Weekend in Scotland: Edinburgh & Glasgow

Hey friends! Long time no talk. Life has been much busier this time around. We are in the home-stretch of preparing for the English exam, so I'm spending a lot of time with the girls. Hopefully all our efforts will pay off and she will pass the exam with flying colors!

A lot has gone on that I need to document, but I'll start with the most recent. This past weekend, I traveled to Scotland with the family. We stayed in Edinburgh, but also went to Glasgow one day. We visited the Edinburgh Castle, walked the Royal Mile, went to the Edinburgh Zoo, and did A LOT of shopping. The weather was absolutely beautiful most of the time. Clear, blue skies and sun! It only rained for about two hours the entire weekend.

Ellersly House Hotel

University of Edinburgh

#always

University of Glasgow

Arthur's Seat

I was so excited to climb Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh. I had heard about the gorgeous views of the city. When we got to the bottom of the Royal Mile, we decided to just do it...even though we weren't really dressed for a hike. Because it was so cold, we had multiple layers on. Literally less than five minutes into the hike, we were stripping off jackets and rolling up our pants. It was a very tough hike (we took the hard way with the best views) in some places but so worth it in the end. I highly recommend it if you ever get to Edinburgh! There are multiple trails to take depending on your fitness level. The one we  did only took us about an hour and a half...including multiple stops to take pictures.

Oh and word of advice: take a water bottle.

 Made it to the top!

These kids were rolling down the hill. There is one at the bottom and one at the top. So funny!

And now they're both at the bottom :) 

This is the palace on the left. The grass inside the wall goes up to meet the top (you can see it slope upwards). When they look out of the palace towards the lawn on the right, it looks like it continues on forever. From their point of view, there is no wall separating the commoners from the royals.

We ended our stop with ice cream. It was well-deserved.

The Royal Mile

From Dublin to Edinburgh.

Method of travel: Plane.

What happens when you're at an airport for three hours and you want a familiar meal? This:

We had a quick flight over to Edinburgh on Ryanair. That airline is ridiculous. So cheap but man it's crazy!

We got to Edinburgh at 11 PM...not our smartest move. We got a little lost trying to find out hostel but we made it in one piece! Because it was dark, we couldn't really see anything around us. But in the morning, we woke up to see this right across the street:

Hello, castle! We started at the top of the Royal Mile (Edinburgh Castle) and walked to the bottom of the hill (Holyrood Palace). 

We also stopped at the Elephant House for lunch. You know, where J.K. Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book. No big deal.

left my mark

Walking down this hill kind of felt like stepping back in time. The architecture, the men in kilts, being in between two castles...it was all so Scottish. And I loved every second of it.

Holyrood Palace is at the bottom of the Royal Mile. This is where the royals stay when they are in town. Sadly it was closed because some Lord was there for the week. Lame. 

I'm about to sound really stupid...but I had no idea the royal family in England was the same one for Scotland. Definitely thought Scotland had their own king and queen. We were a bit confused when we walked in the gift shop to see Wills and Kate staring us in the face. But it totally makes sense now.

Go ahead and judge me. I know I sure would if I were in your shoes :)