries smothered with curry sauce - all of which made everyone feel pretty gross. Unlike Italy where there are a lot of shops that sell snacks right onto the street - there isn't a lot of street traffic here (I'm guessing because it's too cold most of the year), so you have to go into a bar and get a seat. So no dessert breaks for us. One nice surprise is that there is a lot of good French food, something to do with old political alliances to overthrow the british monarch. This meant great croissants in the morning, and a nice bistro on our last night. The kiddo didn't enjoy most of the food, so that was a bit tricky. Thankfully, there was a big breakfast buffet included with our room, so he really filled up in the mornings and then grazed for the rest of the day.
Hotel Breakfast: nutella for me, blood pudding for him.
Conclusions
When we were trying to set up the move to London, and one point they offered us Edinburgh instead. We debated it, but ultimately turned it down in hopes that London would come through. After having finally visited - I still think it was the right choice. It is a really beautiful city and a great weekend trip, but I think we would not have been happy living there for long. It's definitely a lot smaller than London, with a lot fewer choices for restaurants and things to do. It was also quite cold - even in mid May we still all had our heavy jackets on, and it got down close to freezing each night. I would happily go back again though - especially if we could do without the kiddo - since this really seemed like a non-kid-friendly city.
Otherwise - we have one more trip coming up, and then nothing scheduled. This is going to be a really travel-intense month, mostly just by coincidence of this random trip getting scheduled. Then I think we would all like to slow down a bit.
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