Castle and Afternoon Tea

More sightseeing today; another city to explore.

 Unfortunately a lot of construction in the city due to a stalling tram line construction project, not very much in favor with the locals.

 Edinburgh Castle

We walked past some lovely shops on our way up there.

 It was a cold day, especially up by the castle. We were happy to take a break inside the cafe at the castle to finally have some afternoon tea.

 Deep in thought about that scone.

 St. Margaret's Chapel, the oldest building in the castle still standing from the 12th century.

 Views from the top. We also saw the One O'Clock Gun, but I must have been too busy holding or lifting Sophie to take a picture, but it was exactly like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjwkOW1HL40

In fact I even think it was the same woman doing it.

After a long day of walking and shopping, Karen and Chris cooked us a lovely dinner of haggis and tatties. Preceded by scallops and followed by whisky. 

Thank you for letting us stay in your nice place, Karen and Chris!

The Beginning of a Fantastic Holiday

Here we are. Finally on our way to see the Queen (and Kate). For the next two weeks we will be touring Britain from the coast of Dorset to the Highlands in Scotland. 

Cute pilot for our Easy Jet flight to Gatwick. 

 It has been a year since Sophie flew with Daddy. The flight was so empty that I had the row to myself in front of them. Although it was sunny in Duesseldorf we had to wait a bit for the fog to lift at Gatwick. That did not bode well. 

 Auntie Sandra fetched us from the airport and here we were in the middle of the New Forest after an al fresco ploughman's lunch and some tea.

 The New Forest is full of wild horses. We spotted some right next to the road.

 Then we walked down a path to look for the wild deer. They were hanging out in the distance.

 We found the truck with the Dorset ice cream. Spicy ice cream (mint chocolate chip) of course for Sophie and rhubarb custard crumble for the rest of us. Yum.

 After a long drive to Auntie Sandra's house in Bournemouth, we quickly stretched our legs at the playground.

- Flashback to March 2010 - 

England in Jubilee fever. Buntings and flags everywhere. All the papers were full of specials on the Queen. We kicked off our Jubilee celebrations in style with this Victoria sponge cake.

 Sophie had the Queen on her piece.