In 2009, mum and I had so much fun on our trip to Liverpool that we decided to do more trips together. This time we decided to go to the far north, to the lovely city of Edinburgh. It was a bit of a quick decision to go, so the trip we planned was really too short (2 nights) but because we got there early on Oct 14, and left later in the afternoon on the 16th we still had a fair amount of time to see the sights. We had found a nice hotel on Grassmarket (the Apex city hotel) so we were right in the centre of things.
After we had dumped our stuff (hand luggage only!) at the hotel, we had lunch at Café Jacques (nice croque monsieurs), before we started exploring the city. Naturally we did the Royal Mile, Greyfriars Kirkyard (aw, Greyfriairs Bobby!), nearby Analogue books (one of the coolest bookshops ever!), and some of the shops near Princess Street such as Bibi’s Cake Boutique (cupcakes!!). After all that walking, we were pretty tired, but it was too early for dinner, so we had a cup of tea in one of the nice pubs before we went out to “The Outsider” on George IV Bridge. It’s a bit swanky, but perfect to celebrate our trip. It was a shame we didn’t get to sit by a window to see the Castle, but I guess you can’t have it all.
The next morning, we needed a good start, so we had breakfast at the Hula Juicebar, which serves just fabulous granola.
The only thing we had really planned for that day was a tour of Mary King’s Close. OK, it’s quite a touristy thing to do, as you are guided by a person dressed up in 17th century garb and there are some silly jokes, but it was really a lot of fun and we learned a thing or two about the history of Edinburgh. What most amazed me was the architecture of the place and the fact that they had built all that stuff over and around it.
When we got out we strolled around the Royal Mile some more (taking pictures by the castle), stumbled upon the writer’s museum (which we had to visit of course), had a lovely lunch at Hendersons and we also visited the National Gallery, just before they closed to see The Skating Minister by Sir Henry Raeburn. To refuel, we had drinks at Bannerman’s (missed the music unfortunately) and dined on pub food. We then again tried to go to the fiddler’s bar on Grassmarket, but there was again no fiddle or fiddler to be seen, oh well.
On our last day, we hiked up Calton Hill where the Survival of the Fittest race was on (well, it was all around town, but that’s where it was most visible with lots of funky obstacles to be taken on by the participants).
After that, it was time to make our way down to Waverley Bridge to catch a bus to the airport 😦
But, we’re already thinking about our next trip, which will be three nights at least, and will most likely take us to Oxford 🙂
Merpel's site 