The North

The last part of our vacation we stayed in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is right on the border between Northumberland and Scotland. 

Just to the south of Berwick is Holy Island. You can drive onto the island at low tide. There's signs everywhere to check the tide tables, because at high tide the road disappears. It's a lovely place, and quiet despite the tourists, partly due to a no outsider cars on the island rule (there's a parking lot for tourists right as you enter the island).

There's a rather small castle on the island that was converted into a vacation home in the early 1900s that I mentioned in an earlier post. It's the most cosy castle we've seen, full of smallish rooms decorated in an arts and craft style. But it's the seaside location surrounded by beaches and grazing sheep that really makes it special. Holy Island also has abbey ruins you can visit and a few shops and restaurants.

One day we took an hour train ride up to Edinburgh for the day. At the time, my girls claimed it was their favorite European city. They loved the Scottish accent, the bagpipe players, and the kilts - both the ones people wore for show and the ones men wore for everyday wear.

Have I mentioned lately that we're Harry Potter fans? JK Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter books in cafes around Edinburgh. We visited one, the Elephant House. 

The kids were pretty good about walking around Edinburgh, except that it's a steep walk from the train station to the main part of town. Luckily, Anya's got her dad wrapped around her finger.

Edinburgh Castle

There's a beautiful park below Edinburgh Castle called Castle Street Gardens where we had a nice picnic, did some walking and tried out the zip line in the children's park (well, Anya did anyway). 

We spent some time window shopping and getting a little culture, courtesy of Sir Walter Scott. 

As we were only in Edinburgh for little more than half a day, I'm sure we missed out on many must-see sights and things to do. We enjoyed our wanderings around the streets of Edinburgh, even with our limited time.

Our last day of vacation we decided we couldn't resist driving up to stand on the border between England and Scotland and also seeing a little bit more of the Scotland coast we'd admired from the train the day before.

We drove to the town of Eyemouth, which is just a few miles over the border. It's not on any must-see sites of Scotland list, but look how pretty! If this randomly picked spot, chosen for convenience is a representative sample, I can see how devoting time to a Scotland trip would be worth your while.

And that concluded our northern tour. It's a beautiful slice of the UK. I'm still feeling a little bit dreamy about having had the opportunity to visit.