Tonight as I was stewing my weary bones in my small boat of a soaking tub, I mentally compiled a list of everything we've done/seen in the past two weeks, but couldn't quite do it without the help of the calendar. I thought you might be amused by a brief recounting of the itinerary. I believe I have earned my Tour Guide Barbie patch.
Here goes:
June
23: Grammie & Pa arrive midday (girls out of school for their arrival); we did let them rest briefly (too much not good for jet lag) in the afternoon, off to Blackford Hill http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackford_Hill after supper for the lovely views of Edinburgh in the amazingly beautiful late evening sunshine.
24: Today was Janie's all day-dress rehearsal for the St. George's Junior School spring musical, Rainbow Spectacular at a church on the other side of town. I let Caroline skip again, and we took Janie to the church, then went to Stockbridge for shopping & lunch, then back to the church at 1:30 to watch the dress rehearsal (couldn't bring everyone to the performance, restricted by the size of the church to three guests), then home with Janie, then Daryl & I back again with Janie to watch the performance in the evening. Ice cream at S Luca in Morningside on the way home. With the three round trips to the church, this was a surprisingly exhausting day.
25: Church picnic to Harlaw Reservoir at base of the Pentland Hills. We arrived dressed for the outdoors, but did not know the picnic included a 2 mile hike to the picnic site. Not strenuous, however, but Janie was quite muddy and almost entirely soaked by the time we arrived back at the car. I learned that "paddling" (as mentioned in the picnic announcement email) here does not involve a boat of any sort, but wading at the water's edge. If I had known that, a change of clothes for her would certainly have been packed with the lunch.
26: Church in the morning. Craigmillar Castle in the afternoon. Craigmillar is a great 14th century ruin about 2 miles from our house. We had a great time roaming and scrambling around the grounds and climbing the rocks at the base of the tower walls.
Janie @ Craigmillar Castle
28: Dumferline Abbey and Palace (really an abbey guest house that became a royal residence as various HMs decided they liked it for a retreat). Robert the Bruce is buried here and many other kings and queens of Scotland. The property dates to 1072. Simply amazing. Afternoon was Caroline's Lower School Sports Day at St. Georges. She ran a great 80m race :)
Dumferline Abbey
29: We are now 10 with the late night arrival of the Ohio Wehmeyers. No rest for the weary travelers, however, and as soon as I return from taking the girls to school, we head for Edinburgh Castle & the Royal Mile. It was a sunny, warmish (for us) day, and we all enjoyed the castle views and seeing the "rock from the King's Speech" -- the Stone of Scone or Stone of Destiny. http://www.edinburghcastle.gov.uk/index/tour/highlights/highlights-stone-of-destiny.htm. I'm up to four visits to the castle and always want to stand and admire the views in every direction.
Edinburgh Castle, canon pointed right at our house about 1.5 miles away
After I left for the afternoon school run, the rest of the crowd caught the tour at Mary King's Close of underground Edinburgh -- they highly recommend it & I'll need to do that.
30: Daryl & the Ohio Wehmeyers drove to St. Andrews to see the coast, the university, the town and the golf courses. And not necessarily in that order!
After we took the girls to school, Mom, Dad & I walked back into the city center and walked through the St. Cuthbert's cemetary, admired the masses of gorgeous roses in Princes Street Garden, then spent a quick hour in the National Gallery before picking up the girls at noon from their last day at school. We then took the bus back into town for an afternoon of shopping & a picnic lunch in the Princes Street Garden. When the rest of crowd returned home, we went to Leith for fish & chips at the King's Wark (BEST in town!)
JULY:
1: Yea! Caroline's 13th birthday is today, so we organized our day around her celebration. We all trekked out to Ocean Terminal in Leith for lunch (Caroline invited several school chums); while Caroline & her friends shopped & went to a movie, the rest of toured the Royal Yacht Britannia, the Queen's former yacht, upon which Charles & Diana honeymooned. http://www.royalyachtbritannia.co.uk/ Home for chocolate birthday cake & pizza.
2: We spent all day in Stirling, about an hour northwest-ish of Edinburgh. We started at the Wallace Monument and then drove into town to Stirling Castle. The palace there was recently re-opened after refurbishment, and we hadn't been able to see it on a previous visit. Mary Queen of Scots parents lived at Stirling and established their court there.. It was a day of beautiful views everywhere we looked!
O-H-I-O @ Stirling Castle
3: THE ALL DAY, ALL HIGHLAND BUS TOUR! We departed from the Royal Mile at 8:00 a.m. with stops in Pitlochry (small Victorian town in Perth), Ft. Augustus for Loch Ness boat ride, Ft. William (Inverlochy Castle: http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/propertyresults/propertydetail.htm?PropID=PL_159&PropName=Inverlochy%20Castle), Glencoe for pictures, Stirlingshire to visit a highland cow and assorted miscellaneous photo stops & points of interest. We dragged back into Edinburgh just shy of 9:00 p.m. just in time for a lovely relaxing walk home via the Old Town, Quartermile & Meadows to work out the kinks after spending the day on the bus.
4: Janie turns 7 today! We mustered early Monday morning for a hike up Arthur's Seat. Dad made a new friend at the top who explained some of the basics of rugby, including the variations of rugby league rules. Everyone made it up and down in one piece. We had great views down to Holyrood Palace, where people were arriving for HM The Queen's Garden Party. Just as we were heading down, the first strains of God Save the Queen were reaching the peak. It was quite warm and we were glad we weren't making the climb later in the day, which is highly unusual in Edinburgh!
Most of the girls went to Princes Street for shopping while Grammie, Pa & me took Janie to the first part of her birthday party. Four of her school friends met us at a small cinema in Morningside for Kung Fu Panda 2, then we walked 10 minutes up the street to S Luca for ice cream with the girls and the rest of the family. The upstairs cafe was nearly deserted, so the school girls gave a repeat performance from some of the songs from the spring musical.
5: Up early to take the Ohio Wehmeyers to the train station, as they spend a day in London before returning to Ohio & Kansas City. The rest of us spent the day chilling and recovering from the whirlwind of the previous week.
6: One day off is enough. Today we (Grammie & Pa, me & the girls) went up to the Royal Mile for lunch at Carrubers Cafe, at Carrubers Church. http://www.carrubbers.org/ Dad tried the national soft drink, Irn Bru; to say it tastes of orange fizzy cough syrup would be generous. http://www.irn-bru.co.uk/home.html
We walked the few blocks to the National Museum of Scotland; this was our first visit and won't be our last. The museum has some great kids areas and more on the way for a late July expansion opening. http://www.nms.ac.uk/our_collections/highlights/dolly_the_sheep.aspx
We saw the preserved Dolly the Sheep, lots of ROS (Really Old "Stuff") In fact, after these last few weeks, I'm thinking of changing the title of the blog to "Really Old Stuff." Walked home through a misty Edinburgh.
7: Janie & I saw the HM the Queen today! Very exciting, if fleeting. We were driving home from the orthodontist and HM's motorcade came through the roundabout we were waiting to enter. Maybe on the way north to Balmoral? HM was wearing a pink hat and looked small in the back seat of HM's lovely black Rolls. Or is it a Bentley? I was Too Busy Shrieking "Janie, Janie, LOOK!" to get a good look at the automobile. HM didn't seem to notice us...
The rest of the day was spent castle-ing: we visited Doune Castle and Castle Campbell. Doune Castle http://montypython.wikia.com/wiki/Monty_Python_and_the_Holy_Grail is well-preserved semi-ruin dating from the 14th century. It is well-known at the "Monty Python Holy Grail" castle. It is also the home to many very small birds (swallows, perhaps?) that dart quickly in and out of the rooms, stairways and arches, sometimes very close to one's head. Sometimes freaking one out. Sometimes.
Doune Castle
After lunch in Callander, we spend about an hour at Castle Campbell in Dollar. The location is simply breathtaking and the castle itself is remotely situated at the top of heavily wooded glen. It is only reached by vehicle on a narrow winding steep road, or by foot climbing the hillside along the winding creek. As we approached the castle, I had the thought that perhaps it's inhabitants weren't terribly popular. It is situated in such a was as to be very easily defended. My father's paternal grandmother, Blanche, was a Campbell, so this was a fun stop. We'll need to visit both these places again with Daryl.
Castle Campbell
8: And that brings us today. Janie went swimming at Leith Waterworld (indoor playground pool) with Grammie & Pa. We puttered the rest of the day, as it was unusually stormy with very heavy rain showers. I made a banofee pie, which I hope be an improvement over the last attempt. Tomorrow (Saturday 9th) we go to Linlithow to see the palace and watch a jousting event with a team from England. Woo hoo, the fun never stops!
Wow! All I can say is you must post that at TripAdvisor under "What to do in Edinburgh". You will be happy to know that if we can ever get there, we'll be happy with just one or two castles, a museum and the regular stuff around town, plus lots of fish and chips!
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