Edinburgh

Before we picked up the van we had 3 nights in Edinburgh to explore the city. We stayed at the Kimpton Hotel in Charlotte Square and whilst we didn't get a free upgrade after dropping some subtle honeymoon hints, the room was still lush. We arrived at the hotel just in time for the 'social hour' which involves zero socialising and lots of free wine - my kind of social hour! The hotel is huge and has a couple of restaurants so for dinner on the first night we ate at BABA which does amazing middle eastern small plates which were delicious along with a couple of tasty cocktails.

For our first day in the city we joined a free walking tour, our favourite way to get to know a new place. Our tour guide Kenny was great and knew so much about the history of the city. He was a little rusty due to it being his first tour in a long time due to covid but that just added to the experience waiting for him to remember what he was going to talk about next. The tour took us along the Royal Mile, St Giles Church, Greyfriars Churchyard (or Kirkyard as the Scots like to call them) to see the famous Greyfriars Bobby's grave and Edinburgh Castle.

After the tour we headed back to one of the streets we passed full of lots of independent shops and cafes which was apparently JK Rowling's inspiration for Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter books for a mooch around and in search of some lunch. We then spent the afternoon exploring Edinburgh Castle (which came with a bonus sighting of DS Arnott himself - Mother of God!)

Our second day in Edinburgh started with a walk up to Arthur's Seat via the Royal Mile where we stopped at St Giles Church which we had passed on the walking tour the day before to have a look inside. The church had the most beautiful stained glass windows I have ever seen so it was definitely worth a stop. As we continued along Royal Mile, we also passed the Queen's residence where she stays when she is in Edinburgh, Holyrood Castle. Turns out we Will and Kate had stayed there only a couple of days earlier! At the top of Arthur's Seat we were rewarded with 360 degree views of Edinburgh which are pretty amazing.

It was then time for lunch so we headed back to the Royal Mile in search of something to eat and stumbled across a very pink cafe called Laila with some free seats outside where we could soak up the sunshine. Alongside some very bizarre drinks worthy of such a pink cafe such as unicorn coffee (which was blue in colour and covered in sprinkles, needless to say we skipped that), they also did some delicous pittas. For the rest of the afternoon, we slowly made our way back to the hotel via the Scott Monument and a seat in Princes Street Gardens for a spot of people watching. For dinner we headed to Bodega in Leith for tacos and frozen margaritas which were amazing!Read more