7/16-19: Edinburgh is so cool!

This is a mash up Edinburgh blog, where we were lucky to get a couple of bonus days because of the heatwave.

We jumped into our first day with a bike tour around the city. It was a great way to learn Edinburgh and its history - our guide Ricky was fantastic. We had two tandem bikes with the boys and Kiera was a champ, riding up and down the Edinburgh hills and then through the traffic herself. Luke took every opportunity to remind me that I was slowing him down from the front of the bike. We all loved biking and thought we should do it more often.

Edinburgh Castle is the center of the city, atop Castle Rock - and it’s a magnificent sight to be seen. The castle has stood there since the 12th century - as the most important stronghold in Scotland and apparently one of the most besieged in the world. We had some conflict of our own within its walls, mostly over ice cream and whether we could try on the armor.

After a five minute climb to the top you approach a beautiful castle built into the rock with views of the city, cannons at the ready and hundreds of years of stories to tell. We enjoyed some play battles and cannon climbing on the grounds, and exploring some of the rooms of armor and the royal jewels. Then we began our first (unsuccessful) trip to London. A fire on the tracks caused our train to turn around and cancelled trains for the next two days. So we were lucky to get a bonus day in Edinburgh-complete with a highland hike, a scenic lunch, some downtown shopping, and a seaside seafood dinner. The diversity of terrain in Edinburgh is so cool.

The kids second hike of the trip (after Mt Vesuvius) included less whining and more speed, so we’re moving in the right direction. The views were as pretty as you’d expect in the Scottish hills and we were happy to spot some highland cows. Kiera and I always try to slip a bit of shopping into each city - she’s the best in so many ways, including that I’m happy to have a lifetime favorite shopping partner. A short bus trip that evening brought us to a waterfront boardwalk with busy restaurants (the Scottish were taking advantage of the rare heat with lots of outdoor dining).

We enjoyed our extra day and would still love to come back to Edinburgh for the whole Fringe Festival one day.