At 5AM on Christmas Eve Max came wandering into our bedroom complaining of an upset stomach. The six hour stretch of vomiting started shortly thereafter, and continued on an off until Boxing Day. The gastro bug hit me exactly 24 hours later, a couple of hours before I was due to cook my annual Christmas morning bagels, a meal to which I look forward all year. Fortunately vomiting is not a typical symptom of COVID, and fortunately the norovirus skipped Lilia and Lisa, but needless to say it was decidedly lower key Christmas than we’d been expecting! And even though gastroenteritis symptoms do not align with those of COVID, they made Lisa and I a tad anxious about the COVID tests we’re due to take in a few days in London in order to gain entry to Australia: every sneeze or tinge of a fever felt by Max and I had us second guessing our afflictions. That said, we did manage some time to explore central Edinburgh during our few days in town, with the defining sandstone medieval architecture and the commanding Edinburgh Castle looking down on it all.
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Our digs in Stockbridge in the center of the city afforded us an excellent spot from which to walk anywhere in the Scottish capital. As with a lot of the other Christmas markets we’d visited across the UK and Ireland, the locals commented that the markets when we were in town weren’t as inviting as they were pre-Brexit due to the disappearance of a lot of the German vendors. There still were, however, some excellent local arts and crafts to peruse, and Lilia was decidedly jazzed about all the Christmas fair rides operating in the park below the castle. It took some serious cajoling from me to get her onto the spinning swing picture below, but she was so enamored with the ride that she walked all the way back into town later that same day to take Lisa on it with her! I was tempted to try haggis at one of the market stalls when I saw it advertised on a chalk board but just couldn’t get over the finish line, it really didn’t look very appetizing sitting there in the warmer… The lights and decorations around the city were excellent, they really made it feel like Christmas. We even found a bagpiper all dressed up in clan garb playing carols by the Scottish National Gallery, quite the treat on Christmas Eve.
With a last minute letter to Santa tucked in below our tiny Christmas tree – just to make sure he knew where to come and where we’d be next year – we were all set for the big man’s visit. Even though we were a million miles from home and were spending Christmas for the first time in 10 years without our Christmas elf Meyer, Santa did in fact manage to pay us a visit, evidently very much enjoying the cookies specially baked for him by Lisa and Lilia the day prior. Given our luggage space was very limited we’d decided on one gift each between us, picking names out of a hat a few weeks prior to determine the logistics of gift giving within the family. Throughout the UK and Ireland we were on the lookout for gifts for each other, all of us sneakily trying to purchase items without other members of the family being any the wiser. The beautiful Irish wool sweater Max bought for his mum in Killarney was certainly a tricky one for me to smuggle in my rucksack around Ireland and on a plane to Glasgow! It was a very fun way of gift giving, everyone had obviously put in a lot of thought to their selections, I hope we can continue the tradition within the family in the future.
We had a big menu planned for the festivities: slow-cooked lamb on Christmas Eve, roast turkey on Christmas day, Di’s bagels for Christmas breakfast… Poor Max was feeling up to a few bagels and some turkey, and I was still 100% for our big Christmas Eve dinner, but with a stomach bug in the house it put a bit of a damper on things at the dining table. I will say I’m glad I was still feeling up to sampling the 1997 vintage bottle of port Lisa purchased for the occasion all the way back in Porto, absolutely delicious! And the bagels were excellent even without the use of any measuring cups or scales in our tiny Edinburgh kitchen.
Scotland was one of the few places in which I feel we could have done with more time… The length of time we spent in Ireland was ideal, and the few weeks we devoted to Wales and England was plenty, but Scotland’s such a huge part of the UK and had so many stunningly picturesque spots to visit I think we could have killed at least a couple more weeks quite happily across the UK’s north. Only after visiting did we realize how much of an outdoor lover’s paradise it is across the highlands and Hebrides. We all loved our time on Skye and it was fun to see Edinburgh for a few days, but there’s plenty more to see in this part of the world!
WHAT A LOVELY CHRISTMAS … from yummy looking cookies and letter to Santa to beautiful Scotland to explore! Love and blessings as you now explore life in AUSTRALIA!!! 💖🙏🏻🤗🙏🏻💖
Happy travels to all the Valtenbergs, will miss your World touring, you have done a fabulous presentation with wonderful photos and comments.
Hope you can land in Oz without any Covid problems.
Fond regards Flatty & Skippy
What a GRANDIOSE journey you have taken…one of the MOST important thing is, Lilila and Max will remember along with your documentation and photos.
GREAT job Dad and Mom.
Christmas well done in 2021! The city is much larger and stone solid than what I had expected.