Edinburgh, Scotland by Mel

Hello everyone,
We are still in Scotland for one more stop. We are in a little town near Edinburgh, called Armadale. We wanted to stay in Edinburgh, but as there was the Tattoo festival and the Fringe festival, prices of accommodation were through the roof in the city, so we stayed a bit on the outside. This is only a 30-minute train ride into the city, so no issue at all.
We drove from Nairn to Armadale on Sunday the 24th, stopping at Perth to meet a friend of ours, Alexa. We caught up around lunch and it was really nice to be able to do so.
We also drove past the Kelpies: 2 big statues of horse’s head. We said we will stop on the way back and we completely forgot about it and took another road. So we only saw the Kelpies while driving past. Lesson learnt: when you can do something now, do it! You never know what the future will be!
Then we got to our place: a mobilome, pretty well done and comfortable. We settled, did some schoolwork and some food shopping as usual.
The following day we went to visit Edinburgh castle. The castle is in the middle of the city and dominate it from the top of Castle Rock (a volcanic hill formed around 350 million years ago). There has been a castle on Castle Rock since the 11th century, but it has been rebuilt several times, due to fire, destruction and other issue of being a royal castle. Historians identify 26 sieges of the castle over the 1100-year history, making it the more attacked castle in the UK.
There is a lot to see there. Several museums of different army company, the crown jewels, the royal appartements. There is also the one-o-clock gun, which is being fired every day (except Sundays) at 1pm. It was originally done to help the ships knowing what time it was, and it kept going even when it wasn’t needed anymore as a tradition. It was a good visit. Another place where a lot of history happen, I always love those places.
Andrew said he really like that caste, one of the best, but he likes all the castles in Scotland.
After that, a little pleasure for Kev and I. We visited a distillery. I thought it was something to do when in Scotland. We found one in Edinburgh, called Holyrood. This is a new distillery which open in 2019. They make whisky and gin. We had an explanation of the terminology, of the process to make the drinks and visited the place. We obviously tested some samples. It was pretty good! We decided to stay at the bar to try some more (within reason of course!). I like the pitted whisky best. It tested smoky and I enjoyed it a lot.
Emma said they liked to see what ingredients they put in to make the taste and smell (we let the kids smell the drinks. Not drink them obviously). Andrew liked the small still where they distyle their basic alcohol with all the tubes.
Every good thing has an end, so we had to go at some point and walked in the streets of Edinburgh to get to the train station and back to our place. It was a great day.
The following day and last full day in Edinburgh, we saw the street which inspired Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter book. It is very pretty, with house and shops with a lot of colours (not as much as Burano in Italy, but still!). Emma really like the street with all the colourful buildings and could see that Diagon Alley was based there.
We visited the Dynamic Earth Museum. It was extremely interesting. It was about the formation of the universe and the earth. It was very interactive and made fun with videos on big screen in rooms with moving floor to simulate earthquake, or an elevator/timetraveling machine, a 3D movie about the different climates, a room so cold about the poles with a giant piece of ice in the middle and more! The last room was a planetarium with explanation about some constellation and pictures taken by the Vera telescope in Chili: you probably saw some of those pictures on the Internet, but they were on a massive planetarium screen and it was amazing! The information in this museum was fun and interesting for everyone. I really enjoyed this museum and I think the kids too. We stayed in there a lot longer than originally planned! When we were finished it was peeing down outside, but luckily they had a restaurant onsite, so we ate there and by the end of our lunch, the rain had stopped. Lucky. We kept on with our adventure.
Andrew like this museum because it went from the start of the universe until now. He liked how interactive it was (not too much to read). “The planetarium was great as they made it funny and they talk about the constellation, what they thought about them and what the Greeks thought and called them.” was one of his comments.
Emma loved how interactive it was and their favourite room, was the one with the earth that showed how the tectonic plates could move and the screen that showed all the earthquakes.
The next place we visited was the museum of childhood, a free museum, which is a plus. It had toys, stories about how people’s childhood was 70ish years ago, a small history about the evolution of school over the last 100 years or so, some clothes… There were a few toys the kids could play with, it was a nice museum.
Emma liked to see what kids in the past use to keep themselves entertain. There were so many cool toys to look at. “I could have stayed there forever just playing with them” Emma said.
We also visited Ste Giles Cathedral, which is beautiful, especially inside. It is very gothic, as it has been rebuilt several times, as often. The windows are amazing, the ceiling is incredible with details, there is a massive pipe organ. I wish we could have heard it! Andrew found a screen that was giving information about the architecture of the cathedral with quiz on it after. That boy loves facts and quizzes! So he did it all. I read with him first, but then I had enough of information, but he kept going and said he got all the answers right! It was no easy read and I am amazed on how well he is retaining information (when he wants to!)
We saw the statue of Bobby Greyfriars, a dog who according to the story, in the 19th century, stayed on its owner’s grave for 14 years. The story has been challenged many times and we’ll never know the true story but now, that dog has a statue that millions of tourists come and pat the nose!
After that, we jumped back on the train and got back to the mobilome and pack again! We are moving again!
I really enjoyed Edinburgh. I wish we had more days there. It felt like a city with a lot of history and a lot to visit, but also a young and creative energy, originality and fun. I loved that city and really hope we’ll be back one day. This was one of my favourite stops so far.
See you Scotland, we had a great time here and I am sad to leave you. I hope to see you again one day.
MelRead more