Easter in Scotland -- Duck Eggs and Graveyards

So, it's Easter and we're lucky to have some little kids visiting to remind us about the thrill of the bunny's arrival and finding eggs. My niece kept asking is it time for the Easter bunny to come, where's the Easter bunny now, what's he going to bring, etc.

Last night, we sought egg dying necessities. After confusing a guy working at the local store by asking for white eggs (he thought my brother-in-law had asked for wide eggs), the only white eggs to be found were duck eggs, so here they are about to be boiled. Also, the food dye was a little strange -- the yellow was very viscous, making the dying water very cloudy. We could only find two colors, but luckily blue and yellow make green, so we had three colors in the end!

Scottish Easter eggs -- pastel, but pretty. Scottish Easter treats -- crackers with crowns, jokes, and bunny stickers inside and Kinder Eggs (a Dutch candy egg with a toy inside). No jelly beans, no pastel-foiled Reese's peanut butter cups, no hollow chocolate bunny.

Pepe ready to pull his Easter cracker.

We decided to take an excursion to Stirling Castle, which involved taking the subway to the train, both big thrills for the little cousins.

Some aunty love on the train

Messy ice cream faces

A stick and a hole are the best tourist attractions for a two year old!

Stirling has beautiful architecture; the streets leading up to the castle are lined with 16th and 17th century buildings.

We came up to the castle by cutting through this graveyard, which was one of the highlights of our day trip, especially for the kids who all seem to enjoy running around the gravestones more than anything else.

Stirling is atop a steep hill so there were amazing views of distant fields and mountains and clouds.

The castle had magic shows, unicorn tapestries, and color your own jester computer games -- so lots to amuse the kids. Though the challenge was how to give age-appropriate explanations to my four year old niece about what was happening in the medieval tapestry of the unicorn hunt, graphic scenes of dogs and men attacking the unicorn became herding the unicorn.

Ended the day with the traditional Easter dinner -- fish and chips from our local chippery named Philadelphia.