Following my post last week about our lovely little afternoon in Newcastle, the main purpose of the trip was actually of course to visit Edinburgh, where Dan had booked us a tour of the Edinburgh Gin Distillery! I’ve got a post planned all about that specifically to go u shortly, as it was AMAZING, but we got up to far more than just drinking gin (e.g, we also drank beer and wine and rum…!) Last time I visited Edinburgh it absolutely hammered it down for the vast majority of my stay, but this time we were treated with the most glorious weather for the whole entire weekend! I KNOW – MENTAL!! I loved the city last time, and have been dying to go back to explore a but more, but I have to say, in the sunshine it’s just the most wonderful place to be, and we had the loveliest couple of days being complete tourists and doing all those things the locals probably sneer at!
We stayed at another of our lodges in South Queensferry just 15 minutes or so outsider the city and arrived in perfect time for a stroll along the river admiring the huge Forth Bridge before grabbing some lunch at a cute little cafe. It’s a very pretty little place full of windy cobbled streets and pastel coloured houses that perfect for outfit photographing, however I chickened out due to the amount of onlookers and will obviously regret it for the rest of my life now…. Afterwards we made the steep climb to the top of the bridge to catch the train into the city! We started off with a bit of what we do best – aimless wandering, stopping off every now and then to grab a drink and a rest! The sun was blazing and it was so lovely to see the castle and Princes Street Gardens properly since they were shrouded in clouds and mist last time I came! Early in the evening we were booked onto one of Edinburgh’s many ghost tours. Last time we couldn’t get on any of the proper tours as they were booked up, so we ended up doing one of the free tours (which was fantastic actually and well worth a go if you find yourself in the same position!) so I was very excited to actually get to go underground to see the underbelly of the city. I’m not really a believer in the supernatural, but our host Alun was hilarious and so engaging, I just loved hearing all of the stories about Edinburgh’s horrible history and how life would have been there once upon a time. Afterwards we stuck with the spooky theme and went to visit Greyfriar’s Bobby and for a stroll around the graveyard, making sure we’d walked through Grassmarket which was buzzing with happy drinkers in the late afternoon sun. We’d worked up a bit of an appetite by then, so we headed to All Bar One for some tapas and wine before catching the train home to Queensferry.
The next day we headed back into town for a bit of exploring before our gin tour, which I’ll be telling you all about soon. Once that was done, I’ll be completely honest, I was feeling a little bit tiddly and it was only lunchtime! So we headed over to The Tron to fill ourselves up on pizza before embarking on some more wandering. This time we headed over towards Arthur’s Seat. We’d talked a few times about wanting to climb it and see the views, but I was a little worried I wasn’t dressed for the occasion. Dan didn’t seem to think this was a problem, and kept telling me I’d be fine. Even as we drew closer and saw that literally everyone seemed to be kitted out in walking gear he was not perturbed! So yeah…. I’m that twonk that tried to climb Arthur’s Seat in ballet flats and a pink pleated velvet skirt…! We didn’t go all the way to the top because the climb was quite rocky and I was pretty sure my shoes were going to disintegrate at some point, plus it was a lot chillier up there! But we made it about half way before abandoning the trek, and the views really were stunning so it was a worth the hike and the slight embarrassment (all though I did have visions of us having to be airlifted off there by some pissed off mountain rescue guy who couldn’t believe how stupid we were…!) All that climbing tired us out so we headed back to our room for a little catnap before getting completely overdressed for a lovely dinner at Miller & Carter Cramond Brig.
Edinburgh is such a fantastic city, I genuinely still don’t feel like I’ve even scratched the surface. We will definitely be planning another trip there before too long! Where should we make sure we visit next time?
Love,
Picking the Day 