The day started out dry (kinda dry for Edinburgh, it stopped raining during breakfast) so we decided to go for a hike on the extinct volcano at Holyrood Park. Our path would be along Salisbury Crags which runs along under the cliffs (crags) above the green (although on the way back we walked along the top of the cliffs!). The park used to be a hunting ground for the Royalty living at Holyrood Palace and has been called Queens Park and Kings Park, but now its open to the public.
Thinking the terrain likely wouldn't be suitable, we left the hotel without the stoller. We weren't sure how the kids would do on such a long and steep hike, but we were right about the terrain after all.
We saw a lot of these signs; it appears 300 million year old rock ain't so steady.
Carter and Averie were real troopers walking and running on the path. Yep, that's a pretty sharp cliff on the right, so we kept the kids close as we climbed higher and higher.
The kids got kicks finding snails in the grass along the path. They were HUGE, Jenn and I had never seen them this big before.
The cliffs are really cool and there are green spaces carved into the hill every once and a while.
The ground up on the hill was covered with a very thin grass like growth, almost like a golf green. no wonder they invented golf! All I could think of was "this is the stuff they run the water through for scotch!!!" the PEAT!
In one location in the grass Carter got caught in a cloud of rabbit droppings! This is him trying to tip toe through the "bunny poop". This photo also makes me think of golf, all those rabbit holes in the "green".
The view from the hill was amazing. This is Edinburgh Castle in the distance.
Apparently the night before there was a rock slide as the signs warned.
Behind Salisbury Crags is the actual volcano. The pinnacle of the volcano would have been where the two upward lines of the hills meet in the middle. The current formation of the volcano is referred to as Arthurs Seat as the crest of the volcano is gone and it looks like a kind of saddle.
Carter was quite the brave boy and wanted to go higher and higher, so after we finished walking along Salisbury Crags we agreed to climb along the top of the cliffs.
Averie was cute as usual (and also very good)
Daddy won't let go
View of Calton Hill and the Firth of the Fourth in the distance. The Firth of the Fourth is the name of water adjacent to Edinburgh which leads to the North Sea (which is just off to the right of the picture).
View of Holyrood Palace on our way back down the backside of the Crags. The palace has the ruins of an old abbey in the back.
After we concurred the great hills of Edinburgh we headed to a cool attraction in town called Dynamic Earth. It's a kind of science centre but the entire experience is like a ride. First they send you back in time in a pretend time machine and then a guide takes you through interactive rooms which demonstrate how the earth was created (big bang, volcano's, glaciers, etc), the evolution of living things, and then the various climates around the globe. Finally the "ride" ends in a planetarium where they take you into space and teach you about space travel and how the body reacts to space and the lack of gravity, air, etc. It was a lot of fun for all four of us!
After that we cut through an old cemetery off the Royal Mile
The headstones dated back to the mid-1700's. Many others were so worn we couldn't read them.
Carter enjoyed this one
The adjacent buildings were pretty cool (this is a residence, not part of the cemetery)
Finally, before heading back to the hotel we stopped in for some Edinburgh fudge. Fudge is good everywhere!
Mike
