Edinburgh, Scotland

Last weekend we took a trip up to Scotland, stopping first in York to break up the drive. We found that York was a nice little town, with a ton of history, dating back to Roman times. We headed into Yorkminster and both Tom and I agreed that we have seen one too many churches in the past two years. But, not wanting to miss anything, we decided to head into the crypt this time. We saw the first layer - Roman built in the 6th century. That was torn down and a Norman church built on that, and then Yorkminster, which took 250 years to build!! A trip through the park for the boys to run about and then lunch. It was a great morning.

On to Edinburgh! 3 hour drive and we were in this lovely city. Although the arrival wasn't so pleasant since we discovered a chocolate candy that we didn't bring with us. Aiden literally sat on that little secret ever since the stop at the gas station 2 hours earlier! We are hoping he learned his lesson!

Edinburgh is a great town and easy to get around in. We headed up to Edinburgh Castle first. A medieval castle built on an extinct volcano, with tons of treasures within to explore. Our favorite was the crown jewels of Scotland - which were hidden from the English for over a hundred years! At lunch we were highly entertained by some Japanese tourists who were in awe of the boys. As usual, they took pictures. As usual, Aiden ignored them, but Jeb ate it up.

On to walk the Royal Mile, a street filled with old Georgian buildings and loads of souvenir shops. At the bottom end, we hit the Queen's current Palace of Scotland and Scottish Parliament. We took the bus over to Princes Street Gardens and climbed 250 spiral stairs to gorgeous views of the city. It was the highlight of the day for the boys! My highlight was getting a bit of peace and quiet when Tom took them back to the apartment and I shopped and took it all in.

The following day we headed to the other extinct volcano in Edinburgh - King Arthur's seat. At the bottom we debated on which path to take. We took the one with more people, only to find out that we climbed up and back down the wrong mountain and now we were at the bottom of the right one. The kids were doing great, so we hiked up to find some stunning views as well as a gentle slope on the other side leading to a parking lot. Our hour hike could have been 15 minutes with a stoller! Oh well, it's the experience that matters.

A quick and expensive stop at a very boring aquarium followed by the beach, which the kids had wanted in the first place. Why don't we listen to them?! Rocks, shells, sand, and water - all a boy needs to be happy.

An 8 hour drive back. I won't lie. It was hard. The van was trashed. Take a look. Good times.