What better way to spend the kids' Spring Break than taking a road trip to Scotland for the week!!!
I love to travel and explore new places, hence one of the main reasons I decided to move to England.
Scotland is such a beautiful place to visit. My in-laws have been ooohhhinng and ahhhhing over Scotland for as long as I've known them. It is (or was) their favorite place to go on holiday. Unfortunately, they aren't able to really holiday anymore due to poor health.
With that said, we booked a 4 night stay in Edinburgh, Scotland. From where we live (midlands), it took us about 5.5 hours drive time to get there. Thankfully, my neighbor let me borrow her portable DVD player for the kids to use on the drive up. What a lifesaver!
Prepare for photo OVERLOAD!!!!!!!! Steve told me there were far too many photos, but I just can't help myself!
I can't recommend Edinburgh enough! What a beautiful city!!!!
After a 5 hour road trip, we couldn't wait to sit down in a pub for a meal. We visited Rose Street Brewery and had a meal and a pint of Scottish beer. It was delicious.
Edinburgh is such a beautiful city. We were very fortunate in the weather department as we never got rained on.
On the drive up, I don't think I've ever seen so many sheep in my life!!!!!!!!!! It was a beautiful drive through the countryside. Scotland is known for their cashmere and tartan. OMG - the cashmere and tartan scarves were gorgeous. I picked up two beautiful scarves while there. If you are a lover of cashmere, you literally would have died and gone to cashmere heaven. Not even kidding. Really gorgeous pieces!
The Royal Mile is probably the busiest tourist place in Edinburgh. It is this long stretch of road that has Edinburgh Castle at one end and Holyrood Palace at the other end. In between, it is full of tourist shops, whiskey tastings and pubs.
Stella - never one to shy away, immediately approached these sweet boys playing bagpipes in the street. She loves music and no doubt probably offended them in some way while speaking to them. She regularly offends people................
Whatever she said worked, they loved her and she made us take a photo with "her boys"! So cute!
If you are a fan of scotch or whiskey, this is the place to be! I've never been either, but since moving to England, have such an appreciation of both! Steve's parents actually introduced me to so many good scotch-whiskeys. Nothing beats a glass of really good scotch mixed with a little lemonade to go to bed on.....(Steve prefers his with a splash of water). While we were in Scotland, we tasted lots of different scotch and whiskey. I think Steve died and went to Scotch heaven. He has always been a fan so was very fascinated by it all.
In fact, check out the photo above. That bottle would cost around $40,000.00 dollars. WHAT??????????????????? So crazy right? A lot of these bottles get auctioned off and bring in a fortune!
This particular bottle of Glenfiddich would cost you around $533.00
Me and my girls at Edinburgh Castle
They were so excited about visiting a castle. Apparently they thought we were off to fight dragons and rescue Repunzal from her tower. LOL!
Love this photo............Stella is OBSESSED with her sister! She always says, "Charlotte is my BEST FRIEND! She never calls her Lottie, in fact, the only people that do here is Steve and I. Everyone calls her Charlotte. She thinks she is so POSH! :)
Edinburgh Castle is full of history. I feel like I'm in World History Class all over again, although, this time around, I'm not snoozing!
The next series of photos are Dad and Lottie having a mini photo shoot because Stella started acting out and basically brought the castle down with her crying, screaming and loud tantrums all because I asked her to stay with her family and not run off. In the end I strapped her down in the stroller and let her cry it out while everyone looked on. Ugghhhhh, terrible twos going on terrible threes.
Finally, she shaped up and got a handle on herself so we could pop in to see the Crown Jewels. Unfortunately, we weren't able to take photos because of the rules, but they were gorgeous.
Pet cemetery at castle
We also visited Portobello Beach which is only about 3 miles outside of the city. We had lunch, walked along the beach and collected shells. It was a perfect day!
There was a park on the beach which the girls loved.
Can't go anywhere in the UK without getting an ice cream. I've said it before, they have the best whipped ice cream I've ever tasted!!!!!
Of course, the trip wouldn't be complete without a trip to several Scottish football clubs. We basically came back with photos and multiple coffee mugs from all the stadiums we visited. Oh joy!!! The hubs and his love for football................
Arthur's Seat - it was formed on an extinct volcano. It is a bit of a steep climb, so we weren't able to climb it with the kids. I would have loved to, but it would have been far too much for them especially after the long days we had them out til. Nevertheless, it looked really beautiful. You could see if from different parts of the city.
These guys were camping out and protesting / campaigning for Scotland to break away from the UK.
Of course my legal background had me yearning to hit up Parliament. The kids - not so impressed!
Wild childs - of course this would be right outside of the Scottish Parliament
Their favorite part of the day - coming back to the hotel at night for sleepovers and watching movies. Every night we came back from our big adventures, they immediately stripped down and put on their jammies ready to watch movies. Isn't it so funny how much kids love hotels???
Another football stadium..........................
We decided to head out of the city for a day of sightseeing at Saint Andrews and Dundee! Steve and I love traveling
But first..............................another d$$m football stadium!!!!!!!!!!
Saint Andrews............................ I grew up watching golf with my dad and watching him play golf so to see this place in the flesh was amazing!!!!!! Such a cool course and in the off months didn't cost that much to play. Had Steve and I been sans kids, we would have definitely teed off!
One more, I swear football ground!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We stopped on our way back at one of the largest distilleries in Scotland. Unfortunately, it wasn't somewhere we could taste scotch. The security was pretty tight. However, it was pretty cool to see how many different scotch/whiskeys were distilled at this place!
At last, after a long day out, the kids were super happy to be relaxed, watching DVDs at the end of the day!
That sums up our trip!!!!!!!!!!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh what a good one!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE EDINBURGH!!!!!!! We can't wait to go back! I am so excited to show our girls the world. I love them so much and they very much deserve all this big world has to offer!!!!
