Edinburgh, Scotland

The first time I had just retired because of health issues and took my mother and then 10 year old daughter to England and Scotland and then later we flew over to Germany and I rented a 6 passenger diesel power stick shift motorhome for traveling through the Alps through Germany, Austria, Switzerland and northern Italy. I picked up my then 25 year old son and his friend who were then traveling for a few months through Europe on a Eurail pass in Munich where I rented the motorhome. I still haven't seen Italy below Aoste yet which I'm still looking forward to but I have seen Paris and Nice and Monte Carlo and the Cote D'Azure (The French Riviera) with my wife and two daughters in 2009.

Edinburgh Castle was one of the first really amazing treats for my daughter and I because my mother didn't like to walk that much by then because she was about 82 then. So,  my daughter and I made videos to share with her then 2 1/2 year old sister  (15 in 2011) who would join us on our 2nd trip when my wife and daughter and my older daughter's boyfriend joined us in 2011 on our Trip then through England and Scotland. In England my favorite places are "The Tower of London" which was an eerie place for me because of so many past lives there and Glastonbury because of the connection to King Arthur, Guinevere and Merlin there too and the legend of the Holy Grail also there.

If you are into the Harry Potter series "Hogwarts" is basically styled in some ways after Edinburgh Castle on a hill and many of the names JK Rowling uses in the Harry Potter series come directly from Edinburgh shops and street names. We stayed in a fancy hotel in Edinburgh where J K Rowling had her name on one of the hotel room doors she did a lot of her writings of Harry Potter after she became famous.

Edinburgh castle was built on a rock outcropping for better defense of Edinburgh was built from about 1000 to 1100 AD onwards.