On our third day in Edinburgh, August 24th, we had tickets to tour Edinburgh Castle at 12:30, so we decided to head over close to Old Town after breakfast and hike to the top of Arthur’s Seat, an ancient volcano that we had noticed from the Royal Mile on Tuesday.  The hike to the summit was steep and strenuous.  Our taxi driver let us out at a parking lot by a crater lake about two-thirds of the way up to the top.  We did not ask him to do that, but we were glad he did, although it is possible we skipped the gradual, easy part of the walk.  The view from the top was beautiful, giving us an expansive 360 panorama of the entire Edinburgh area.  

After a picnic by Holyrood Palace, we headed to the Castle and toured it using their audio guide.  Edinburgh Castle was interesting and as the icon of the city, we wanted to see it.  Two of our kids were having especially tough days, so our time at the castle wasn’t very enjoyable.  Despite this, I think the most interesting parts were the military jail, the prisoner of war barracks and the Great Hall.  

After Edinburgh Castle we walked to Scotland’s National Museum and were delighted to come upon the coffee shop where J.K. Rowling penned a lot of the Harry Potter Books – The Elephant House.  Sadly, it is currently closed because of a fire a few years ago. 

By the time we got to the National Museum and had a snack, we only had an hour until it closed so we split up and all went to see what we were interested in.  The building and exhibits are wonderful and we wished we had had more time.  

After the museum, we walked across the street to Gryfriars’s Kirkyard, an old and ornate graveyard where J.K. Rowling walked and got inspiration for several key characters’ names.  We enjoyed finding the names on grave-stones as well as looking through the gates at George Heriot’s School, which people suppose might be what inspired Rowling’s descriptions of Hogwarts.  It was then sunset, so we left un-spooked and went to find dinner. 

For dinner, we settled on the closest comfort food available – Thai curry!  By now, you can tell that we were all a little travel weary (some more than others) even after making several adjustments the previous two stops.  The crowds and cramped hotel room in Edinburgh only added to this as well as not having a kitchen for some homemade meals.  When we planned our time in the UK, we went back and forth several times about whether or not to go to Scotland, because we thought it might be squeezing in too much.  If we had it to do over again, we would have spent longer in The Lake District and York and saved Scotland for a different trip.  As it is, if we want to truly experience Scotland, we’ll have to go back some other time, because the two and half days in Edinburgh covered just one small part of a vast and gorgeous country.  

Another method of reviewing that Linda taught me is to identify Wins and Learns – I’m going to start adding this to the bottom of some of my posts.

Edinburgh Wins:  Hike to Arthur’s Seat, Scottish National Museum, and J.K. Rowling Sites; Bonus: Costco Trip

Edinburgh Learns:  Continue limiting times where we all stay in one room to three days or less OR get more than one room. Also, only have one of these at a time sandwiched between stays in larger places for at least a week at a time to minimize transitions and energy spent on unpacking/packing.

If you want to learn more from Linda, check out her website at http://www.altacoaching.com.