SPRING 2010: Edinburgh, Scotland

The first weekend of Belles school break found us in Edinburgh Scotland. We took the train up and stayed at the Old Waverly Hotel. (thanks Gloria for the recommendation) After a 5 hour train ride, we were ready to walk around and find somewhere to eat. We landed at the Hard Rock Cafe! Yes, they had Ranch Dressing for their salads. It is a wonderful thing that no matter where the Hard Rock is, it is the same food. After dinner, Belle made the comment that our waiter sounded like he was from America. After thinking about it, I realized she was right. I didn't struggle with a Scottish Brogue accent. We asked, and found out he is actually from Canada, working in the Hard Rock Cafe in Edinburgh! I guess we should have asked why, but we didn't. I think it is funny that the 6 year old noticed the lack of an accent before we did. :) We walked around the "new town" area and then went back to the hotel, rented a movie, read and went to bed. My kind of evening!

The next day, Sunday, we took 3 different bus tours, went to Camera Obscura and went to the castle. Belle fell off one of the canon's and landed flat on her stomach and face! When she started crying, I at least knew she was alive, although hurting. When I got her up, her nose was swelling on one side and she was bleeding from that nostril. Thankfully I had a tissue with us and took her over to the side to sit down. Meanwhile, Dan had paid for an audio tour and this involved headphones on his head. He walked over to us and LOUDLY asked "is she ok?". And I mean loud! You know how it is, we always speak louder than we need to when we think no one can hear us because we can't hear them well? LOL We moved on from there, and later that day she had a two little shadows under her eyes, but it never got anymore worse than that thankfully. We went to lunch that day at Garfunkles on the Royal Mile. It was very American also. Yummy. We had a 4:00 appointment at Mary King's Close. This is a warren of hidden "closes" where real people lived, worked and died. What is left of these homes and closes are below the Royal Mile. Years ago as they began putting new buildings along the Royal Mile, they just lobbed off these homes and built the new buildings on the footings of these old homes. As they kept building, they also created arches underneath and put in the new road. So there is literally homes and little streets under the Royal Mile. It was one of the most awesome things we have ever seen! We were not allowed to take pictures, so I don't have any to show you! Sorry.

Monday we slept in and then headed out sightseeing again. Another bus tour, we saw the Queens boat the Royal Yacht, Brittania. We found an awesome Mexican restaurant on the Royal Mile. Panchos. (thanks Miranda for the heads up) It was wonderful, authentic Mexican food in Scotland. Then we went on a search for some Starbucks coffee mugs. I collect them everywhere we go and after going to 3 different coffee stores, we found them. Then it was a race back to the hotel, collect luggage and make the 3:00 p.m. train back to Peterborough. There it is ! Scotland in a weekend. Easy to do when living in England!