The kids thoroughly enjoyed stopping on our way up to Edinburgh at the border, hoping out of the car for 5 minutes stretch and this cheesy smile by Amelia sums up just how excited she was!
After almost 3 hours travelling we turned up at Edinburgh Zoo just after the time we were allocated to see the Giant Panda, thankfully the lovely ladies behind the check in desk sorted it all out and gave us alternative tickets to see him later. (We needn’t have worried though as he was in hiding all day and we never got to see him anyway! Gutted as this was the one thing the kids had been talking about all the way there!) There is no controlling the pandas to make them come out which I was actually pleased to see and if he wanted to be a little temperamental then who am I to argue! lol
First up for us was the penguins and these turned out to be everyones favourites! They were super cute and what with the likes of Happy Feet and Penguins of Madagascar movies which the children have watched they were all happy to see them up close.
I even found my soul mate, with her mummy tummy and well, mine too, I just know how she feels and some days I just want to stand under a little tin pagoda and ignore everything going on around me too! lol
If you have never been to Edinburgh Zoo before you have to be prepared to walk….and walk…and walk some more! It is all on a hillside so a buggy is essential if you have little ones! We spotted the lion sleeping at the bottom of the enclosure so walked to the top to see the others and after 5 minutes of huffing and puffing up the steepest hill yet….there was only the one lion and he was back at the bottom!
To say we were having no luck is quite the statement of the day, rhino was at the top of his enclosure and by the time we had walked round to the top he was almost at the bottom…
A lot of the animals were too far away or inside their enclosures so we didnt get to see them properly and the kids were becoming a little antsy at this point. We did as all parents do and tried to keep them walking with the promise of ice cream at the next vendor…. except there were no vendors!
All the kiosks were closed! No juice, no ice cream, nothing!
We ploughed around the rest of the zoo with the kids wanting to get to the end and grab a drink!
They were all super happy with the monkeys though and all the teeny babies being carried around, we even saw some being made! (yes that brought much hilarity and lightened the mood with the boys!) lol
Having made our way to the end the kids were more than happy to be bribed with a treat in the gift shop if they posed for a photo for me! lol Not too bad and at least they were all looking in the right direction!
Evie bought herself a one of the Painted Hunting Dog soft toys – I thought she would have gone for a penguin or Koala but she hasn’t let this dog out of her sight since coming home!
….and we couldn’t come back into England without another visit to the Border!
XOXO
Debbie
We were gifted a family pass to the zoo for the purposes of this review. All views and opinions are my own.
