Edinburgh, Scotland Part 2
Day two in Edinburgh began with a stroll through a farmer's market at the base of the castle. There was an Easter parade and biblical reenactment happening in the gardens while we walked past. We made it to the base of some hills and had lunch, then spent the next few hours hiking the various paths and taking beautiful aerial pictures of the city and surrounding waterways. The guys went one way and the girls went the other taking the kids and all the bags, etc. It was a challenging hike almost straight up but Rhiannon blew us all away and was waiting at the top when we arrived. She was against the 5 minute break we requested. Brad did amazingly well too, always managing to keep up somehow and sneaking his naps in during the walks through the city.
After the hike we took the double decker bus to the top of the Royal Mile for our castle tour. We spent a few hours inside the castle grounds and saw the Crown Jewels, the Honours and the Stone of Destiny. We enjoyed the great views and wandered through the various exhibits that used to be the castle rooms themselves. It was a full and exhausting day and we smartly made dinner at home that night. Jim and I got to go out for a "date" which ended up being cut a bit short because apparently the day full of activities combined with the Scottish nightlife, were taking an unwelcome toll on me. I still relished the time with him alone though.
Day 3
Loch Ness Day Trip
We hopped on a "coach" not a bus at 8 am bound for Loch Ness and various other attractions such as Mary Queen of Scot's birthplace, Wallace Memorial, Stirling Castle and the Grampian Mountains. We had a perfect day at the Loch and took a boat ride from the start of the Loch to the Urchart Castle. We spent a lot of time on the boat but not much time was alloted for the castle ruins themselves. It was a very beautiful and peaceful ride and we heard a lot about the lake itself. It is approximately 23 miles long and 1 mile wide at the widest point and about 3/4 miles deep at the center. I would assume this is where many of the Nessie sightings occur. The water is also very very black. Jim and I had "Nessie Beer" on the boat, yum!
At the castle ruins Jim and our friend Mike (who happens to be from home!) decided to brave the 42 degree waves and take shots of Nessie with the underwater camera. Of course the battery chose to die at that moment but we still have above ground shots and video of the guys conquering Loch Ness.
Back on the bus it was a long ride home. We saw many quaint villages and bed and breakfast inns and a handful of other "lochs". The ride back was through the scenic Grampian Mountains with winding roads and steep inclines. I was queasy for sure and I think that combined with the fact that Brad has developed a nasty cough since arriving in Scotland, set him off to vomiting the entire contents of his stomach. Lucky for me he was sitting with Jim at the time! We also encountered an awful traffic accident in the mountains. It happened about 20 cars ahead of us and we sat for an hour while the authorities used the jaws of life and searched the rocky terrain for a person or thing that had been thrown from the car. When we finally passed by it, the car looked like it had flipped at least once and then been into the compactor at the dump. So needless to say, it was a very scenic ride home indeed. Unfortunately the delay caused us to miss seeing Stirling Castle and the Wallace Memorial during daylight hours and we arrived back to Edinburgh two hours behind schedule. The kids were fantastic travelers throughout the day, but we adults were a little worse for the wear by the time the bus parked in the city. Then, gratefully, it was my turn to stay home with the kids and prepare for our final day in Scotland.
