As luck would have it when the Brandstaetters traveled to Scotland to see The Open, there was a major wind delay and golf did not start until into the late afternoon/early evening hours. Luckily, we had a backup plan in place before we even knew there would be a delay. Edinburgh!

We got up early and had a quick breakfast before packing up everything we needed to head to the bus station, which was a short walk from the rental house. Amy, Riley & Mara joined us for our little excursion! We had to take a bus to the train station and had a problem printing our tickets at the bus station. Then, we were almost late getting to the train because it was such a long walk from the bus stop to the train. But we made it!

We arrived in Edinburgh and stopped for Amy & the kids to grab some coffees and breakfast and then started exploring. 

We made our way up the hills (and boy were there a lot of hills!) and over to Edinburgh castle. Thank goodness we bought our tickets ahead of time because it seemed everyone had the same idea to visit the castle on that windy Saturday. The castle ruins were really cool and we spent a lot of time exploring & taking pictures.

When we were done, it was time to go get some lunch. We got a recommendation for a restaurant from some of the locals but when we got to the area that the restaurant was in, after a very long walk, there was some sort of street festival going on and the restaurant we wanted to eat in as well as all of the surrounding restaurants were packed. So, we walked a little further and settled on a Mexican restaurant which turned out to be pretty good.

We visited the National Museum of Scotland with the boys while Amy & the kids decided to head back to the train station. It was a really cool museum with exhibits ranging from Scottish history to Dinosaurs to Art.

Walking back down the hills was much more enjoyable than walking up them!

We wandered our way back toward the train station and ended up in Princes Street Gardens at the Sir Walter Scott Monument. The boys played in the grass and had a little time to roam around after being strapped into the stroller and Beco carrier for a good portion of the day. This was one of my favorite parts of the day and of the whole trip because we had time as a family of four and the boys had so much fun just playing in the grass while we were there.

We headed back to the train station, grabbed a snack and waited for the train. By the time we got on the train we were all exhausted and ready to get back to the house. Luckily, the boys were troopers and we all had a great, albeit very long, day.