Exploring Edinburgh

Today we had a bit of a late start as we have a free day to just wander around Edinburgh. We headed off up Cowgate towards GrassMarket to check out all the bars, cafes and stores. We also went in search of a good coffee which we found at Zaza’s cafe. We met a lovely couple from NZ who have been travelling around Scotland for a couple of weeks - they have done the Jacobite train ride out of Fort William and said it was fabulous.

There was a market open today in GrassMarket where there were some lovely hand made products for sale, everything from scarves and gloves to prints, bags and whiskey as well as a range of baked goods. I withstood the lure of these lovely local artisan wares but Katie succumbed.

After the market we headed up Victoria Street where I couldn’t go past a lovely Christmas Shop, those who know me well would know I find it hard to resist a Christmas Decoration from a place I visit. I was restrained and only purchased 2 decorations, the damage could have been much worse but as we are only 4 days into our holiday, common sense prevailed (and I am sure Ian will be pleased to read this!)

We then continued up Victoria street, which is full of very colourful shopfronts. We made our way up to the Royal Mile and explored more of the lovely Scottish stores full of gorgeous cashmere and lambs wool scarves as well as hats, kilts and pewter brooches.

There were several weddings happening in a range of venues along the Royal Mile and so we could hear bagpipes and saw many guests in their finest kilts. We stopped for a late lunch at a lovely Italian restaurant and then headed back to our apartment to relax for a couple of hours before we head out tonight for the Edinburgh Dark Side Walking Tour: Mysteries, Murder and Legends which we are looking forward to.Read more