Hi guys ๐๐ผ
D A Y โข O N E
First stop, airport breakfast. Are you even going away if you don’t have one?!?
We flew quite early on our first day (half a good idea as you get a whole day, half a bad idea as we were knackered and needed a nap before dinner)
Once we had landed we got the tram from the airport to the town centre, which was cool.
We then found our accommodation, left our bags and headed out to look around and book a tour. We had been hoping to book the tour that day as we had prebooked some others, unfortunately there were no slots available so we booked it for the second day.
We had a little bit more of a look around. The architecture and city centre are amazing, its such a beautiful place.
We found this awesome place for some lunch. How cool is it!! Bats are my favourite animal so I fell in love with this place immediately. It was really quirky and unique inside too, I love finding independent places like this.
Once we had enjoyed our food we wandered back to our accommodation as we could now check in. Hubby listened to the football whilst I had a nap as I was knackered thanks to the end of term/early start. It was much needed.
We got up and ready for the evening and went to a delicious Italian (our favourite) which we had spotted earlier.
We just had a chilled evening as we were both travel tired and wanted to be ready and raring for the next few days.
A brilliant start to the trip!
D A Y โข T W O
For our second day, we headed back down to the Royal Mile for our first tour of the day.
Our first tour was called ‘The Real Mary Kings Close’. It is an hour long guided tour where you learn all about the history of the different closes and the people who lived there. Our guide was brilliant in character and really funny, which made the experience that bit more fun too.
After the tour, we hung around the Royal Mile for a bit, had some lunch and a drink before our second tour.
Our second tour was a history of the old town. It was so interesting and really cool learning about the different buildings all around the Royal Mile and their significance in the growth and development of Edinburgh.
We were shown the ‘only official’ Harry Potter merchandise shop on our tour, so at the end of it, we queued up (yep, it’s so popular you have to queue) and we went in. It was so cool, the decor is insane! And there’s so much cool merchandise.
We rounded off the evening with ‘The Best Fish & Chips in Edinburgh’ which tbf were pretty delicious. I even tried a battered Mars bar, which was really yummy.
D A Y โข T H R E E
We enjoyed a yummy breakfast at our ‘hub’ Accommodation before walking the length of the Royal Mile to Holyrood Palace.
I always loved the Queen, so it was cool to see Holyrood Palace and its grounds. We didn’t have time to go in, which was a shame, but it was a lovely day, so we went for a walk through the garden and admired it from the outside.
We also had a look around the Scottish Parliment building, which was interesting, too. You had to go through proper airport style security to get in, which was a bit mad (but understandable).
We then walked all the way back up the Royal Mile to Haymarket station where we met my Uncle.
He lives in a different part of Scotland, so we arranged to meet up with him for a day while we were close by. We took the bus together and went to Edinburgh Zoo.
It was an unprecedented hot day in Edinburgh, and everyone had obviously decided to do the same as us and visit the zoo… the queue was mad, but we got in eventually, and we had a lovely day.
It is such a lovely zoo and a really good variety of animals, some which they don’t have in our local zoo.
We especially enjoyed seeing the different types of penguins (the King penguins are amazing!) and the Gentoo penguins, as well as the Sun Bears, Sloths, and most incredible of all, the Giant Panda!!
That is an animal I never thought I would actually see, and it was so cute.
We rounded off a brilliant day with a delicious Italian before we headed back to our respective homes. It was one of my favourite days of the holiday and it was great to catch up.
D A Y โข F O U R
For our penultimate day, we had an earlier start. Again, we enjoyed a hotel breakfast before heading back to the Royal Mile for our Harry Potter tour!!! Exciting โก๏ธ
Here is a little rundown of some of the cool things that we saw…
Harry Potter Walking Tour โก๏ธ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ณ๓ ฃ๓ ด๓ ฟ
1. Outside The Elephant House Cafe where JK often wrote โ๏ธ๐ผ
2. Sorted into our houses at the start of the tour ๐
3. Tom Riddles grave ๐ชฆ
4. Hogwarts inspo for the exterior, houses & alot of interiors eg Great Hall ๐ฐ
5. Victoria Street, the inspiration for Diagon Alley ๐ช
6. Outside the shop that is believed to have inspired Flourish & Blotts Bookshop ๐
7. Bank of Scotland, inspo for Gringotts
8. The Balmoral Hotel where JK finished writing the last ever Harry Potter book โก๏ธ๐
9. On the Royal Mile, the main body of this monument inspired parts of the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets ๐
10. JK Rowling’s Handprints on Edinburghs very own ‘Walk of Fame’ ๐๐ผโจ๏ธ
Once we had some lunch, we headed to the National Museum of Scotland. They had a Doctor Who exhibition that we wanted to look around.
It was really good, we enjoyed looking around the exhibits.
We even went inside a Dalek!
We had a brief look around some of the animal areas of the museum before we headed back for a chill before dinner.
We went back to our favourite Italian ‘Pomo’ one last time for some delicious food.
I had been eyeing up the frozen Raspberry Daiquiri all week, so I decided to have one ok our last night… it was amazing.
We then headed back to the lovely bar we visited earlier in the week – The Hanging Bat ๐ฆ we got a cocktail each to round of the evening.
D A Y โข F I V E
Our final day!
We went out for breakfast at a little cafe before heading to the Royal Mile one last time.
We went to the Writers Musuem, where they have rooms all about three famous Socttish writers; Robert Louie Stevenson, Robert Burns, and Sir Walter Scott.
We then walked down to the new town and had a look around, had a drink,and even got to get right up close to ‘The Balmoral’ (as mentioned in the HP tour on Day 4) which was really cool.
Finally, we headed to the castle to have a closer look before we left. We didn’t get around to going in, but to be honest, there is so much to do that we could definitely visit again.
The views of Edinburgh from up by the Castle were amazing, too.
We rounded off the trip with one last lunch stop at The Hanging Bat ๐ฆ
We’re going to miss this place!
We then grabbed our things and headed off to the airport.
All in all we had a brilliant trip- Edinburgh is beautiful and we got so lucky with the weather. There is SO much to do and it would definitely be great to go back.
Until Next Time,
Roseanne ๐
Roseanne Byford 