It was another early start today, up at 6 and breakfast at 6:30 in order to make it to King's Cross Station by 8am. Everyone was up and not too grumpy and thanks to Dave hauling 2 suitcases down the street and through the underground we made it in good time. For all you Harry Potter fans you will know the significance of King's Cross. This is the station used in the movies to catch the Hogwarts Express from platform 9 3/4. And so with a little time to spare, off we went in search of the infamous platform. It was a little tricky as the station is being renovated, but after a few wrong turns and finally asking directions we learned that the movie was filmed on Platform 5 - which just happened to be the one our train was leaving from. I am sure due to great demand, the station has moved platform 9 3/4 outside the station. They have set up a brick wall complete with luggage trolley for photo ops. It just happened there was a young male soccer team hanging around who noticed us taking photos at platform 9 3/4 and started pointing at Cael & Aidan and nodding and laughing saying with a thick eastern european accent "It's Ron Weasley!" The train ride itself was great - very smooth and fast, travelling at 120 miles per hour. We were surprised by how much farm land there was - wheat, canola, flax, potatoe, corn. Much of which was ready for harvest. As we neared Scotland the landscape became much more rolling with forests of evergreens appearing. We had spectacular views of the North Sea and many small, beautiful towns - all of which had enormous old churches. We arrived at Waverly Station right on time and getting off the train we realized we had no idea where to go to find our apartment and so Grannie and I set off in search of the tourist information offices. The signage in London was so good that you rarely had to wonder which way to go, not so here. After asking about 3 or 4 people, we finally found it and got all the info we needed to make our way. Before making the trek we all paid our 30 pence to pee and we set out down the cobblestone streets in search of Abbeyhill Crescent. We had heard the day previous that there were some road closures due to a Royal Wedding (daughter of Princess Anne/grandaughter of the queen) and as such there were police everywhere and we seemed to be hauling our suitcases upstream. It only took about 20 minutes to walk to our apartment where there was a huge crowd down the block and bagpipes playing. We decided to investigate and what we found was that we are a block away from Holyrood Palace and people were out to catch a glimpse of the Royals. Once again luck would be on our side and we got to see the Queen, Charles & Camilla, Kate, Wills and Harry and of course the bride and groom pass by on their way back to Holyrood Palace. Strange to think we are sleeping a block away from the Queen and her family tonight. We thought about crashing the wedding but were a little deterred by the thousands of police lining the streets and perched on the tops of the buildings! Instead, we walked 10 minutes to the nearest Tesko for groceries and came back to make a great dinner fit for a king! :)
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