Everyone was up bright and early today – well, almost everyone! Some of the boys were fast asleep when we went in to waken them at 7.30am! Well, you do warn them that if they do not go to sleep early they will be tired when they are woken up!
Breakfast was at 8.15 and everyone tucked in to cereals, fruit and bacon or sausage rolls! Packed lunches were waiting for us as we left and by 9.15 we were on the bus heading for Edinburgh.
The morning was spent at the castle. They are in the midst of setting up the stands for the Tattoo so the bus had to drop us off and go. We had a group photo at the entrance and then the five groups set off to tour the castle and visit the SHOP!
Our group went right to the top of the castle first and worked our way down to the shop. We went to the dungeons, to see the Scottish Crown Jewels and the Scottish War Memorial.
The views from the castle were great and the children snapped away with their cameras.
Hannah thought the castle was “Cool” and Holly thought it was “Awesome – especially the views from the top. Zoe thought that the dungeons were a bit smelly – but prisoner comfort was not top of the list in those days!
Rosa thought the castle was “big” and was amazed at the colour of the rocks used to build it. It seemed to have an orangey tinge to it! Blair thought it was “Ace”
Miss Ingram said the castle was super and we had a great day for our visit. And to top it all off she managed to get some bargain chocolate in the shop! ( We will see how good she is at sharing later on!)
So, off to the bus in a few minutes to head to the zoo for lunch!
We decided to have lunch in the bus as there was no where in the car park where we could sit and eat. The packed lunch was great – sandwiches, water, crisps and biscuits. SO we all set off excitedly to the zoo. Each group was going to go of on their own and make their own way round the zoo depending on what they wanted to see.
Our group decided to take the “Zoo Safari” (a jeep pulling a trailer bus) to the top of the zoo and we would walk back down to the shop. (“Mr Jenkins, are we going to go to the shop before we leave?” someone asked. More than once!
The “safari” driver made his way slowly up to the top of the hill and gave a commentary as we went. Once at the top we all got off and admired the view that the animals at the top of the hill had over the city. I wonder if they appreciate the view?
The children had great fun looking at the animals as we went. We saw zebras, antelope, hunting dogs, lions, tigers, jaguars, monkeys, more monkeys, penguins, pygmy hippos, even more monkeys and a whole array of other animals. At last we made it to the shop and the children found so much stuff there they could not make up their mind what to get! However, quite a few soft toys will be making their way back up to the north east on Friday!
We made it back to the bus at about 4pm and made our way back to the hotel. We had another great tea (cheeseburgers or breaded fish) and then we were almost straight out again to go to the cinema. The cinema was located next door to the ten pin bowling from last night and so was easily found.
Excitement grew as they tried to figure out what they were going to see! However, there was not a lot of choice as most of the films on were 15’s or 12A’s! So that left us with….. Mr Bean’s Holiday! There were a few groans, as you would expect when trying to please 41 kids and 5 fussy adults, but we went in and disturbed the other 5 people there and took our seats. The trailers were highly amusing and I think some of the children will be keen to go and see some of them when they are released!
Anyway, we settled back and the film started. I think some of the adults thought they might get a quick 40 winks – but to our surprise the film was so bad that it was highly amusing and kept you enthralled all the way through. Who says British comedy is on the decline!
Some of the children roared out loud at times with laughter as Mr Bean stuttered from one disaster to the next and they shall remain nameless, but we know who they were!
We made it back to the hotle by about 9.15 and had our juice and a biscuit followed by a short time to do their diaries. I am sitting in the corridor at the moment finishing this off before we get the kids to put their lights out and go to SLEEP!
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