Edinburgh

With England marked off our itinerary, we set our sights on Scotland. Our first stop was the capital city of Edinburgh. The city is home to over 450,000 people, as well as the Scottish Parliament.

The city also has links to Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling worked on many of the early HP novels at The Elephant House, a coffee and tea shop.

From the window near where she wrote, she could see Greyfriar's Kirkyard, a cemetery dating back to the mid 16th century.

She even took inspiration for one of her character's names (Thomas Riddle) from this graveyard.

Just because I love them, here are my two most favorite kids ever! (Someone forgot to wear his sunglasses!)

After seeing the Harry Potter locations, we headed to the National Museum of Scotland. This was a great museum full of all sorts of interesting artifacts and displays. Do y'all remember Dolly, the cloned sheep, from way back in the 90's? Well, here she is!

Being huge royal family fans, Laurel and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to visit the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the Queen's official residence in Scotland. They had a magnificent temporary display of clothes worn by the Queen from her early childhood through present times. We toured the State Apartments, as well as the chambers of Mary, Queen of Scots, one of our favorite royals! The Palace dates back to the 1670's and is truly beautiful.

My absolute favorite part of the complex was the Holyrood Abbey, a ruined abbey attached to the Palace. It was founded in 1128, but has stood in ruins since the 18th century. We've been to a lot of castle ruins, but this was the first church ruin I'd ever seen, and it was so hauntingly beautiful. Laurel literally had to make me leave.

From Harry Pottery to cloned sheep to the Royals, Edinburgh is definitely a city with a little something for everyone!