We have started going away the weekend after Pea’s birthday as a kind of celebration so this year’s choice was Edinburgh. This tied in very well with meeting up with our Spanish, sorry Marta, Catalan friend as she is now working at Edinburgh airport. We hadn’t seen each other since our wedding 4 years ago so it was perfect – we spent all Saturday and Sunday morning with her.

Travel

We drove as the train is always so expensive, even booking 12 weeks out. As I wasn’t working (will explain in my IVF story) Steve and I set off first thing on the Friday morning. The journey was supposed to take 4.5hrs from us, but with a couple of traffic delays was more like 5.5hrs. 

We made a stop – I’d promised Emily, my friend who lost her child whilst pregnant, that I’d stop off and see Harry at his grave. We visited last year and bought him a little hedgehog toy ‘Harry the Hedgehog’ for his grave! A whole year later he was still there – if a bit wet and cold from the frost! We reunited the two friends and took a picture.

When you arrive in Edinburgh parking can be expensive! We managed to park at the Radisson hotel’s car park, which yes can be used by the public, on Blackfriars Street which was cheap at £12.90 for 5 hours. For the rest of the stay we chose to leave our car at the hotel  because it was free parking. The X27 and X28 are two of the Lothian buses you can get to Edinburgh centre from opposite the entrance to the hotel OR you can get the 23 First bus. A day return costs £5 per person – much better than £20+ in car parking, and we could drink! 

Hotel

I had chosen the Dalmahoy Hotel and Country Club through hotels.com which I’d never done before but we had tonnes of Tesco voucher points to use up and they give you £30 for every £10 worth of vouchers. All in all we paid £92 for a Deluxe room for two nights (4 star hotel with gym and spa) including breakfast – not bad at all!  Very nice room with living area, writing desk, bathroom and Super King bed. Steve used the gym and I did the pool and sauna/steam room. Also If you end up staying at the Dalmahoy then definitely go to the bar for cocktails! Their version of a ‘Bramble’ looked and was to die for! Would highly recommend this place.

Places to visit/things to do

There’s so much to do in Edinburgh, where do you start?! I would say out of the things that are there all year round, our favourite was Arthur’s Seat. This is a hill next to Holyrood Palace that you can walk up and get stunning views of Edinburgh. I highly recommend this if you are in ok fitness and like a beautiful skyline. Bloggers say it should take 2-3 hrs but I think this is if you walk fairly slowly and stop at regular intervals. It took us 1.5 hrs and we weren’t exactly exhausted afterwards. Please bear in mind though that in winter, especially when we went and it was frosty, it can be very slippery so plimsole type shoes are NOT a good idea – people really were struggling to get down).

Holyrood Palace itself is also fun, especially the day we went (30th November) as it was St.Andrew’s Day – their patron Saint, and therefore it, along with other places etc in the city, was free to enter and they had lots of events on to celebrate. Probably the best bit of the Palace was that in one of the bigger rooms was live Celtic music and Celtic story tales specially for St. Andrews day. Also really liked the Abbey ruins and the gardens which are also included in the price. Even our audio guides were free that day – like iPhones and very easy to use, giving you the information in the order you do each room. 

As with Dublin, we chose to do a Sandeman’s Free Walking tour – we got a booklet last time we could stamp each time we did one of their tours giving us half price/free tours every so often so it’s definitely worth it. Book the tour online, and as we did that day, we had to re-arrange for a later time but this was not a problem at all. The tour incorporated the history behind the Royal Mile, a look at Giles Cathedral, tales of William Wallace (by the way Braveheart is shockingly inaccurate!) etc etc. There’s even a trip to the tomb of Tom Riddle – lots of references to JK Rowling and Harry Potter on this tour so actually quite good for HP fans instead of paying £12 per adult for the Sandeman’s Harry Potter tour. All in all a very fun and informative tour which we all thoroughly enjoyed. 

Another quirky must see is the Underground Vaults tour (£12 per adult) which my parents recommended. It was led by a tour guide who explained to us the significance of the vaults and also took us inside some of them 2-3 stories below street level. He told us stories of the people used to live there and the supernatural events that some people say that have happened since. Quite spooky and very cool! For the price I would definitely recommend this 1hr tour. 

Now the following events are very much seasonal but if you go to Edinburgh at the same time of year then please fit them in if you can. The first was a trip to the theatre on Friday, our ‘Pea’ day – I don’t think I’ve mentioned these before but they are ‘family’ days (normally once a month) where Steve and I do what we would have done on a day out with our little boy. I had surprised Steve with a very family orientated treat – ‘How the Grinch stole Christmas, the Musical’ at the Festival Theatre (£67 the pair). I would say it is equally as fun for adults as it is for children – Steve loved it, which I was surprised at. 

The second was the Christmas markets which had started a week or so before with their bright lights, fun rides and incredible food smells. Edinburgh Christmas market is fairly big and does have a lot of stalls…4/5 long isles worth! We basically weaved up and down each buying odd bits along the way for ourselves and the family. There’s also plenty of food and I can highly recommend the fondue filled bread bun! Just thinking about it now makes my mouth water! 

And finally, the ‘piece de resistance’, the cultural highlight of the visit…..a ceilidh! I mean really what says Scotland more than men in kilts dancing to true Scottish music (and yes there were bagpipes involved at one point!) – I mean I had to let Marta experience this as a foreigner! Now I should mention before we continue that I dance, like have lessons, and have done for over half of my life. Steve on the other hand, let’s just say he ‘swayed’ for our wedding dance! Also, after speaking to Nuria, Marta’s sister, it sounded like this would be totally out of her comfort zone too – but she nailed it! A lot of the time you needed to be in pairs for the dances so Steve sat out a fair bit and Marta and I danced, but I made sure to record both of them as a little souvenir! Whoever said dancing isn’t tiring or fun obviously has never been to a ceilidh! Hilarious from start to finish; we had people being (fairly violently) flung across the dance floor – one woman actually being thrown by her husband and falling on the floor, and a few people who maybe should have rethought the appropriateness of their attire shall we say. Just an awesome end to our St.Andrew’s Day and an absolute must if you are visiting Scotland!

Food

Breakfast for us was included in the cost, but not always, so do check what your room includes as on its own it is £18.50 each! For breakfast there was a fairly large option range; cereal, fruit, yoghurt, toast, pancakes, full English (sorry Scottish – including haggis) and pastries. Drinks were fruit juices, water, tea or coffee. 

If you want a quaint little French style snack place then you should stop at’ La Baratine Victoria’ on West Bow. We were ready for a hot drink to try warm us up (it was about 1-3 degree in Edinburgh that weekend). Fairly similar to Patisserie Valerie with superb looking patisserie and French style baguettes. Unfortunately my hot chocolate was not so hot but still the pain au chocolat and Steve’s sandwich were scrummy.

An important thing to mention when visiting Edinburgh on a weekend is BOOK A TABLE! Unfortunately lots of places that had been recommend to me or that we saw and liked the look of were fully booked. For future reference ‘Whisky Rooms’ (and yes Whisky not Whiskey-don’t know why) is supposed to be good for food and Howie’s on Victoria Street looked very nice also – will definitely be booking these two when we return. The first evening we went to Old Town and found The Malt Shovel on Cockburn St. I ordered the haggis pie (got to be done in Scotland) and Steve had the Angus burger (again with haggis in). The burger was amazing and would happily recommend if you are looking for food/drinks in the area. The second evening we managed to find a space at a pub, again in the Old town, called The Fiddler’s Arms. Found a table straight away even though it was rammed and food was lovely…we all had the steak and ale pie which we can all very much recommend!

Final thoughts

Edinburgh is a super place to visit for the weekend although I am kind of glad I was off so we had 3 days instead of 2. There’s a lot to do and see to keep anyone entertained; whether you’re a history buff, an art major or just looking for something new.

An awesome weekend that I think Pea would have enjoyed as much as Mummy and Daddy did. Happy 2nd birthday baby xxx