Edinburgh

Our last day with Oma and Opa was spent in Edinburgh, taking in the sites. We had a fabulous time, even though it was SUPER cold and windy.

Now you have to remember we live in a VERY small town of less than 1000 people here in Scotland. And St. Andrews, while it is much larger, is not BIG by any means. So heading into Edinburgh, the “big city”, was a big event. As the bus pulled into the city, Dan said, “Honey, look to your right.” What was he wanting me to see? A Starbucks. Starbucks is not an uncommon site for us, we have one in St. Andrews. I was very tired that day, having not slept well the night before. So I said, “Oh we gotta head back there when we get off the bus!” imagine my surprise when we got off the bus and there was ANOTHER Starbucks. Then we headed off to walk The Royal Mile and there were THREE MORE!!!! I said at one point in the day, “I’ve seen five Starbucks today. I’m HOME.” Ha ha ha.

Anyway, back to our regular scheduled programming…the castle. It was beautiful, and we had a great time exploring.

Check it out!

This is the front of the castle. And this shot turned out WAY cooler than I thought it would.

 

This is a sculpture of a crowning of some king. Don’t remember who. I’m sure my husband or father-in-law will promptly respond with the correct answer!!

Thought Dan looked like such a classic tourist in this shot, complete with his Starbucks bag. This is on the “Royal Mile”, which goes from the Palace, where the Royal Family stays when they’re in Scotland, to the Castle. We walked the whole thing twice and, let me tell you, I am sure it has the highest concentration of souvenir shops known to man!

The view from outside the Castle at night, once they’d turned on the lights.

From the top of the castle, looking out over Edinburgh

Another view from the Castle.

And another.

This is what Eli thought of St. Margaret’s Chapel. This boy is hilarious. We have always been super intense about being home for nap time at home but here we’ve had to be more relaxed and have discovered Eli will fall asleep ANYWHERE once he’s tired enough!

Another view from the Castle. It was beautiful so I took a lot of pictures!

This is the outside of The Great Hall, I believe.

Ok this one is a little out of place. This is the Palace, at the other end of the Royal Mile. Jayden was very excited that the Queen actually sleeps there!

There was an amazing rainbow over the city while we were at the Castle. You can see one end of it here. My mother-in-law, Gayle, got one of the whole thing, I believe.

St. Margaret’s Chapel had four stained glass windows. These are them. (Dan is obsessed with stained glass and has two tattoos that are copies of stained glass windows. For those who don’t know..)

And here we are, in only our 2nd family picture since arriving here.

Edinburgh Castle is famous for being SO beautiful once they turn the lights on it at night. They also have twinkle lights on some of the trees. Here they are.

Once we walked down the hill and looked back at the Castle, it was too beautiful not to try to capture on film. This was my first attempt, and I accidentally left the flash on. If you click on it to see it bigger, you can see the Castle in the background. But I thought the winter trees turned out cool.

 

And here is the best shot we could get, with both me and Dan trying. Remember, we didn’t have a tripod and its a LONG exposure to hold the camera steady for. The view was just INCREDIBLE though. The whole trip there was worth just that one view. It is famous for a reason!!!

And that was Edinburgh! Amazing.