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The boys and I went in search of Craigmillar Castle's ruins (off the main tourist path, but only a short bus ride from the city center). This castle's L-shaped tower dates from 1374, and in 1427 its defenses were strengthened with the curtain wall you see in the photo. It has corner towers, gunports, projecting parapets, walls up to 13 ft thick in certain places, a courtyard and gardens. It is remarkably well preserved and therefore it's easy to imagine how hard daily life must have been-- and these are the wealthy folks! It was the most strongly fortified castle outside the city, when Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-1587) took refuge here in 1566 after David Rizzio, her Italian "secretary" was murdered at Holyrood. After the Jacobite defeat in 1745, the castle was abandoned by its ... read more

Almost every year we go to Frankenstein's Pub. It is an old Gothic church turned into a restaurant based on Frankenstein's monster. They usually show some short movies, but this time they didn't. They brought the Frankenstein's monster down from the ceiling. It was exactly like the movies. He was lowered down from the ceiling, slowly sat up and then looked to one side, then slowly lay back down. It was realy cool!... read more

Since arriving in Edinburgh, we have done several of the things we like to do here, such as: (1) go to Princes Street Gardens, the large park in the center of town, where the boys kick the ball around with natives & tourists alike; (2) tour Edinburgh Castle & its grounds; and (3) take the kids golfing at the Hermitage golf course. The Hermitage is a neat course, just for kids. It consists of 12 par three holes. It is inexpensive and offers lessons, is usually fairly empty, and there are none of the rules or pressure you find on busier golf courses in the States. So it's a great place for the kids to learn the game and grab a bacon bap after their game to fortify themselves for the nice walk back to the ... read more

One thing I like about Edinburgh is that there is lots of cool cars like these every time we come here. We see lots of them and I like to take pictures of them. We were walking to our apartment from the hermitage golf course when I took the pictures. There was this lotus that was like green and was really loud, but it was driving and i didn't have time to take a picture. ... read more