One week ago I was wandering the beautiful streets of Edinburgh, no children near my feet, hands free from pushing a pram, my hand actually holding my husbands, the first time in such a long time absolutely mesmerised by the architecture and just taking in everything including the scents - Edinburgh has a specific scent and I love it. Edinburgh brings me joy, well Scotland does, it's stunning and I feel at home when i'm there.
Edinburgh has so much history, so many stories and due to be the inspiration for many parts of the film it feels like i'm walking around the set for Harry Potter.
The first stop was Greyfriars kirkyard, somewhere i'd wanted to visit for a long time but never had. My Nan had asked me to go and take some photos for her so it fitted in perfectly. We arrived off the caledonian sleeper at 7:20am, so after dropping our suitcase off at our hotel we had time to kill before most places opened and also before the streets got busy too. Our hotel was 5 minutes walk from the graveyard at most so it was perfect for our first stop. I'd prepped for this by googling Greyfriars Bobby and also watching the Disney film on it.
Originally I just thought we'd go in take the photo for my Nan and leave but what I wasn't prepped for was the beautiful architecture on the graves and tombs. We spent a long time looking at all the details. I couldn't believe how wonderful it all was in a really odd, morbid way. I didn't expect a graveyard to be beautiful really. We spent about an hour walking around looking at it all and still felt like we could have spent all day there.
We spent a lot of the first morning shopping on Prince's street, spending my birthday money. Even shopping down the high street in Edinburgh is beautiful as you walk past the Scott monument and have the view of Edinburgh castle in the distance too.
We also walked past 'Aunt Lizzie's house' from teacup travels which is in Prince's street garden's - That's one for you CBeebies watching parents.
I can imagine Prince's street gardens is absolutely beautiful in Spring and Summer when the flowers are out, there were a few snowdrops around but nothing as of yet but with our extremely long Winter I can't blame the flowers for now blooming yet!
The first day was quite a slow day for us where we just wandered aimlessly, enjoying each other's company, popped into the Museum of Childhood (which is free), had brunch at St Giles cafe and bar and then ate at the lovely Merchants Restaurant in the evening. We didn't photograph or film our dinner as it's VERY rare we get time together and just enjoy eating amazing food and having time together just chatting. I will also like to advise anyone going to Edinburgh to eat here, the food genuinely was some of the best i've ever eaten and the hospitality was wonderful too.
The second day was made up of a lot more activities! We headed to Edinburgh castle first thing in the morning after checking out of the hotel. We stayed in the Grassmarket hotel which is a beautiful little boutique hotel. We were in the snug double room which had dandy wallpaper and a Dandy annual in the room, it was lovely.
The castle is beautiful and has an incredible view of every side of Edinburgh. The view of the snowy covered mountains was an added bonus.
I think my favourite part, minus the architecture was the prisons I liked the most. I find that sort of thing really fascinating. Now, this is going to sound either really odd or you're gonna agree but I also love looking at weapons, they're always so scary to look at but I also find the history of them interesting and I always wonder if they were ever used and if they're technically a murder weapon.
Another free thing to do that's really interesting, is actually home to Dolly the sheep (the cloned sheep) is the National museum of Scotland and although we didn't get the whole of it done it was so interesting. The stuffed animal room was weirdly fascinating too.
We didn't spend too long in here as we headed for lunch before the Potter trail in the afternoon but what we did see was really amazing.
Probably my favourite thing of the whole trip was the Potter trail. It is another free experience you can do (by free i mean for everyone, not free for me) and it was so interesting. The lovely, Becky, was our guide and she was wonderful. We were offered a wand for our journey round and I even got chosen to be sorted into a house by the sorting hat. I was Hufflepuff which I am happy about.
We got to learn more about the mind of J.K Rowling and where she got some of her inspiration from for Harry Potter. We saw the real Tom Riddle's grave and saw the street that has helped design Diagon Alley and so much more but I don't want to give too much away as it's really something you should do if you're in Edinburgh. I found it so interesting and learnt a lot.
We finished off our final day with Tea in Eteaket with Zoe from My Little Wildlings and she took some cute photos on my camera of Brad and I. She's a blooming lovely human and we had great cake and tea before Brad and I headed to Zizzi for dinner before we boarded the train back to London.
Edinburgh is absolutely beautiful and I cannot wait to go back with the littles. There's just something so special about Scotland for me and i'm so lucky to have visited Inverness and Edinburgh within two months of each other.
Now to countdown to our next adventure...
