Edinburgh Castle

When we purchased our tickets to go to Dirleton and Tantallon castles, we got a 5 day pass that allows us to pick any 3 days (within 5 days) to visit as many castles in Scotland as we like. We really only had two other castles on our list for this week and those are Edinburgh Castle and Craigmillar Castle, which are both quite close. Cole wasn't able to take the extra time off to visit the Edinburgh Castle. So, this morning, when we got up, I asked the girls if they would rather go to the gym or to the castle. They chose the castle.

I was a little worried at first, since the last castle trip was such an adventure. But, I have to say that this might be the best outing I've ever had with the girls. I loaded Dani and Claire into the stroller and had Katie walk beside me. On our way, we had to stop by and say hi to the statue of Greyfriars Bobby. And, we walked right by the Elephant House, which is the "birthplace" of Harry Potter. Katie has recently gotten into Harry Potter. We told her about him as a way to try to get her more interested in this area. And, she's pretty enamored by the character now.

Once we got to the castle, we got to see a changing of the guard. And, then we saw CANNONS!!! Katie was excited and kept exclaiming that she saw cannons. Her enthusiasm was contagious and soon Claire was even saying, "Can! Can!" Katie, and then Dani, climbed on top of a cannon, and a group of Chinese tourists came by and had to take pictures with the girls one after the other. There had to be at least 20 pictures that were taken. Katie and Dani were more than happy to pose and smile for the cameras. Claire wanted to be on the cannon, but wasn't interested in having strangers fawn all over her. They must have had their pictures taken for 5-10 minutes! It was rather amusing, and one of the photographers that work at the castle even commented on the humor in the situation.

After climbing on the cannons for a little while longer, we went to the top of the castle and got to see a memorial to the men and women who have served Scotland. And, would you believe that there were more cannons at the top of the castle?!?! That meant that the girls had to climb on these cannons as well. Finally, I was able to talk them down in order to go investigate some other areas, and we found a few staircases. Since we were on a military operation, I was not allowed to leave the stroller behind while I climbed the stairs.

One of the stair cases lead to the crown jewels. So, I let Katie and Dani climb up to see the jewels. They quickly returned to me, telling me how cool it all was and hoping that I'd be able to go back with them. I told them that I couldn't, and Katie asked if she could take Claire back up with her. I thought that was really sweet, but just couldn't allow it. But, I did let Katie and Dani go back up to see the jewels again. A little while later they came back down and Katie told me, "They said we're not allowed to go down the stairs alone." That got me a little worried. Then, I apologized to the woman that came down with them. She told me that they were really just worried that the girls had been separated from their tour group and the people that work there had been a bit frantic. I apologized many more times for causing them distress!!!

After that, we found a nice area in the shade where we could eat our lunch and wait around to hear the 1 o'clock gun. Every day, except Sunday, the 1 o'clock gun is fired. Katie really likes to hear the gun, so we've tried as much as possible to make that happen. This time, we were actually able to see the gun get fired. The girls perched on top of a cannon and while we waited, a man in a kilt played different songs on the bagpipes. At a few minutes before 1:00, Dani said that she wanted to get off the cannon and Katie said that she didn't want to be so close to the gun. I told them that they had to stay where they were and they didn't protest. Then, we watched a man load the gun and march back to check his watch. After checking it a few more times, he marched back up and fired the gun. My picture is a big fuzzy, because we ALL jumped when the gun was fired!

After this, I loaded all three girls back in the stroller (Claire sat on Katie's lap), and we headed back to the flat. When they saw their Daddy later that day, Katie and Dani had to tell Cole all about seeing the 1 o'clock gun get fired and the "little-big cloud of smoke" that it made. And, then the cloud floated off. I think they were both glad that I made them stay on the cannon to watch the gun get fired! What a fun day! When we first got here, I was really intimidated by the idea of trying to take all three girls anywhere. I didn't know if I would be able to navigate the streets. And, I really didn't know how I would handle being in a strange place if the girls got a bit unmanageable. But, this was the perfect trip. I actually can't wait to take them out again! Good thing, since we've still got another castle to see sometime in the next 2 days!!!