Back from Edinburgh

We made it back to Birmingham around 9pm last night from Edinburgh. We rented a car (to make the trip easier on Helen than a long train ride would have been) and drove the roughly 340 miles. Because of a mix up and a little confrontation, Thrifty car rental gave us £20 off the original price and gave us a Renault Clio with a diesel engine. That was a blessing because the little car got around 40 miles per US gallon (45 UK). In fact, we got almost 500 miles off the first tank of gas.

I'll get to what we saw in Edinburgh in a minute. First, I must mention that staying overnight in a hotel with an 11-month-old is not easy. Because we'd kept her up well past her bedtime, and because we were in such a new place, and because we were in the same room with her, Helen would not go to sleep. This is uncommon; she usually goes to sleep for the night rather easily. First we tried to put her down at around 8:30pm, but she could see us through her Pack-N-Play walls, so sleep was out of the question. I moved the PNP and we decided to let her "cry it out," but with people staying in the neighboring rooms, we couldn't do that for long. As her hollering became more and more intense, we relented. Mary got up, looked at Helen, and immediately said, "Well how did you get that way". She was standing up! The first time she had made it all the way by herself (the added frustration helped, I think). It will only be a matter of time before the stand becomes a walk. To finish the Helen story, after about 5 attempts to get her to sleep, Helen finally passed out in the bed with us and none of us slept well.

But we did have a good time in Edinburgh. Besides the beauty of the city and all the little shops, we spent time in Edinburgh Castle (10£ each) and in the Museum of Scotland (free). There is too much in those places to blog about. One attribute of Edinburgh that I did not like, much like London, was the presence of Americans. Now, I tend to like Americans, but over here its nice to be in a city where being an American is somewhat of a novelty. In the tourist cities, no one bats an eye when they hear a Yank speak.

More later today...