Traveling through Scotland

We woke up early and enjoyed a Scottish breakfast at the pub below the hotel, ThreeSisters. The staff was friendly, and Samuel proclaimed he had the best waffle ever.

Samuel has the kindest heart. He went and thanked the two young waitresses for his delicous waffle on the way out and added, “I hope you have the best day today.”

Also worth noting. Samuel collects rocks – been doing it since he was 2 yrs old. I’ve finally learned to check all of his pockets before washing his clothes. He picked up two in Scotland which he is very proud of. He also found a penny on the floor. So his pockets are full of ‘prizes.’

We made our way to Waverly station earlier than necessary.

About a quarter till, we headed to our platform, boarded the train and begun our journey through Scotland to London. It was exquisite. Scotland in the spring is gorgeous.

Scotland by train

The train ride is exactly like the ads depict. Stone bridges crossing large rivers that empty into the oceanside, fields of yellow flowers, rolling hills adorned with woolly white sheep, a lighthouse near the shoreline, stone-fences, long tunnels through hills, mountain-side cliffs with crashing waves below and more.

Navigating London

We made it to King’s Cross London and navigated the tube with equal amounts of ease and confusion experienced intermittently.

We don’t know exactly where we are going

Oh good, we are going in the right direction

We think we bought the right tickets

We make it to the train, but we don’t get on, just in case it’s wrong

We confirm it is the right one but it’s now gone

We take the next one

From Victoria Station to our Airbnb was a hot navigational mess. Google maps was nearly worthless with the tall buildings. Our “position” on the map was constantly changing. Street signs weren’t easily found. Kids were running in circles – literally. We were trying to figure out where we were and where we were going. They started circling us like sharks. Daniel told them to stop, but they didn’t. Sam face-planted into the pavement and got a bloody nose. Daniel cussed.

Helen at the Airbnb wasn’t there yet, so we had a little bit of time to spare before checking-in. Not a problem – mom strategically found a place near public transportation, a grocery store and a park!  “We’ll head to the park,” we announce to the kids. “Yay,” their joyous reply.

Some of you know where this is going.

Some of you have experienced parks outside of the U.S.

Some of you are like us, thinking, ‘what could go wrong with this plan?’

So lugging our own 50 pound back-packs, plus the kids’ bags and holding onto their hands, we finally found the park, despite Google Maps’ inability to help.

It was beautiful. “Damn” I thought, “This looks as good as Keukenhof.”

It was gated – which should have been the first red flag, but I missed it.

Instead I was memorized by the blooming rose bushes and pebbled trails that I could vaguely make out through all of the green foliage.

This brings a whole new meaning to the Secret Garden for me. I am ready to explore it, and my imagination has already enter in.

Then we get to the gate.

The closed, locked gate.

The sign reads, “Private Garden”

We are ALL devastated.

 Settling In

After getting settled into our London flat, the kids still have their hearts set on visiting a park. There is a second one close by. So we make a plan to visit it and then circle by the Sainsbury’s for groceries.

As we approach the second park, it looks much too similar to the previous one for comfort – gorgeous shrubbery, blooming flowers, a black fence. And to top things off this one clearly has a children’s playground in the middle where there are several kids currently having a blast.

And… it’s another private garden. Locked. One must have a key to enter.

This is a hard concept to explain to a child. But we saw a Domino’s earlier on the walk, so we made promises of pizza for dinner and going to a better park tomorrow.

We bought our groceries – more carrot sticks, fresh fruit, breakfast items and some cheese and tortillas for cheese quesadillas.

The rest of the evening was uneventful.  Dinner, showers, unpacking and settling in at our flat. Unfortunately our host did not leave us any fun toys (like in Amsterdam). But we brought a mini checkers game, so Sam and I got in a quick game of checkers.  He let me win.

Our flat only has one bedroom and a pull out sofa. I slept with Miah in Edinburgh so I had a promise to keep to Samuel that I would sleep with him one night in London. So we took the pull out sofa. Worst. Bed. Ever. Daniel pulled the bed out, sat on it, and said, “Diane, there is no way your back is going to handle this.”   He was right. But I kept my promise to Samuel.