We both had said we want to go to Edinburgh at some point and with Nath's mum heading up there regularly for work, I thought why not. I managed to get super cheap flights through RyanAir, £35 return each. We wouldn't even be able to get to Burton for that price on the train. And then I went to my trusty old favourite for a place to stay AirBnB. I found a great apartment just outside the city with a fantastic host Ceana, a 45minute walk in, but a 20minute bus (link to the apartment at the bottom).
Christmas came and I still wouldn't tell him what his present was, it wouldn't be a surprise otherwise. Instead I told him we'd be doing activities in London for the weekend, but basically all he knew what that we had to meet at London Liverpool Street at 5.30pm at the latest on the Friday night. He called me on arrival and asked which platform we were meeting as and I said 6, he was like 'Stansted Airport, are you sure?' It was brilliant, he had no idea. We boarded the train and I have him shortbread as a clue. Would you have guessed that it was to Scotland? Anyway Nathan had no idea, I was even wearing a tartan skirt. Eventually I told him. I love surprises!!
We landed in Edinburgh late Friday night and following advice from our AirBnB host we caught the city bus to the city centre.
Upon arrival, we headed to Rose Street for a drink whilst waiting to meet our host to get the key to her apartment. We stopped at the Black Cat, with a sign 'sale on' beckoning us inside, £5 for a glass of red and a cider, could hardly say no.
After receiving the key we got a taxi back to the apartment, as we couldn't figure out which bus we needed to get. The apartment was perfect with a large double room, brand new bathroom, kitchen and lounge.
For the Saturday I had a full day full of activities planned, unfortunately it did mean we had to set our alarms pretty early. We got the bus into town and crossed the bridge to the Royal Mile and Tron Kirk where we were meeting our free walking tour guide. This was recommended to me by a Edinburgh local and a work colleague who has taken various friends on the tour. It was a cold start to the day, which we weren't as prepared for! We arrived early and headed straight for a coffee shop, coffee for Nath and hot chocolate for me to at least keep us warm for the start of the tour.
The tour took us mainly around the old town, we learnt a lot about the history and traditions of Edinburgh. Our guide was brilliant - despite not actually been Scottish she knew her stuff and a bit more. For the Harry Potter fans out there, the tour also gave us an insight into how the story began, where JK Rowling wrote some of the books, where she got inspiration for Hogwarts (second picture after this paragraph), where she got names from etc. The picture below with Nath is where Diagon Alley is based on.
Following the tour, we headed to the Grass Market for lunch at The Last Drop. This was also recommended to me, as a particularly old pub. Back in the day it was also the spot where people came to drink after watching a hanging, I guess a clue is in the name.
The rain stopped during lunch, so afterwards to walked some more around the old town before heading to the famous Edinburgh Castle, due to limited time we didn't go in but we took a couple of photos.
At this point it was starting to get dark and I desperately wanted to go up Arthur's Seat, so instead of going for a drink we made our way over. 45 minutes later and we were at the bottom totally unprepared in terms of walking gear (nb. Wear trainers at the very least if climbing/walking Arthur's Seat) but we started to climb anyway. This was our first glimpse of snow this year as there was a slight dusting as we got higher. We were lucky it was such a clear day as the views were incredible and at the town we had a 360degree view of the city.
We then started our descent down, it was cold so we slipped part of the way down. Earlier in the day, there had been a 5km up to the top and Mo Farah had been there, if only we'd known. On our walk back to the apartment, we happened to pass this pub that we'd seen on Google earlier in the day, which was one of the best pubs in Edinburgh, The Sheep Heid Inn and it lived up to it's title. It was quaint, tucked away with a beautiful roaring fire.
My organised activities didn't end there. I had done some research before and The Guardian suggested The Ship on the Shore in Leith as somewhere to eat, so I booked. It was a bit of a mission from where we were staying as we had to get several buses but it was worth it. The food was amazing and very seafood focused. We had our favourite, oysters to start, followed by a huge seafood paella with lobster, clams, scallops, salmon, mussels you name it and a lovely bottle of red!
Post dinner, we went to the pub next door for a night cap whilst we waited for the rain to stop. It was literally torrential, but eventually getting several buses back to the apartment.
Unfortunately that was the end of our trip to Edinburgh with an early morning flight home. However it was definitely not a goodbye, more of a see you later Edinburgh.
Next destination: currently unknown but somewhere we can ski!
Xo
Ps. Link to the AirBnB apartment -https://airbnb.com/rooms/6176750?s=8&user_id=12841972&ref_device_id=823ebbdc2d1ccdb8fccc977fdff9f63c6ed8f551
