I’m currently watching the Japanese Grand Prix qualifying session so it’s Saturday morning and strictly speaking, I should still be tucked up in bed getting some more rest. 

I’m sorry that I’ve not been providing any updates over the last few weeks. After coming back from Scotland a few weeks ago, I did get to Slimming World and weighed. I put four pounds on after the weekend away but I also managed to bring back a nasty cold that has absolutely floored me over the last ten days or so.

I’ve not been very good whilst I’ve been poorly. I didn’t manage to get to SW this week so that wasn’t brilliant but as I’ve been off work for the last week, there was no way that I was going to go to SW and weigh, possibly infecting everyone else at the group.

Edinburgh Castle

Five go off to Edinburgh.

What an adventure. My day started at 2am on the Friday morning. I finished packing for the trip, showered and fed the cat before I left to collect the gang and take them to the airport. 

We arrived at around 5am to quite a packed Bristol Airport, our flight being at 7am to Edinburgh. Got through security quite quickly but had very little time to have some food before the flight was called. Thankfully, the gate was quite close to the terminal building and we were on the plane and in the air right on time.  

The plane landed in Edinburgh at 8am and we were in Haymarket before 9am! First stop was a little cafe for breakfast. We couldn’t check in to the Airbnb until 3pm so we had a bit of time to kill until then. 

We wandered towards the Airbnb, stopping for a cuppa at Dan’s favourite Costa, then on towards the Kings Arms for a welcome to Edinburgh beer or three! It was a nice pub but it didn’t half honk. The seats we chose were near the gents and they hummed! 

Kings Arms

Airbnb

This is only the second time that I’ve used Airbnb, both times have been in Edinburgh. Both of the Airbnb’s have been superb. This one was on Bruntsfield Links, not far from where we stayed last year. Plenty of room for seven of us. Julian and Dan needed to share a room where there was a bed on a mezanine level with a ladder on the wall to get up into! Proper kids room but comfortable.

The Airbnb (2nd floor)

The only issue that we had with it and this isn’t the fault of the owner, the flat above us had a party until 3am on the Saturday night. That kept everyone awake most of the night. It sounded that they were having such a good time that we should have gone upstairs and joined in! 

Leith

Our Saturday was a visit to Leith which is towards the north east of the City. I’d been there at new years and found a magnificent pub there called the Malt and Hops. A fab little pub that was very doggy friendly. They didn’t have the Tonkoko Stout on this weekend but they had a lovely milk stout on that was rather delicious. I think I managed to get everyone on to it by the time we left. 

We met up with Pete, a massive Motorhead fan who came to Cardiff for a couple of days to be in a Phil Campbell video and Ewan joined us for the day. He has a flat literally up the road from the pub. 

A bit of a pub crawl back into town and can of alcoholic Irn Bru was very nice. We ended up at Cosmos which was an all you can eat buffet. By the time we’d finished there, we were all stuffed and while we tried another pint, it was back to the flat and all back to bed! 

My favourite pub

Despite all of the noise from the flat above, it was a decent night and the early night gave us a chance to reboot for Sunday.

The mission was to get a decent Sunday Lunch and that was very quickly achieved! A decent lunch in a pub that was showing the rerun of the Australian GP. The beef was absolutely spot on and the gravy had an amazing peppery taste to it. 

The rest of the day included a visit to Frankensteins bar, Bannermans, The Worlds End and The Banshee Labyrinth. There was a bit of an altercation there which I won’t go into here but it was a great day.

Monday

We had to be out of the Airbnb by 10am and our flight back to Bristol wasn’t until 7pm! On this occasion, there was a slight delay but only around 20 minutes or so. 

We managed to book into a tour of the South Street bridge vaults. Reportedly found by a rugby player who fell through a hole in the wall to discover these vaults that had been blocked up for decades.

That got us out of the rain for an hour or so. The tour ended at close to Bannerman’s Rock Club. We spent an hour there, then went to get Cath’s luggage and an Uber to the airport.

(L-R) Dan, Stef, Moi, Boich, Ali G, Cath

What a fantastic weekend. Apart from the cold that brought back with me then I had a great time in a amazing city.