TLDR- Kar Kar is here for her annual visit and wants to see Edinburgh. Kids have a week off let’s go! Getting there and the first day of the trip covered in part I
Late Flight
Our normal flights leave around 0700 early in the morning. To make those flights we leave the house around 0300. Not today. Today we fly out at 1235 and left the house shortly after 0800. Leaving the house when its light out is a nice experience. Don’t worry we’re still getting rained on like usual. We took the LUAS to Central Park followed by air coach to the airport. No vomiting on the bus; good job little ones. Khaleesi was chatty with the Aircoach driver. She asked, “what happens if the bus lights on fire” – “what happens if the front of the bus blows up” – “what happens if we jump the bus” – ok, fine Khaleesi we’ll watch Speed tonight.
Driving up the airport we noticed the UK flag is missing from the EU flag line – Thanks Brexit more wind to make power with? We made it to the airport with loads of time to spare. UK flights do not require passport checks at the Airline check-in desk, for now. We can skip finding someone at the Ryanair desk to stamp our tickets saying we have passports. We flew through airport security in record time due to almost no queue. The gal watching the x-ray scanner loading zone commented at our speed and efficiency “wow six of you done in less than 60 seconds. Can you teach people?” We have it down to a science. The kids were handing us things to put in the bins, liquids were in bags already, electrics all dumped from one bag into a bin, no one forgot to take something off.
Michelle kicked up our packing game for this trip. We are down to two big Rush 72 5.11 packs, 2 REI Flash 22 ultralight packs inside the back flap of the 5.11 packs and one small 20 liter Provis pack for Maddex. These 5 packs hold are all of our electronics, toys, books, clothing, and kit for 6 for a five-night trip.
Kara ended up trapped in Iceland for an extra night due to a snowstorm. Instead of arriving the day before our flight to Edinburgh she arrived at the airport at 1037 the day we depart to Edinburgh. Now, this is cute, Her flight landing at gate 110. We passed by her on the other side of the glass wall walking into the airport from her gate as we walked to our gate, gate 110…. I was thinking she would land at the other terminal and have to go through passport control and security again missing our flight. Nope, she landed at the same gate we’re departing from
Always the excellent host, Michelle went for a walk back towards security where found Kara. On the walk back she heard our flight had changed gates. We relocated to gate 107 and waited for the exciting takeoff. We Made it on the plane 20 minutes late, took off about five minutes after the scheduled time. We are on Ryan air RYR816 to Edinburgh. The @DublinBayBuoy Reports – “Gust Dir:204 °(SW), Avg Wind:21kts, Gust:38kts” should be an exciting flight! Thanks, Storm Dennis, fourth named storm of the year in the UK.
According to her new apple watch, she’s learned to love, Michelle has a heart rate of about 110. She is getting a wee bit anxious the closer take-off we get. It was too windy to load from the rear and the front, we only loaded from the front; not a good sign. Sitting in the plane on the tarmac not moving we’re shaking more than a plane shakes during normal flight. Wow, this is going to be a great flight! Take off was not too horrible to me – Michelle, she did not enjoy it so much. Fasten seat belt sign stayed on the whole 50 minute flight.
Made it Edinburgh
We’ve had rougher landings, but not many as rough as this one- Mila yelled “we made it we’re alive” after we slowed down. Michelle let out a deep breath like she was holding her breath. Maddex looked up from his game and shrugged a bit. I enjoyed watching all of their reactions. Had to hold the little one’s hands walking off the plane else they might have blown away. There is no passport check arriving in the UK from Ireland we walked right to baggage claim where Maddex found the stroller. Next stop the tram into the city.
At the tram station, they had an info booth made of two train fronts merged in the middle. One of the train fronts was open for kids to play driving the train. Mila and Khaleesi reported driving the train was their favorite part of the day. The kids had a blast playing while Michelle and Kara bought our tickets. The train has a dedicated ticket checker walking the train after every stop. He was not letting our kids get away with moving about the train. We had to keep them in their seats and keep the calm – mutter. – Note, In Edinburgh, every tram has a ticket checker on it at all times walking back and forth checking tickets.
It was only about 12 minutes walk from the tram to our flat. 3 Easter Dalry Rigg # 7. Our flat is a 3 bedroom with plenty of room for all of us. The floors squeak loudly and the kids are not quite walkers. So far does not seem to be anyone under us. If there was we’d leave a bottle of something on their door with a note. After settling down, picking rooms, unpacking, ETC, we went to the co-op, about 5 minutes away, for food. On this trip, we are into Hummus. The spicy red pepper hummus most of them all. It’s wet and dark out by now, not much exploring going on tonight. Around dinner time Maddex and I ventured into the rain for a walkabout to obtain some Kebabs and chips for dinner. Kebabs were meh, chips were good. We ended out the day with Shows, some play and bedtime. – Speed did not work out. Someone died in an elevator and Mila says “Nope this movie took it too far”
Day one exploring the City
Blue Berry Muffins and heart-shaped crumpets for breakfast. It’s 5 and windy out, no rain. It’s actually better then that sounds, it’s a bit sunny out. Time to explore while we can. About 2k away is the Waverley mall near the central train station. In the mall is Flying Tiger Copenhagen and malls are warm. Sounds like a perfect destination on a cold windy day. We dressed well enough the cold did not hurt too bad by itself. The wind gusts made for a sting a bit. Not wanting anyone to be too cold and uncomfortable we escaped into a few buildings for heat
First stop, Saint Mary’s Church. We saw the stone towers from a distance, and like we normally do we had to see near things – “oh that thing over there looks neat we should go see it” Yup big huge stone church in a cross layout. Still can’t get enough of them love exploring churches. Unique to this church, under every seat in the church was a hand made kneeling mat with a Saint on it. Impressive work – hundreds of them in the massive church. In front of the church is a key the kids took a picture on.
Second stop a Sainsbury for snacks and heat. We found some Harry Potter Every flavor beans at the Sainsbury. In front of the shop, we made it a few steps before we had to stop and eat them. We had soup, vomit, booger, sausage, pepper and a few others. Maddex said the earthworm tasted like dirt. Which tasted good to him. Mila spit out the vomit and liked the ear wax. Khaleesi said soap tasted ok. Was fun watching the kids faces. Next, we stopped at a Pound land for toys and treats.
Crossing the street for the Waverley mall one of Maddexs gloves blew off the stroller. All of the kids started running after it. Khaleesi was the closest Mom yelled at her to get it Khaleesi says “I just can’t go that fast.” – it was cute, you had to be there. Maddex eventually caught his glove running and jumping on it! Flying Tiger was scheduled to open at 10. We arrived at 0959 to open doors – perfect. After looking a bit Maddex asked how much we could spend. Trying something new I asked Siri for a random number between 1 and 8. Siri replied with 3, and that is how much we allowed them to spend.
In front of the Flying Tiger, we found a nice soft place to sit, unwrap, and sort our loot. The loot took up about a third space in our bags after being unwrapped. 20£ for some random toys is cheap to add happiness to the kids. Our theory is to try to spoil them extra hard on trips to make sure they enjoy travel. Eventually, they will crave travel and not know why!
Calton Hill then back home
From the mall we saw some huge stone columns on a hill – we shall go there. We walk up Carlton hill to some neat looking Roman columns called the National Monument of Scotland, an old observatory converted to an art museum and of course the amazing view of the city. Near the top of the hill looking down, there was a long steep grassy section. The Kids REALLY wanted to roll down grass. We had to talk them out of it knowing they would not make it out in one piece; such a steep hill. The kids ran right up to the columns and climbed them – of course, big thing, must climb – seems to be a base programming for kids.
Down the hill, we walked straight home – cold and wet, it was time for a break. Princess park between us and the castle was closed for some reason. Which is a bummer because there is a playground in it we could see, but not play on. About 5 minutes from home, we stopped at the Co-op for more hummus and some pizzas. After lunch Mom and I took naps. The girls made bracelets with Kara, and Maddex played video games. We ended the day back out for some more snacks at Lidl sandwiched between a few playgrounds.
At the last playground, Mila might have had too much spinning breaking her brain. She was not talking straight or making sense – could be drama mode, could be something else. She rode home in the stroller and eventually put her self back together. The kids and I ate some random stuff for dinner. Michelle and Kara went out to a pub for dinner and some drinks. – Great first day. Tomorrow we are walking out to an island at low tide !!
Bonus Pictures
