Last weekend was a long weekend here in Ireland, as Monday was a bank holiday (there are several of them throughout the year, so work and school are closed). We decided to go for the long weekend to Edinburgh, Scotland! Jeff took off an extra day so we were able to be there for two full days and 3 nights, which gave us a good amount of time to explore. The flight was less than an hour, so that made it nice and manageable with the kiddos 🙂 It was a pretty small plane, so fairly bumpy on the way over — it was a relief it was a short flight!

When we got in in the afternoon, we headed over to the apartment we were staying in. We decided to try AirBnB for the first time. If you’ve never heard of it, it’s a site where you can search for various houses or apartments to stay in to meet your needs. The place we found was a nice flat with plenty of space and in a good location! We’ve been finding it is easier to stay in this type of place (versus a single hotel room) with the kids so we have multiple bedrooms and a kitchen so as not to have to eat all our meals out. This particular apartment also had a tv with lots of kids’ channels, so one of the highlights of Isaac’s weekend was getting to watch some of his favorite shows (we don’t have a tv in Dublin, so it was kind of a special treat for him while on vacation). 🙂 It was a lovely place to stay overall…except for the small matter of the half-dead mouse we found in the living room on our last morning there. Yuck!

We relaxed around the apartment that afternoon and then headed out to grab dinner. The neighborhood we were in had a lot of great restaurants, and we ended up finding a good Middle Eastern restaurant, where we got yummy hummus, babaghanoush, grape leaves, chicken. The restaurant had these little individual caves/alcoves with tables (they were outside, but had heaters to keep you warm), so we sat in one of those which was kind of fun and different. After dinner, we all got to bed early so we could be rested for a full day of exploring the next day.

When we set out walking the next day, I saw how absolutely beautiful Edinburgh is! The architecture is just gorgeous — cathedrals, grand old hotels, monuments, and the famous Edinburgh Castle on a hill overlooking the whole city. Even though there are lots of modern stores and everything, it still had a feeling like you were back in the past, especially walking through the Old Town. Edinburgh was the first European city to have “skyscrapers” (which were maybe 10 story buildings but considered skyscrapers at the time :)), but today there aren’t really high rises dominating the skyline (similar to Dublin), so you get great unobstructed views.

We walked down Princes Street (which is the main modern shopping area) a bit, through Princes Street park, past the Walter Scott monument (complete with a bag piper playing in front of it), and on up the hill to the castle. Once we had climbed to the top, we saw some awesome views all across the city. And oh.my.god is Edinburgh windy!!!! All throughout the city, but especially up at the castle. We walked around the castle grounds, learned about its history, especially the battles over it back and forth between the British and the Scottish throughout time. We saw the crown jewels, which included the crown that the monarch wore since the 1500s (though I think today the British monarchs have a different crown), as well as the coronation stone from the 800s, which is basically just a big stone and it’s kept in the Edinburgh Castle, but whenever the next British monarch will be crowned, they will bring it down to England and then return it to Scotland. The crown, which was actually lost for some years after the union of Scotland and England, was found by Sir Walter Scott in a treasure chest within the castle and then restored to its glory and displayed for visitors to see.

Another interesting part of the castle was the old prison. Apparently, prisoners of war were kept there from the American Revolutionary War, as well as wars between the French and British. The POWs were given certain rights and treated fairly humanely, with full food rations, clothing, bedding, being looked after by a doctor, and an allowance of 6 pennies a day to spend in a daily market held in the Prison Yard. Some of the original wood doors from the prison are on display, where you can see lots of carvings from various prisoners who passed through over the years.

We also saw St. Margaret’s Chapel, which is the oldest surviving building in Edinburgh, built in the 1100s. There were also a whole bunch of cannons on the castle grounds, and apparently every weekday, ther+’s the “one o’clock gun,” where they blast a cannon…but it was a weekend, so no cannon for us.

After awhile, the wind was really really blowing, and the rain was starting to come down, and Isaac was getting grumpy, and we were all getting a bit cold, so we decided to call it quits at the castle and start walking down the famous Royal Mile. The Royal Mile is a long street that is essentially the spine of the Old Town of Edinburgh. It begins at the castle and ends a mile downhill at the Holyrood Palace, which is the palace where the English monarchs stay when they visit Edinburgh. There is much history to see and learn as well as a variety of shops with kilts, tartan, cashmere plaid scarves, Scotch, and other touristy memorabilia.

On every block, there are also little lanes/alleyways (called closes) you can walk down and explore and you can get a feel for Edinburgh of the past exploring down those. Also, on the Royal Mile, you can take a variety of underground tours and ghost tours, complete with people dressed in costume who jump out and scare you,and lots of tales of murder and witch burning, but we didn’t think that would go over very well with our little guys.

Along the mile are a few significant churches, including St. Giles, which is Scotland’s most important church, as it’s the flagship of the Church of Scotland. There’s also Canongate church, where the British monarchs worship when they come to town. We saw Deacon Brodie’s Tavern, whose namesake was a man who was a community leader and locksmith by day and a burglar by night. His split personality was captured by Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson in his famous book…Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

One other cool place, at the very end of the Royal Mile across from the Palace, was the newly built Scottish Parliament building. In 1998, Scotland regained their own Parliament (after not having one since uniting with England in the early 1700s). The Scottish parliament would now be in charge of Scotland’s domestic affairs, though international affairs are still governed in England. In 2004, the new parliament building was completed, and it’s a very interesting modernist piece of architecture by Catalan architect Enric Miralles. It’s meant to blend in with the natural environment around and doesn’t have grand statues or monuments. In fact, walking by, you wouldn’t even necessarily know it’s the parliament. It’s interesting, too, because of the Scottish vote earlier this fall on whether to establish independence from Britain. Although the ultimate decision was to remain with Britain, it struck me that the new parliament building is definitely a reflection of some of the Scottish desire for autonomy.

So after walking the Royal Mile, we headed back to the apartment and had our own version of “tea time” with Scotch and shortbread (a special Scottish treat). We ended up staying in that night and eating dinner in the apartment, which was just fine with me given the wind and rain outside. It was actually nice, though, experiencing the wind from inside the apartment. At night, when we were all in bed, it felt very cozy hearing the wind rattling the windows.

The other main thing we did in Edinburgh is visit the National Museum of Scotland. It was an amazing museum, and I would totally recommend it to adults and children alike! It’s kind of hard to describe, but it’s an incredible collection of natural history, history, culture, science, Scottish history, and lots of hands-on exploration for kids. The exhibits were all really nicely laid out, with beautiful displays, interesting descriptions, and a lot of variety. Isaac absolutely loved the two rooms specific to kids, and also the exhibits with dinosaurs, animals, and space. He would have stayed all day (we did stay for several hours!) It’s the kind of place you could keep going back to again and again and still have new things to see. If you ever visit Edinburgh, be sure to go there!