EDINBURGH, A CASTLE AND OUR EARTH

November 19 Today we explored Edinburgh. first we caught a train from Musselburgh station into the city, in what is becoming typical for me we missed the train because i was reading the timetable so we had to wait 45 minutes for the next one. people advised us not to drive in because we'd never get parking and i'm glad i listened because the roads and traffic would have done me in. It rained all day and was very cold. We walked from the station up the hill to Edinburgh castle and spent an educational few hours walking all over the castle, the kids got right into it Reading all the plaques and asking lots of questions. There is this chapel there called Saint Margaret's which was built in 1153 ? by King David and dedicated to his mother...1153 ? amazing. After walking up stairs down stairs around battlements and into dungeons we left the castle and made our way along the Royal Mile to a place called Our Dynamic Earth. Its a huge building devoted to our planet and is fascinating, like a big science lesson. The kids loved it and got right into all the experiments, the tropical room made us homesick. Our favourite part was this room where everyone sat in recliner chairs and looked at the ceiling which was huge, suddenly it was filled with stars, then clouds and we went on a tour of the world. at times it made you dizzy, a bit like a rollercoaster...wonderful stuff. We came of there at 5pm and found it was dark, gets dark here at 4pm. Walked back up to the station and as is usual we just missed our train so we had to wait for 20 minutes....did i mention it rained all day and the wind was blowing off ice ? by the time we got back to the hotel we were wet and cold, but it was a good day all the same.