Edinburgh Is Old

Edinburgh really looks quite old... I guess that's because it is, but it just seemed to look a lot older than most places we have been to. Edinburgh has a great history, however I know very little about it. It was a little cold while we were there and quite windy - which is my least favourite weather ever. But we had a nice day seeing some of the sights that attract over 1 million overseas visitors a year!!

This is the Scott Monument, which commemorates the work of the poet Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832). You can walk up it, and get a good view in all directions.... well that's what they say - we didn't fancy walking up 287 steps with 2 little girls! The Scott Monument is a gothic tower and was designed by George Meikle Kemp - who never actually got to see it finished because he drowned in the Union Canal. It was completed in 1844, and is built from light sandstone. Over time though the stonework has darkened from the pollution in the air! (And I don't think it actually looks all that good... it kinda looks evil!)

When it started to rain we decided to jump on the tour bus. This was our tour guide. He was pretty good and handled the annoying Americans well!!! He told us a few interesting stories - none of which I can remember enough to re-tell, but it was good at the time. I must say... I do love the Scottish accent!

We got off the bus just outside The Edinburgh Castle and walked up The Royal Mile and into the castle. The views were amazing!

*And.... did you know that the term panorama was originally coined by the painter Robert Barker to describe his panoramic paintings of Edinburgh!!!

The castle goes way back - I'll just start in AD 638 when the fortress on the rock was renamed Edinburgh previously known as Din Eidyn. Around 1130 David I builds a royal castle on the rock, which includes a chapel dedicated to his mother Queen Margaret. The chapel still stands today and is the oldest part of the castle. Below is a photo of the Chapel sitting at nearly the top of the castle.

In 1566 Mary Queen of Scots gave birth in the castle to her only child, the future King James VI of Scotland and I of England.

Edinburgh is made up of the Old Town and the New Town, and that's exactly what they call it. The New Town was built in the 18th century to help out with the increasingly crowded Old Town. It seemed like it was going to be easy at first, to see which part was the Old Town and which the New, but I got a little confused with it all in the end!

Still in the Castle...

This was probably my favourite part of the castle, underneath where the prisoners were held. I like seeing stuff like this.... imagining what life must have been like for some of these people.

Around Edinburgh...

We really enjoyed Scotland, even though it was only a short stay. It would have been nice to see more of the Scottish country-side further north but Edinburgh was plenty interesting. We heard and saw lots of things about Mary, Queen of Scots and left feeling that they are all quite proud of her! Which then brought on a bit of a fascination with her - her story is quite detailed and hard to follow at times, but really very interesting. With mums help I think I have kinda just about worked out where she fits in to it all!!

One thing about Scotland was that it stayed light quite late. These photos were taken at 11:21PM from our apartment! People were out roaming around and washing their cars like it was the middle of the day!! I started to imagine what it must be like in Finland!!

In To Scotland We Go...

It only took an hour to reach the Scottish border from Ambleside and the sun was shining already!

Scotland

England

It was then another hour and a half to reach Glasgow, which we didn't see much of - pretty much just drove straight through it to Jean's house. There wasn't really a whole lot to see though and the city didn't look all that exciting, but I'm sure there are some lovely places there if you have time to look! This is Jean and baby Michael with Mick, Lani and Emily. Jean went to Uni with Mick and has just finished her A & E training. She is on maternity leave at the moment but will start her first job as a consultant at the end of the year. (No more exams for her = very exciting!) She was so kind to us and cooked us a lovely meal, we had a great time meeting/catching up. Jean has been living in Scotland for about 5 years with her husband and is sounding very much like a scot - it was great to listen to all her wee phrases with the ay's and nae's! Mick hasn't seen her for about 6 years but it didn't feel like that at all. They only had 60 students in their class at Uni and they spent 6 years together so most of them get on quite well. The girls really enjoyed visiting Jean and her beautiful baby Michael... although Emily looks a little unsure in this photo!

We then drove on to Edinburgh to stay for 2 nights. The girls had a great time unpacking their stuff and found a place for everything!!

As usual Lani was a bit of a freak and lined all the shoes up perfectly!

The World of Beatrix Potter

The one place I really wanted to go to while in The Lakes was The World of Beatrix Potter Attraction, but it didn't end up happening. It was pouring with rain and we got ourselves a little confused with all the different Beatrix Potter sites that we didn't really know where we were meant to be going! We headed into Hawkshead, Ambleside first to the Beatrix Potter Gallery, which was very interesting - we saw lots of the original sketches and paintings but it was a little boring for the kids especially because I had told them we were going to see Peter Rabbit! Hawkshead is a beautiful little town and it would have been so nice to spend a few hours walking around here.... but the rain was just too heavy.

It was crowded here so we had to wait for our turn to go in!

After the gallery we headed to Hill Top where Beatrix Potter wrote a lot of her stories. Hill Top was left to the National Trust when Beatrix died, under strict instructions that everything was to stay as it was. It was quite interesting to see and many of the drawings in her books are sketches of items in this home... and everything looks just how it was in the books. It was so wet here that we didn't really even get any photos.... here we are walking up to Hill Top in the rain.

The path to Beatrix's cottage on Hill Top farm.

By the time we had finished here it was getting late and we had a bit of driving to do. So we headed off, forgetting about The World of Beatrix Potter Attraction.... I kinda felt disappointed, and it felt like we hadn't quite seen it all - but it was all kinda confusing at the time of what was what. I felt bad for the kids because I thought we were going to see Peter Rabbit and all his friends.... but decided maybe I was getting it all wrong and hadn't read the website correctly. But then later I realised that we had actually missed the 'main' attraction! 'The World of Beatrix Potter Attraction' was actually in a different area and we missed it completely. It's a bit sad because the girls would have loved it, and it is exactly what I thought we were going to see this day!! I guess this happens sometimes - and we will blame the rain!

I am glad we got to see what we did though and It was nice to see and read a bit more into the life of Beatrix Potter, the lady who wrote my childhood bedtime stories and created the characters on our breakfast bowls!! 'The Kellys' gave me my 'The Adventures of Peter Rabbit' book for my 1st (I think) birthday and it is well worn! Elle and I used to love listening to those stories and I can remember it like it was yesterday - always asking for 'The Tale of Mr Tod' because it was the longest!! I'm sure we will get to the fun attraction another time!!

Looking Out The Window

The 'must see' place in England seems to be 'The Lake District'. Everyone is always telling us how lovely it is and that we must go there. It's over 4 hours drive from our place so we haven't been able to just go there on a day trip, but when we decided to spend a week travelling north, The Lake District was first on the list of places to go.

After our short stop in Preston we were back on the road and heading to Cumbria, and from here the views really did just keep getting better and better!

They may not look that exciting to all you people living in beautiful, mountain filled Tasmania - but seriously, most of England is so flat and seeing these hills (mountains to the Brits) was a glorious sight!!!

No matter how many rock walls I see, they amaze me everytime! I can't help but imagine someone standing there building them and I think about how much hard work it must have been. The paddocks are just lined with them.

We were heading to a B&B in Eskdale which is West of the more common Lake District Towns. It felt like we were in the middle of nowhere at times, but it was a pretty good looking nowhere!

It was a beautiful evening, and such an interesting drive - kinda scary at times though - going up these tiny roads, no knowing what's around the corner.

There were a few times that we wondered where the hell we were going.... surrounded by wild sheep, no one else to be seen.....

... apart from the odd MG!! (actually not really sure what kinda cool car this is... but it looks a little like an MG so we will call it that!!)

Eventually, we reached our B&B! Eskdale is a tiny town and was so peaceful. This was our rooms view.... quite refreshing really!

We headed up to the pub for tea, and the kids had a great time on the playground! I think they were just glad to be out of the car at this stage!!! Couldn't stay long into the night though, because even though it stays light here until about 10pm-ish the Midgies start coming out (little flea-like things that bite)!

Lani made herself a cuppa in the morning...

which she needed because it was good bye beautiful weather and hello rain!

Actually, it was pouring.... not raining, so our full day planned in The Lakes kinda got ruined! But there were still some great sights and our drive to Hawkshead proved to be very entertaining!

We decided to take the road over Honister Pass from Eskdale to Ambleside, even though we were warned that going the shortest way isn't really the quickest way and that this part of road is the most 'dodgy' in all of England. (The guy even tried to tell us that there is nothing like this road in the whole of Australia.... and that I may have to sit in the back with the kids!)

We weren't really sure whether we should give it a go or not, but all this talk made me wanna take the challenge!

We really wished we were in the Subaru, and would have felt a lot safer if we were, because our dodgy Peugeot doesn't have the best brakes, or much power!

The road turned out to be not so bad... but a little stressful for the driver at times! Think Proctors road with no safety rails, twice as steep only 1/2 the width with cars wanting to go up and down!! This road took us over the steepest passes in England, but I don't think he was right when he said 'there is nothing like it in Australia'!

We reached our destination and it was still raining quite hard... but we did what we could!