Friday, January 5, 2024

So, we left off at the end of Christmas Day in Edinburgh, Scotland and are ready for the morning of December 26th or Boxing Day. We have already spent December 19th-25th during Parts One and Two. This will probably be the shortest post because after the 26th, I think we all started to weary of travel. Tom was sick with a cold and Mason was up next to get the cold. We found over the counter medicine and no one was that bad off, but we all had a touch of this cold throughout the 10 days. It was ok, though. Jack and I had had the shortest bout of it and I’m not convinced it wasn’t just allergies for us. 

I bought this book in the train station and read it during the trip usually right before I went to sleep. It was so cute! I did bring a library book – Wreck the Halls – but it started to bother me and I didn’t finish it. If you have read it, do you feel the same? The intimate scenes are what I’m talking about, and I am not a prude by any means, but it was a weird and overly talked about part of the story. Anyone? 

Also, I wore the shiny dark red press on nails for the first 6 days and could have gone longer, but I changed to this press on mani: 

The results are in, y’all. Press ons work great for travel! Another couple of sets don’t take up any room and I just brought a nail file and clippers along with them and I probably would have brought those anyway. 

On the morning of the 26th, I made us some breakfast sandwiches before we left for the beach! Yes, I said the beach on December 26th! We had some bagels and some sandwich bread so I just made a few and cut them in half so people could mix and match. 

Yes! Portobello Beach is only 3 miles from the city centre and it’s on the North Sea. We have been on the other side of the North Sea in Germany, so I really wanted to make this happen. 

It was a gorgeous day and we saw people who had just taken a plunge in the cold water! 

After this, we visited Dean Village, and it was adorable. I actually thought it was a benefit to be doing some of the touristy stuff during the holidays because it wasn’t crowded at all. 

Then, we went to The National Museum of Scotland – did you know most museums in the Uk are free? Mason had told me this, too. We were feeling a bit peckish so we shared a…

scone with clotted cream and jam in their little restaurant: 

I got to see Dolly, the sheep that was cloned in 1996. We read an article about this in my AP Spanish class, so I can now say I saw her! 

We had a 2:00 reservation at Tolbooth Tavern after our museum visit and it was delightful. Its location was also really cool on The Royal Mile. 

Mason and I split a burger, and it was really good! 

Tom had a steak pie: 

Jack was the smart and healthy one with this salad: 

We split up because Jack and Mason wanted to go to some stores they had seen on the way and Tom and I wanted to walk the rest of the way to Holyrood Palace which is where the British royals stay when they are in town. Unfortunately, this was closed during Boxing Day. The distance between this palace and the Edinburgh Castle is called The Royal Mile. We started back up The Royal Mile because we had a 5:00 reservation somewhere else and were meeting back up with the boys. But we had time to wander in and out of several shops. We found the shops to be super touristy with the same plaid scarves and umbrellas and t-shirts that said Edinburgh. 

A close is a name for a street and we were going below the current streets of The Royal Mile to see the best preserved street called Mary King’s Close for our 5:00 reservation. Mary King was a merchant and was famous/lucky enough to have a street named after her. We weren’t allowed to take any photos of the tour, but we really enjoyed it! Our guide was an actor in period clothing who told us very entertaining stories. 

And, at the end they took our photo with the ghost of Mary in the background on the left!

We continued walking up The Royal Mile and enjoyed all the lights now that it was dark!

We saw and heard a bagpiper! 

We walked all the way to Edinburgh Castle lit up at night! We also had a gorgeous view of the city down below!

We had a great Boxing Day and there was definitely plenty to do! 

The next morning, it was time to bid farewell to Edinburgh and go about an hour to Glasgow. The train station was super busy! This was a bit awkward as we had to be out of the Airbnb at 10 but our train didn’t leave until 12. That happened sometimes, but it never really bothered me. Again, I just enjoyed the people watching and could always find another coffee to be had! We also always enjoyed buying some little snacks in the train station. 

We arrived in Glasgow a couple of hours before we could get in our next apartment and paid the station to keep our bags while we explored the city centre. Then, we made our way to our apartment which was across a cool pedestrian bridge and in a great area that was also walkable to shops and pubs. 

Here is the view from the bridge later that night when we walked to dinner: 

We walked to a cool spot called The Duke’s Umbrella: 

No one had tried haggis yet, so Tom decided to order a haggis quesadilla. I did try a tiny bite and it was ok, but I can’t get past the idea of haggis. 

Glasgow was a whirlwind, and we left the next morning to be back in the city where our flight would leave the next day – Manchester, England. Our last apartment was in an old perfume factory which was cool. 

When we arrived in Manchester, we were just exhausted because the last train ride was our longest and had a connection. We rode for two hours, got off, and had to quickly get on another one for another hour. The last trains were really crowded, and it was a struggle to get off and on with all of our luggage because of all the people. It was a bit of a close call and Tom and I were a bit stressed. So, we walked to get pizza and just ate in the last apartment. So, our first and last meals were pizza! Ha! So American of us! 

The next day we paid an Uber to get us to the airport because we just didn’t want to wrestle the luggage on a tram, train, or bus. Tom really took to Ubering after being totally against using Uber until this trip. He can be so weird! 

We probably should have skipped Glasgow and spent two nights back in England, but we were just trying to see as much as we could while we were so close. While I was planning the trip, I struggled with how to get to London and fit it in and in the end, we had to ditch London because we wanted to include Scotland. I would have loved to have made it to London, but we had to make choices. I also was very afraid of how crowded it would be at Christmastime. So, there are a lot more places we want to see for sure! 

It was an amazing experience, and I am so glad we did it. Tom was really sweet when we got home and thanked me for all the hours I put in to plan it. I wouldn’t have it any other way, but it was a lot of work during a busy, busy semester at school. We didn’t buy our plane tickets until late September, and I was pretty stressed at times trying to put it together. And I seriously learned so much and feel like I exercised my travel muscle again after a really long time. 

I really loved traveling with Tom and my adult children! I feel so grateful and so blessed and my heart is full. 

Here is the breakdown or as close as I can come:

I share this not for any reason other than there might be readers out there who think they can’t do this. I think there are lots of shiny blogs that never peel back the curtain, you know? I have been quite transparent over the last year about my spending. My regular readers know that I spent the entire year of 2023 meticulously recording my spending so that I could do this trip. 

Also, we had some unexpected expenses come up that could have threatened our trip – Tom had a big car repair this summer and then our refrigerator went kaput. I feel like some other things came up, but I can’t remember now. It’s always going to be something!

Flights: $3600 – Delta/Virgin Atlantic (not including Mason because he was already there and received a scholarship to study abroad that covered his flight basically)

Lodging: $2500 – I tried to keep each night in the $150-200 range but Scotland was pricey. I found the cities in England to be much more affordable, but they were also smaller cities. We could have saved here, but I wanted us to have some space. I do know, also, that had we done London, the prices would have been higher or on par with the Scotland prices. 

Food: $991

Trains: $400 approximately- I will be honest that I did a very bad job of recording what we spent on trains so this could be off a bit. 

Ubers: $191

Experiences: $160 – Mary King’s Close and York Chocolate Story

Dogsitter: $650

Long term parking at airport: $106

$8598 is the grand total

It may seem like we tried to be frugal especially in the category of food, but we really didn’t. That is just how we eat on vacation. We are not a three restaurant meal a day family and no one is a big eater in one setting. Tom, Jack, and Mason are major snackers, though. I honestly didn’t think about prices much at all because that is why I was so careful last year. We will now be eating tuna packets and ramen for the next few months, but it was worth it! Ha!

Whew, I’m tired! I now need a vacation after my trip and after writing so many words about my trip!

Let me know if there is anything else you want to know! 

Amy