The saga of Monday August 5, 2024 in Edinburgh, Scotland
The boys slept well in their hostel bunk beds, but I spent most of the night worrying about bedbugs. Were we going to be okay? Don’t hostels have the worst case of bedbugs? Or, is it just Europe has bedbugs? I did not want to deal with stowaways or the itching, but there wasn’t much I could do at that point. We woke up early and started our day with journaling and then storing our luggage in the hostel’s storage closet, again. Hostels might be less than ideal sleeping spaces, but their luggage storage policies are clutch. We were able to check out before 10:00AM and store our luggage until 10:30PM when they locked the main entrance.
We made our way to breakfast and then walked to Edinburgh Castle. It was only 10:15AM and the boys were already complaining about walking. Luckily, Edinburgh is such an interesting city with a diverse array of buildings and eye-catching vistas at every turn. We stopped at a greenspace in front of the National Galleries of Scotland. Miraculously, the boys’ legs didn’t hurt anymore, and they enjoyed forty-five minutes of just running around and rolling down the hills. After a few minutes, I left Chaim with the boys and took a little time to tour the National Galleries Scotland exhibit. About a half hour later, we met up in the family section – a low-tech, interactive art section the boys enjoyed - and Chaim took his turn to look around. We both wished we could have spent more time exploring the gallery. One day, maybe.
After making sure everyone used the toilet, we continued our walk to the castle. When we finally arrived, the aptly named High Street was teeming with people. Gripping onto each other like our lives depended on it, we made our way through the crowd to the entrance of the castle. We decided not to enter the grounds because the boys weren’t interested in another castle and we had booked a 1PM entry for the Camera Obscura Museum, per Amichai’s incessant requests.
With our extra time, we walked back down High Street and stopped to watch different street performers. An invisible man, bagpipe players, violinist, pianist, and owl trainers. The boys were thirsty and hungry again. Chaim went on a search for a market where he could buy some fruit and water. There were no markets to be found. Ever the super dad, he fought his way through the crowds to find the one available market a mile away. While he was fighting through pedestrian traffic, the boys and I went to the ice cream shop twenty feet from us and then waited in line for the museum. Chaim showed up with a few minutes to spare and the boys devoured the apples and waters he bought. He and I were just glad they ate something healthy and that wasn’t ice cream for a change.
The Camera Obscura Museum, which we were only going to because Amichai had been obsessing over it since he learned of its existence, was by far the best bang for our buck. We spent hours in the museum, which is mapped out across six floors, with visitors visiting all of the odd floors on the way up and the even floors on the way down. The entire museum is dedicated to the art of illusion and was fascinating. We took thermal family photos, shadow photos, had our heads “chopped off” and reorganized the “size” of the boys with Matanel being the tallest and Amichai the smallest. On the 6th floor we walked outside and took in the views. I had fallen in love with Edinburgh from the start, but at that moment, I was ready to spend all of my summer holidays there. The diversity of architecture and gorgeous landscape were breathtaking. Of course, it was sunny when this thought crossed my mind. I wouldn’t last longer than a week in a colder summer city.
On the 6th floor, we were invited into a circular room with a concave bowl in the middle. Dangling from above was Thomas Short’s 18th century invention, The Great Telescope. Our storyteller had great energy and was very funny. She turned off the lights and switched on the camera obscura. We could see everything happening on High Street with incredible detail. As our guide explained, this telescope could be used to spy on the happenings below without ever leaving the building. I wondered if we had been spied on and whether I cared. I left undecided. When the lights came back on, we headed down to the even floors. Three hours later we left the museum in search of the inspiration for Diagon Alley and food. The boys absolutely LOVED it and Amichai was in heaven. Amichai’s review was, “Insanely himatron.” Apparently, in Gen Alpha speak that means “totally awesome.”
On our way back to our hostel we stopped to watch a street performer. I left everyone in search of a toilet and ended up walking into St. Giles Church, a 12th century church. It was stunning. I put my physical needs aside and took a few minutes to walk around before rushing out to find that toilet. I caught up with the boys and Chaim. With a few hours between us and our overnight bus to London, Chaim and I took the boys to see Despicable Me 4 at the Omni theater. The boys were overjoyed and appreciated the chance to just sit and relax in really nice, comfy chairs. Afterward, we made our way back to the hostel to pick up our luggage and then caught the tram to the Edinburgh Central Bus Station. It was an exhausting and incredible thirty hours in Edinburgh.
