Edinburgh Diaries Day 2

After practically zero hours sleep due to the mattress being lumpier than badly-made bechemel sauce and me ending up on the couch; the kids woke me up at 0530 hrs. They were swiftly dealt with and put back to bed! They were brilliant and slept in till 0730 which allowed me to turn on the heater and combat the arctic temperatures that seem to be prevalent here.


Making breakfast was an interesting matter. The grill barely got hot enough to cook the bacon and the fried eggs went rather hard due to what seemed like an ice-age in the pan! (do you see what I did there!) Breakfast was finally choked down at 0830 and another coffee (decaf) was had.


We are planning to go into Edinburgh today and see some of the sights. Apparently there is an excellent bus service that runs right from the camp-site to the centre of town; it is pretty cheap too!


2131 hrs - Just finished washing the puke out of my jeans and t-shirt! - We went for a carvery near to the zoo that Anna's sister works at and Reuben managed to choke on half a piece of carrot! Happy days - we were only an hour and a half's bus journey from the camp-site...


Before this we had an excellent day! Anna's sister, through her work, had managed to procure some passes to get us into Edinburgh's finest attractions... free... We made the most of it and went first to the Camera Obscura which was brilliant - Very interesting indeed. After that we stopped in the middle of the city to eat our packed lunch and I got a 6-shot decaf americano from Starbucks. Very nice indeed! After that we walked down the Royal Mile and ended up outside the Scottish Parliament building. What a monstrosity! It is so out of keeping with the rest of the city, which is beautiful!


Next on the itinerary was the Dynamic Earth centre. I was convinced it was going to be a liberal-lefty, tree-hugging, Guardian-reading, sandal-wearing, quiche-eater's paradise.. I was pleasantly surprised! It was a fantastic, interactive look at the earth from big bang to modern man and beyond (astronomy etc.) We spent a good 2 hours in there and Reuben even sat still, transfixed by the astronomy film - well it was in a big dome with the screen going all round the ceiling and walls! Before that there was a 3-D film where we flew all over the world to different 'Biomes' which was very well done. Reuben slept through it but Holly was fascinated!


Tomorrow, Anna and the kids are going to the Zoo and I'm going in to Edinburgh and planting myself in Starbucks and taking full advantage of their free wifi connections. (Which will be the first time you get to hear any of this!)


Peace out.