Going to Saint Mary’s Catholic cathedral was big on our list of musts for Edinburgh but we waited till Sunday, two birds, one stone and all.
The biggest reason for our visit to this church in particular was to see and pray before the relics of Saint Andrew the apostle. Incredible opportunity and a blessing! I sort of felt like a pilgrim because of the walking and packing Pickle and then feeling very light and unburdened while praying even though I was still holding her. It felt like that picture in the illustrated Pilgrims Progress I grew up with, right near the end when the pilgrim’s burden has just stared to slip off in the blinding light of heaven. It’s hard to explain but there it is.
C and A got to light candles as well for which they were very excited! Here is a link to more information about the relics, but to sum up the high lights; Saint Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland. During the reformation the original relics brought over by (probably) Saint Augustine, were lost due to that pesky John Knox sacking Saint Andrews cathedral (which we will see tomorrow). The Saltire, the flag of Scotland 🏴 is in the shape of the cross upon which Saint Andrew was killed.
I didn’t get many pictures, we were a tad busy wrangling the littles to be quiet, and it wasn’t really appropriate to take pictures obviously. But what a blessing. Who knows if we will ever get an opportunity like that again!
We also visited the Princes Street gardens. Epic views of Edinburgh castle from there!
In the evening we went for a walk in the Holyrood park , well, not really a walk, mostly just playing chase and climbing trees and getting Cosima her evening nap. But it was very fun. We got our first sprinkle of Scotland rain! It lasted about 3 minutes and there was an incredible rainbow right after! We can walk to Holyrood park from our flat in about five minutes. This was our last full day in Edinburgh, and it was perfect.
Chris said it should be noted that we *only* walked 18 flights of stairs, and 6.1 miles. We are done with the bulk of our walking so far I think, according to the itinerary. Personally, I’ve just loved it, and could walk around Edinburgh all day! If you’d have asked me I would have said we’ve walked like six miles total, I haven’t even noticed there is so much to see and do. We have had the best chats and experiences as a family just hanging out together on this trip.
On a random note- Chris met our neighbors and their little boy wants to be American. He even is working on his American accent, haha! We didn’t mention it to them, but Caidoc keeps saying how much he loves the Scottish accent. He gets very quiet and listens when they talk then later tries to imitate it. It’s so cute! Chris and I cant get over how darling it is so hear little kids with the Scottish accent!