Not last weekend, but the weekend before, our family had a lovely weekend away. We started out on Friday morning and returned home Sunday evening. Though it was a bit of crazy morning, we left the house just after 11am on Friday and set off on our journey to Berwick Upon Tweed. The journey was fairly smooth, even though the weather was a bit up and down, and we stopped midway at Scotch Corner. After lunch, a toilet stop and a coffee, we headed off again – getting to Berwick for about 4pm. We headed straight to Amy‘s house for a cup of tea and a chat, before heading to our Travelodge to check in.
Once we were checked in, we headed out to find somewhere to eat. We drove through the main streets of Berwick before parking up and going for a short walk. We eventually decided on a Fish & Chip Restaurant called “Cannon” which had a wide variety of options, not to mention it was also a Fish & Chip shop, so food would be fast. It was a nice meal – Chris had Fish & Chips, Megan had Steak Pie & Chips, I had Scampi & Chips and Lily had Sausage & Chips, but as a kids meal. The food came fast and despite Megan not feeling well and Lily spilling her water everywhere, we all enjoyed our meals.
After we left the Fish & Chip shop, unfortunately Megan was sick! It was through no fault of the food, just something unfortunate that happens when she gets a headache occasionally. We pulled up the car outside Morrisons and while Chris tried to clear up, I dashed into the shop for baby wipes and a change of clothes. We then attempted to change Megan and clean the car before heading back to the Travelodge where I could wash her clothes properly. Megan fell asleep fairly promptly and so Lily, Chris and I sat up for a while, watching TV and checking our phones/ipads. Eventually Lily fell asleep and then Chris and I decided we’d head to bed too.
The next morning was our planned day in Edinburgh. We got up and the girls had breakfast, before we got dressed and headed out. Since the only Disney Store in Edinburgh is on the outskirts, we decided to head there first. When we arrived at the shopping centre we went straight to the Disney Store and I bought the girls a couple of soft toys each – they got a Christmas Tinkerbell and a blue dress Aurora. We then had a little wander to see what else was in the shopping centre, stopped for coffee at Starbucks and then got on our way into Edinburgh.
When we got into Edinburgh, we parked the car and climbed the hill to the Castle. It was freezing cold but a pleasant enough day – we were all glad to actually get inside the castle itself. Luckily we had bought and printed off tickets, so we didn’t need to queue and wait. There was a quiz for kids to do while walking around the castle and so we picked up one of those for Megan to do and started to look around.
We took our time walking around. The kids loved it and while I remembered majority of it from when I visited last time, it was still very enjoyable. We finished looking around at about 1pm and so headed down the hill and towards The Elephant House. One of the few things I’d wanted to do was visit there, as I mentioned in the post I made when planning our holiday. It wasn’t very far from the castle and since it was lunch time, we all settled down to have lunch there. All four of us had paninis and shared some coke.
After lunch we weren’t really sure what we wanted to do. I looked up where Primark was on my phone and we all headed in that direction. This took us to Princes Street – the main shopping area. We stayed around here for quite some time – shopping at Primark, H&M, Lush and Build-a-Bear.
In the end, we headed back to the car, to drop off our shopping. We sat for a while to catch our breath, before heading back out to Hard Rock Cafe. We stopped on the way to watch a street display, lots of drums and people dressed as zombies. After a while we carried on to Hard Rock Cafe, asking for a table when we got there and having to wait about twenty minutes for our table.
When we sat down, it was obvious we would be there a while. It was really busy, as well as being a Saturday night, but that was fine as I just wanted to eat in a Hard Rock Cafe. The people who served us were lovely too. Chris and I ordered burgers, while the girls ordered macaroni cheese and pizza. Unfortunately the girls weren’t too keen on their meals so ended up sharing ours. It was all nice though and I’m really glad we went. Chris had a milkshake called a Twist and Shout which included bacon! It was actually really nice though. I let the girls have ice cream after their meal, even though they didn’t finish, just to make sure they’d eaten enough.
By the time we left it was about 7pm and we had quite a long walk back to the car. When we eventually got there we were pretty cold but we soon warmed up on our journey back to Berwick. It was about 8.30pm by the time we got back to the Travelodge and as soon as we got in, Megan and I put the X Factor on. We all sat and watched until it finished, then at 10pm we all turned off the lights and got some sleep.
The next morning, we had plenty of time to spare so the girls had breakfast and then I gave them both a shower. Chris had a shower too and then headed to get us a McDonalds breakfast. I showered and then we all packed, making sure everything we had was packed into the car. We then checked out of the Travelodge and headed back over to Amy’s house again. We spent a few hours there, drinking tea and chatting, before heading out for lunch. We decided on Wetherspoons – a place called The Leaping Salmon – for lunch and Amy, Olivia, Megan, Lily, Chris and I all headed there for food. After eating out, we dropped Amy and Olivia back off at their home, before beginning our journey home. Traffic was pretty awful on the way back so we ended up stopping fairly early for coffee, a place off the A1(M) at Junction 64. The girls had hot chocolate and Chris and I had coffee – then, we filled up with petrol and continued on home.
We were home for about 6.30pm so the girls went on their computer for a little while before Lily went to bed and Megan and I watched the X Factor results. That was basically the end of our weekend away!
We had a lovely time and I would definitely recommend a day out to Edinburgh for anyone who fancies it. I can tell you, from a driving point of view, that I didn’t enjoy the drive from Newcastle to Berwick or from Berwick to Edinburgh. Neither direction of those journeys were nice to drive, so I have to admit its not somewhere I’d be keen to go too often. Perhaps it might be better to catch the train if we fancy the holiday again next time, though I always like having the car as it makes getting around easier! We had a lovely weekend away and although it might be some time before we can go away again, I definitely look forward to the next few days away!
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