Edinburgh

" the entrance to Edinburgh Castle"

The last two weeks were easter holiday.. my baby was nagging all the time about going out then she asked me a surprise question : she wants to go to the zoo !! ... since she learnt about the story of Noah and his animals back in school and Dania is becoming more and more obsessed with animals. this is how the whole idea of Scotland came into our mind... Edniburgh is about 1 hour and 25 minuts away ( by train) and it has a zoo!!...

we surfed internet .. got a good hotel offer .. bought train tickets and off we went to the highlands.....

the city is huge with lots of hills and lots of ups and downs roads ( my legs are still aching !!!) ..scotish flags are everywhere .. as if they want to make sure that u don`t mistake it to any other british city ( coz honestly it is not much different) ...

although you are surrounded by many modern buidlings but still you can feel and breath the medivel atmosphere especially when you look over that famous castle ( it just reminded me of Brave Heart the famous movie !!) ..

" Dania infront of the castle with the princess !!"

the second day was Zoo day !! Dania was up really early.. very excited, she begged us to hurry ... we changed our clothes ..ate our breakfast and off to the street ... took the bus and few minutes later we were inside the zoo... I will never forget my daughter`s expression when she saw the first animal ( a sea lion ) swimming in the water.. she started to jump from one cage to the other .. as if she was afraid that animals will go away.... she would name each animal and ask me if she didn`t recognise one.... she enjoyed the monkeys ( we enjoyed watching them too !!) .. she was very excited to see the lion ... very afraid to see the snake ... but most of all very happy to see the pinguinis ( my favourate animals ) ...

the zoo is well equiped .. animals are maintained in their natural enviroments ...and facilities were excellent .. the only problem was the weather .. it was freezing cold .. most animals were hiding .. we had a hard time trying to find the tiger or the kuala !!

the day in the zoo was finished with a very funny ending .. the pinguins parade .. yes people it was a real parade .. we were standing on specific lines and peinguinis were marching infront of us looking at us in a very funny way ... I laughed really hard at the scene ... it was unbelievable...

here are some photos from the zoo:

"Dania at the entrance of the zoo"

in the evening we headed back to the hotel .. took our bag and went to the station.. Dania was exhausted ( so do we !!) she slept all the way back to Newcastle ..

it was a good short break .. we enjoyed the whole trip .. Dania is still talking about the zoo and about the castle with the princess in it !! ..but she realised today that Edinburgh zoo has no Giraffes or Elephants ... !!!! she was right .....

Best regards
Um Dania