I know I did an exclusive post about The Newsroom in Edinburgh a week or two ago, but I felt I needed to do a little round up of the lovely trip hubby and me took to gorgeous Edinburgh recently.
I have family up in Scotland and lived in Newcastle for a time but somehow neither of us have ever been to Edinburgh. We wanted a mini break somewhere in the UK and after looking online and speaking to our lovely friends, Edinburgh came out firmly on top!
So, we booked our return flights out of Bristol and set about looking for a hotel to act as our exploration base. We didn't want to spend too much as we didn't plan on spending much time in the room, and wanted a good location rather than plush interior. We struck a happy balance with The Parliament House Hotel just off Leith Street. It has a nice intimate feel with a cosy lounge complete with fire and whiskey tasting menu, and also a restaurant (which we admittedly didn't try. The double room was comfy enough, with a gorgeous soft king sized bed and soft sheets.
So, we set off exploring. The hotel was a stones throw from the shops of Queen Street and only a short walk to the old city with Edinburgh Castle, Grassmarket and all the fabulous architecture that you just seem to stumble upon every time you turn a corner.
As we didn't really have a clue where to start, we hopped on one of the City sight-seeing bus tours to get an idea of the layout and where we wanted to focus on over the next couple of days. We even braved the open top section for a few minutes, although at 6 degrees with added wind chill we chickened out fairly quickly! We rolled past the 'New' Scottish Parliament building, The Palace of Holyrood House, New town, Old Town, The National Museum of Scotland and many others, learning from the audio guide as we went. Maybe not a lot of points for the street-cred bank, but a good use of £13 for our 24 hour ticket.
On the walk back to the hotel we stumbled across The Newsroom which was so lovely it has a blog post all of it's own on here. After a relaxed afternoon tipple we headed back to the hotel for a lie down in preparation for our first evening in the city.
An old school friend of mine lives in Edinburgh and kindly offered to act as our unofficial food and drink guide for the evening. We met for drinks at Jeremiah's Tap Room on Elm Row which had a great range of cask ales, international bottled beers and lagers and a lovely stripped back ambiance to sit, chat and catch up. We then moved on to Phuket Pavilion for a Thai feast of hot jungle curry, coconut rice and a host of tasty sundries. We also had a lovely bottle of Chablis, which is partly responsible for the fact that in spite of the gorgeous and beautifully presented food, this is the only photo I took in the restaurant- an amusingly shaped cactus.
We then took up refuge in the cool and quirky Joseph Pearce where we settled in for the rest of the night, trying some craft beers and, at times, modelling them for your enjoyment...
A little tired but still chuckling for the night before, we awoke the next morning and decided to amble down to the Shore and take a tour around The Royal Yacht Britannia. I am a huge royal family fan and hubby loves sailing and anything maritime, so it ticked both of our boxes. It was fabulous wandering around the huge state dining room and seeing where Queenie used to sleep when on board. The Britannia Bell was a high point for me...
For someone who isn't really a fan of museums or long tours, I LOVED the Britannia- you go at your own pace, learn a lot and there's always an opportunity to take a break with a cuppa at The Royal Deck Tea Room on board. We had a scrumptious lunch in its elegant and relaxed ambiance, admiring the view and my lovely Britannia emblazoned cappuccino!
The next day after a relaxed breakfast at Pep and Fodder (great staff, simple but tasty fare and lovely interior), we headed to The Palace at Holyrood House.
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| Pep and Fodder |
My absolute highlight of the trip was the champagne afternoon tea we treated ourselves to at The Balmoral Hotel. The Palm Court is a gorgeous, light, airy and elegant affair and the staff made us feel like the most important people in the room. After a wonderful selection of simple yet delicious finger sandwiches, we were spoilt with fresh scones complete with clotted cream and preserves, followed by mini lemon curd sponges, Spiced plum mousse with ginger bread (Hubby's favourite), caramel and pecan brownie, all washed down with a beautiful glass of champers. We even made room for some hand made chocolates to finish off. Bliss.
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| Palm Court at The Balmoral Hotel |
The waistbands were definitely groaning after that, so we had a light dinner and headed to Stac Polly, a gin and wine bar for a drink. Unfortunately the weather was horrendous, so we were pretty much the only ones in there, meaning there wasn't a great deal of ambiance and the bar man had to keep running from the restaurant down stairs to serve us which was a little odd. But the drinks were lovely, with a good range of gins (I plumped for my favourite, Hendricks). It would be nice to try it again with a few more punters in to get a real feel for it.
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| G&T at Stac Polly |
We headed to bed for an early night as running around this exciting, diverse and contrasting city for 3 days had started to take it's toll! The next day we headed to the airport to come home, happily tired but with one very clear thought in mind- we will certainly be going back very soon.
Cheers Edinburgh!
Lots of love
Mrs T
xxx
