We took a 3 day side trip to Edinburgh, Scotland! It was amazing and such a magical place. We loved every second of it (except for the 3 hour long hissy fit Luke threw on our last day there but we were traveling for 9 days and one day of grumpy Luke is not so bad I guess. He is not even 4 years old. We have to cut him some slack!) Anyway, Edinburgh is so green and gorgeous and totally our kind of city. Rustic and beautiful and full of so much history. I am so glad we went and I would put it on my "to see again" list!
Standing in Princes Street Gardens. Edinburgh Castle is the backdrop for this gorgeous greenspace that was right across the street from our hotel! Awesome!
As Americans we simply loved all of the park accessibility and cleanliness. So fantastic!
Looking from "New Town" toward "Old Town"
In one of the parks Luke and I found this tree and neither of us knew what kind it was so we made "I don't know" faces and poses! I love my little ball of questions! ;)
Monument honoring Sir Walter Scott.
The Scottish National Gallery. L and I took turns going in and admiring the artwork (definitely not a place for a 3.5 year old!). Just the sheer size of the paintings and portraits blows my mind.
The Royal Mile in Old Town (the Royal Mile takes you from The Edinburgh Castle to the Parliament building).
The Scottish Parliament Building. It is such a harsh (in my opinion) juxtaposition to the rest of the centuries old buildings.
We decided to press our luck and climb to the top of Arthur's Seat (the highest point in this picture). I am SO glad we did! Luke loved every minute of hiking and didn't complain once! Yay!!!
On our way up!
We made it! 281 meters.
What a view!
L and Luke at the tippy top!
Coming down. Luke learned a very important lesson in the hiking world at the ripe age of 3.5. It is much easier to climb up in elevation (especially the steep spots) than it is to come down! Here are some of the comments we heard: "My toes are smashed to the front of my shoes." "I don't want to go this fast but my legs won't listen." "When do we get to go uphill again?" :)
So happy to be hiking again....in cool weather!! (emphasis on the "cool weather")
More of the Royal Mile
This hilarious photo was taken about 1.5 hours after coming back down from Arthur's seat. No joke! Fast asleep on top of L's shoulders! Ha!
The view from Luke's bed in our hotel. Priceless! We did visit Edinburgh Castle and it was spectacular! We don't have a ton of photos though because a lot of time went into "Luke management", but he turned a corner when we were allowed to go into the castle's dungeon. Nothing like a dark, chilly, once rat infested dungeon to cheer a little boy up!!!
Edinburgh, in all it's glory! Love!
Stay tuned......Please.....Only one more volume....I swear
Gorgeous!!! Edinburgh is R's favorite city. He'd still love to move there someday.
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