Christmastime in Edinburgh

So I came back to Scotland again. This time as a tagalong with Syd's company. They flew us to Edinburgh for a very memorable holiday party for Infusion London staff. We flew in Saturday morning after getting up at 5 am to catch the train to Gatwick. You know, I love the concept of getting up early to go somewhere so that you have the whole day there, but the actual practice of getting up early and travelling is hard to execute. Especially if you are NOT a morning person. However, we did get to Edinburgh by 9:30 so it was totally worth it and I woke up from the excitement of being in Scotland and seeing the castle in the clouds again!
We had some time to ourselves before lunch so Syd and I walked along Princess gardens where they had set up a carnival and German Christmas market full of gingerbread houses, nutcrackers, wooden ornaments and toys and other such things. It just opened this weekend so we were very fortunate. We came across some tasty gingerbread cookies and mulled wine. I had a glass with an amaretto shot in it and Syd had a glass of raspberry wine with a shot of raspberry schnapps. A nice pre-lunch buzz! hee hee. We also tried some german pasta called spaetzaele - it was basically a really tasty mac and cheese. ;o)
That afternoon we did a really fun scavenger hunt in teams along the royal mile which helped us learn a little bit about Edinburgh history. Our team came in second...so close! We followed that up with aberdeen steaks for dinner and a night out at a gorgeous club called the "Shanghai Club" near (on?) George Street.

The next day Syd and I took a hike up Carlton Hill to look over the city from above. In the top left corner of the picture below is the castle way above the city. As you can see it was an optimal place to guard the Scottish empire. The pictures don't do it justice, it was really fantastic up there - and the weather was reasonably warm too.
There was an acropolis-like monument at the top that the scots call "Edinburgh's Disgrace", but I quite liked it actually! It was nice just to sit on a bench enjoying the view, and watching an owner playing with her cute scottish sheep dog.

It was also festive to see some carollers enjoying it as well before they ran through the streets for charity.
We got to enjoy the city from another vantage point as well - from the top of the ferris wheel - before heading back home to London.
Merry Christmas, and thank you Edinburgh for a magical time!