untold blisses

In a repeat of last year’s pre-summer holiday, we’ve just got back from a few days in Edinburgh.  Feeling a bit more like locals, we didn’t want to repeat the touristy stuff from before, and we mainly spent the three days walking around.  I finally got my 35,000 steps badge from Fitbit which I was very excited about (I was tempted to carry on to 40,000 but I was quite tired at that point).

Getting there
We took the train again, wanting to avoid the stress of going through airport security.  Not only that, but we went first class on Virgin East Coast.

I’ll let that statement sit for a while to give the impression first class was amazing.  It was not.

I’m glad we didn’t actually pay for the upgrade because I would have been epically disappointed.  I had so many Nectar points built up which I converted into East Coast vouchers so it seemed like a fun idea but honestly, there was barely any difference.

The chairs were supposed to recline, but Husband’s chairs were broken there and back, whereas mine was just covered in stains.  The food was ok – sandwiches that were a bit stale, odd rose flavoured cake (although on the way back, we were offered lunch and afternoon tea, so got different cake which was nice).  The first class lounge at Edinburgh was hilariously bad though.  A coffee machine, a water fountain, one type of crisps and one type of biscuit.  Not even little cans of fizzy drink or anything like that!  Needless to say, we would not make the effort to pay for first class.

Where we stayed

We’re building up points on our Marriott account, so choose the Residence Inn in the Quartermile –  perfect choice.  Not only was it super cheap (for Edinburgh), but it was just far enough away from the city centre to avoid the noise.  The Quartermile is an amazingly quiet area right next to the University, with restaurants and coffee shops surrounding our hotel.  I want to live there.

There was supposed to be an Aurora Borealis when we were there, but we couldn’t stay up late enough.  It was weird enough that Edinburgh stays light so late.

Next up – all the yummy food we ate.