After breakfast and goodbyes to Katsu's parents, we took a cab to Kings Cross train station in London (wow - that cab driver drove fast!) and waited like an hour for our train! Andrew kept running outside the train station and I had to stop him before he ran into the street. Then, we took a 5 hour train ride to Edinburgh. This seemed like true torture to Andrew. He napped some and we tried in vain to distract him with toys, books, looking out the window at passing churches and beaches and farm animals (lots of sheep and cows), and eating lots of snacks. The last hour or two, we took turns walking and around and trying to quell his shrieks. Poor other travelers on the train. But we did finally arrive in Scotland and the train was somewhat scenic, especially of the British coastline. Someday I'd like to stop and see York too.
We took a more calm afternoon in Edinburgh. We took a cab to our apartment. Which was WONDERFUL (the apartment, the cab ride was normal). Somehow we got a 2 bedroom apartment instead of the one-bedroom we had booked (and pre-paid for). So, we had TWO rooms, a living/dining area, kitchen, and bathroom, and a long hall. They also had put in a crib and a high chair. Thankfully, no more eating out, as we cooked all our meals (and even brought lunches with us). Of course, this apartment was expensive (90 pounds so like $180 / night!) but everything in Edinburgh was expensive so I think that was well worth it. Mostly (my miserly self hates to spend $$).
Okay, so then we walked downtown, bought bus tickets for a 2-day open top double decker bus tour (more on that later). Then, we went for some sightseeing. We saw the National Gallery. The paintings were nice and I really liked how they were displayed. Andrew got antsy, but all the other patrons were very nice and said we didn't need to hush him too much. We took a walk around afterwards and Andrew had quite a fall on the pavement :-(, but seemed to recover. We then went to the Museum on the Mound which was about the bank and money and showed us 1 million pounds (the notes were all cancelled, of course). After buying some pastries and seeing the Giles Cathedral, we walked home, bought some groceries, and relaxed and watched TV for the rest of the evening.
Some pictures:
Princes Street
Scott Monument
National Gallery looking up to Old Town (right around where Andrew fell)
The Giles Cathedral (my favorite part was the inscription thanking God for the invention of anesthesia! Amen!)
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