The Edinburgh castle – We went back to Edinburgh and through what can only be described as the beginning of our Griswald portion – we picked up a minivan (there’s a huge long story to that fiasco).

This is a statue of David Hume – a Scottish philosopher I just happened to study extensively this last semester. I have yet to figure out why touching his big toe was so popular – but maybe it helped me channel him? He was the beginning of what they call “the enlightenment”.

We barely made it to Bath – driving through Liverpool too. I can tell you there are some important things we learned along the way. 1. British drivers are the most polite we’ve ever encountered. 2. There are no drive-thru windows anywhere. 3. They have these things that are a micro-minivan not a real one. 4. Master D is a great navigator. 5. The kids can only take in so much sight-seeing before trying to kill each other. 6. Their signs for everything are very active stick figures – the animals are running too. 7. Sixteen day trips with kids are too long. 8. When booking a hotel online make sure it’s in the city and not just named The Bath Hotel.

This was in Bath – where we started talking about trying to get out of the Edinburgh airport with our rental van. I could laugh about it later – but at the time – I was traumatized and useless.

Flowers in the lobby of our London Hotel. B actually drove through London no problem. After 2 days he had it down.

The London Eye – only a little frightening to be up that high.

Big Ben. On the last day we went to the London Tower and the kids were SOO done they didn’t care about touring it.

The twins thought all of the women dressed in burka’s they saw in London (there were a lot in Harrod’s) were ninjas – so they started a ninja game – that never ends well.

TT and Master D – done!

We took the chunnel back to Paris and then home sweet home – with the stinkiest bunch of clothes you’ve ever smelled.  But it was overall totally awesome once-in-a-lifetime adventure.  Six months later writing about it, I’m sure I missed some stuff.  But I’d be blogging for days to get it all in.