Panda to the kids?
TAKING THE STRAIN: Andrew Robinson puts on a brave face as he set off by rail for a city break with his young family in Edinburgh.
Y partner Ellie has braved 24-hour bus rides in South America but when I suggested a little train ride from Huddersfield to Edinburgh she came over a bit funny.
Since our little ones arrived, Mummy has become averse to holidays, breaks, weekends away, overnighters and day trips. The thought of trying to cope with a livewire three-year-old boy and his oneyear-old sister, even on a two-night city break to Edinburgh, got us into our usual discussion about the endless pitfalls of holidaying with under-fives.
Admittedly, she’s the one who takes charge of packing the 1,001 essentials, so she has every right to be reluctant. After a particularly traumatic camping trip to France last year she vowed never to go on holiday again.
“What will Harry be like on the train,” she asked. “Who will entertain him for three hours? What if we are delayed? Won’t Lottie want to crawl around on the filthy train floor?”
Her doubts increased but I was stubbornly determined to prove that it’s possible to enjoy a short break away, even if it meant disrupting the kids’ rigid bedtime routine. Thankfully, our time on the train north whizzed by as we enjoyed the beauty of Yorkshire and the Northumberland coast as the kids played with crayons while sitting on the table.
Chuffed with ourselves, we arrived at Edinburgh Waverley station fairly relaxed. Tantrum tally so far: nil.
We were delighted to find our hotel, Hotel Indigo (www.hiedinburgh.co.uk) was just a short taxi ride away from the station, though a little nervous to discover the room wasn’t “Harry proof”. Well, what hotel room is kid proof?
The trick to preventing little boys wrecking hotel rooms is simply to take them out, so after eating the chocolatecoated strawberries in our very lovely room we went exploring. No trip to the capital is complete without visiting magnificent Edinburgh Castle, especially for us as Harry is seriously into stories from the “olden days” about knights.
A gale was blowing as we squeezed past the hordes of tourists and their selfie sticks. Harry loved exploring the dungeons as we told him tall tales about drunken pirates and brave knights.
After tea and cake in the castle cafe, we wandered down the Royal Mile but only
The trick to preventing little boys wrecking hotel rooms is to take them out.