Scotland 2020 Day 1 and 2

We made it! Our epic trip, several years in the making, finally became a reality and we are loving Scotland. We are so proud of Caidoc, Azelie, and Cosima, who all handled the long flights so well. Much to my surprise, Cosima had the least amount of difficulty on the flights, however that might be to due to being in the Ergo, or being nursed the whole time. She also was completely unfazed by pressure of the ears. Azelie was very tired, but remained so positive and cheerful. Caidoc, who refused to sleep, has retained his title of the Lidless Eye. He was a trooper despite the multiple time changes and wake time of about 20 hours.
There were several other kids and babies on our flights which was very reassuring! We even came across a Seattle mom, with a eight month old, on her way to join her husband and two year old in west Africa, where they are in the process of adopting her niece. You can meet the coolest people on airplanes!

Azelie loved the moving sidewalk in the airport


Our first five hours on the ground were fairly eventful. Our Airbnb host decided that we couldn’t check in early after all. After a sleepless transatlantic flight with three kids, you can imagine we were not thrilled. I had also started to feel odd on our last flight. After we packed up our car I started to feel worse and I the kids were rapidly falling apart. Chris was a champ navigating the roads as we tried to figure out what to do till we could get into our Airbnb. I had started to throw up and have other terrible sickness symptoms so we checked into a hostel for a few hours. All the kids went to sleep which, while this was a bummer for adjusting to the time zone, it worked out well for me so that I could take care of myself in the bathroom which was about two feet from the bed where the kids slept. I was pretty useless to to poor Chris (who was heroic, running around finding parking and a place to crash) because I was shaking uncontrollably. I had guessed what was going on pretty quickly; my kidney tubes can’t handle any extra pressure on them for long periods, something I discovered with my pregnancy with Azelie. And I guess the Ergo was too tight for too long. Well, after a couple hours I felt right as rain, and we woke up the kids and got to our Airbnb. We left the bags and went to the grocery store, just about a five minute walk away, and loaded up on all the essentials. We cooked dinner and crashed for the night.

The next day was fantastic! The weather has been incredible since we’ve been here, we haven’t seen a drop of rain. It’s been crystal clear and chilly. We walked the Royal Mile, and visited St Giles cathedral, which were just so beautiful! It was a great way to start our trip. We have planned this trip extensively, and have pre planned different locations grouped together by distance so this day was very efficient, using on our of pre planned “ Edinburgh days” that would be best with good weather.

Front of St Giles. We didn’t get pictures of inside because it cost money.
St Giles
Only pictures of the outside since pictures weren’t allowed inside without a permit
Adventure Crew 2.0
Caidoc was facinated with this clock tower
Edinburgh castle which we will visit inside another day
Edinburgh castle

Since it is so close, we also went to the Elephant House, were J.K Rowling wrote part of the second Harry Potter book! Talk about fun! The kids got treats, and the parents got coffee. The bathroom walls are covered in Harry Potter fans graffiti, and you can bet I signed the wall too. 

Of course we also had to walk down to Victoria Street that inspired Rowling to invent Diagon Alley!

The castle from The Elephant House


After our walk, we headed back to our Airbnb, had lunch and quiet time. We’ve divided most of our days into mornings and afternoons, since we are doing most of our meals here, and we all need some down time in between events. 

Our afternoon brought us our hike to Arthur’s Seat! We loved this hike! It was challenging but gorgeous! We walked from our Airbnb to the hike and inadvertently took the most difficult but shortest way up. Did I mention Cosima has been taking all her naps on our outings? It’s working great so far. 

On our way down from the hike we took a different path in order to see this ruin of St. Anthonys chapel. The kids were SO excited and Chris and I were on cloud nine visiting the first ruins of our Scotland trip!





The we walked back to Airbnb which is about four minutes walk from this hike. We made dinner, and the kids wrote about the day in these awesome journals I found for them to have on this trip!

I have more pictures I hope to attached to these posts eventually, but for neither this is it for day one and two. Check back tomorrow for day three!

One thought on “Scotland 2020 Day 1 and 2”

  1. Amazing adventure, and stunning views! Your pics are great. Way to represent BA, Chris 😉 And what size are Zelie’s shoes now??? They are both growing up so fast. Let us know if you experience any interesting new foods on your trip. TFS

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