In the morning, we have a hearty breakfast at the Castle. Apparently, twinfamily has experienced a bit of spooky oddness in the night, and I'm glad that I haven't learned about the haunted nature of some of the rooms until it's time to leave. We part ways, handing off E's mom, and take the train back to Edinburgh.

(There's some confusion as we were given the wrong type of train ticket on our initial departure from the city, but it gets sorted out by one of the train conductors. Also, they check everybody's ticket twice -- once on the train, and again once the train arrives at our destination.)

The Grassmarket Hotel is situated right in the...um...Grassmarket, a bustling square in middle of Edinburgh's Old Town and right under Edinburgh Castle. We drop off the rest of our luggage and have targeted Oink!, a nearby eatery, for lunch. We luck into a small corner table and squeeze in.

Apparently the way Oink! works is that every day, they start with a roasted pig (very reminiscent of lechon!) and extract the meat from it until they run out. It is delicious, and I'm delighted that they give us the crunchy, tasty skin along with the pulled pork.

(Sadly, their fridge is busted, so our bottles of Irn Bru are not as refreshing as they could be.)

Our afternoon activity is a trip to Dynamic Earth, a science museum not far from Holyroodhouse and the main path to Arthur's Seat. 
(Not to mention the Scottish Parliament, which is a hyper-modern building that's a trip to look at, apparently literally patterned after a pile of leaves and sticks tossed onto a table by the architect.) It's a pretty cool building, with an amphitheater-like area in front, the raised outer ring of which has monuments that show the various ages of the earth and maps of the continents.

Unsurprisingly, the building is awash with children on school tours; more surprisingly, there's also a corporate celebration of some kind going on. Some ushers winkingly encourage us to get moving so we can stay ahead of a group of students, and we manage to outpace them for a bit. The exhibits are fairly immersive, and I particularly enjoyed walking through the evolution of life to modern-day organisms. Eventually the school group that's been nipping at our heels catches up with us during a 3D movie, and they're (naturally) raucous, but I'm able to keep my zen.

We return to our hotel to check in, and it's a nice room for the four of us. We have a great view of Grassmarket, and it's pleasant to just people-watch from above for a while.

We have dinner reservations at an upscale place called The Witchery, and have a lovely meal. It pleases me that we can take J & G to a fancy restaurant and not have to worry about either how they'll behave, or what they'll eat -- they have wide enough palates that they can always find *something* they're willing to try, and J in particular has been game to expand their range.

After the four of us return, E and I set out on our own to explore, leaving the children to their electronics. The two of us walk along the Royal Mile, and I'm keen to explore the closes, mysterious and enticing little side streets and alleyways that branch off of the main thoroughfare like, to paraphrase our food guide, spines on a fish skeleton. Some lead to hidden plazas (we find one next to The Writer's Museum with flagstones engraved with quotes from famous authors), some to very old residences (one with carvings dating from the 16th century), and it's super-fun to wander down a random one and see where it goes.

Upon our return, I find that having a room directly over a pub has its disadvantages.