Edinburgh, Scotland

Thursday Simon and I went to Scotland for the day. We knew it was going to be a long day because we wanted to save some money by not staying the night. However, it was longer than expected because of the bad weather we had the day before (see my post Stormy Weather). It was supposed to be a 4 hour, 3 train ride to Edinburgh, but ended up being a 5 train, 6 hour train ride. All of the trains were delayed in the morning because drivers were stranded the night before in places they weren't supposed to be because of the trains closing down. So the next day, it was a beautiful sunny day, but drivers were late getting places because of the previous day. We even had one train cancelled and had to find another one because the trees had fallen on power lines in one section of the track. It was crazy, but we made it safely to Scotland.

Once in Scotland, the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day! We couldn't have asked for better weather. It was definitely cold and windy, but there was no rain... yay! We didn't want to spend a lot while we were there so we walked around quite a bit and went to all the free museums (which were brilliant!). Here are some pictures from the trip:

Simon and I walking along

Jenners- the oldest department store in the World

A nice view by the train station

A metal map of Edinburgh and Simon pointing to our location

Edinburgh Castle (It was 16 pounds per person to get in, so we just walked around the outside)

Snow capped mountains! I haven't seen those since my last Winter in Utah

The side edge of the Castle

The front of the Castle

The stone guard at the Castle

The Royal Mile is a street with tons of shops and is fun to walk down

I saw this red door and really liked it so took a picture with it

The Elephant House- where JK Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book

Inside the Elephant House

A deep fried snickers (sorry it looks gross)

Simon eating the deep fried snickers

I didn't think it was anything special- basically melted chocolate

A beautiful street view

Lots of whisky distilleries here

A bride on her way to her wedding

A little baby unicorn (name that movie)

Museum of Childhood- one of the cool, free museums we went to

Leap frog

Puppets

I think the fisherman has given up on life (or has had too much to drink)

Old school roller skates

We found E.T in Scotland

Scottish Parliment

Parliament (weird building if you ask me)

Doors to the Queen's Palace in Scotland

Queen's Palace in Scotland

Palace

A pretty view

Scottish National Gallery- another free museum

My favorite Monet painting

I also loved this one by Sir Henry Raeburn

On the walk back to the train station to head home, the sky was an amazing blue

Simon and his new friend