Day 5, August 5- Edinburgh Zoo
I pre-booked at 1pm zoo slot and we chose to lazy around in the morning. I’m pretty cheap when traveling so we did breakfast in the room. I also went to Calton Hill to see the Scottish-American soldiers memorial with Abraham Lincoln (I left the kids in the room because they seemed un interested). The zoo was great. We had gone our first winter here but I still really wanted to see the pandas since they were hiding out last time. It was a nice low key day.
Day 6, August 6- Arthur’s Seat, New Tattoo
We took another slow morning. My kids sometimes just reach that point. We did a little shopping and walked around Princes Street a bit. We did part of the Arthur’s Seat hike. Heads up: NO GOOD TOILET OPTION!!!! With Covid there were at times no convenient places to find a toilet. It was frustrating waiting on one of two stalls for an area we were in for four hours or so. It was super pretty and still worth doing.
We finished up the hike and headed to our tattoo appointments. The kids were awesome and waiting outside (the grown ups took turns inside). I definitely recommend Okey Dokey tattoo if you’re looking for some Scottish ink. I got a crazy adorable highland cow.
Day 7, August 7- Stirling Castle, Dean Village
This was out last full day in Edinburgh and we had really already done a lot. We took the train to Stirling and walked to the castle. I pre-booked Stirling Castle online and the walk up to the castle wasn’t as bad as my husband made it out to be, haha. To be honest, the wasn’t much to see with most of the indoor areas of the castle not open which was a little disappointing but it was still a nice time out. We got some lunch at the mall that’s close to the train station and then headed back to Edinburgh. I originally had wanted to stop in Falkirk to see the Kelpies but the weather wasn’t good enough and there’s no super easy way to get there from the train station. Definitely something I’m hoping to do when we go back to the area in April.
We finished up our trip by wandering around Dean Village. It was beautiful and I wish we could have spent more time just walking around. It’s a nice non-city feeling area in Edinburgh.
Day 8, August 8- Uneventful train trip home
We headed home and it was super easy. No good food options in Peterborough though unless you leave the train station. Travelodge check out was easy peasy and walk to train station super easy because we were so close.
Jaunting Around The World 