Edinburgh with the Buissons

A couple of weekends ago we headed south for a relaxing weekend in Edinburgh with our good friends, Luke and Debbie. I had been to Edinburgh a handful of times, Debbie and Luke for a weekend but Ryan only for a night when we went in August for Tattoo Festival. Since most of us had done the touristy stuff and Ryan will get plenty of opportunities this summer with our guests, we wanted to keep it low key...hike Arthur's Seat, eat yummy food, drink yummy beer, walk the beautiful streets and just hang out outside of the norm in Aberdeen.

We arrived Friday afternoon after a few detours. You miss your exit in Scotland and you're screwed. However, we arrived safely and the sun was out in full force. We quickly dropped our things at the aparthotel and set off to hike Calton Hill to get some great views of the city.

National Monument of Scotland

view from Calton Hill

Luke being Luke

We then made our way to our first pub and then our second and then our third before ending at Under the Stairs for a delicious dinner. 

appropriate

 

Saturday we set out to hike Arthur's seat around 10:30. The weather wasn't quit as beautiful as Friday but it's mild and not raining so I wasn't complaining!

Total distance was about 3 miles with a 915 ft climb over the course. Some of the inclines definitely got your heart pumping but there were nice 'landings' to enjoy the scenery and catch your breath.


After the hike, we re-grouped and headed out to enjoy the city of Edinburgh which can only be done if a street performer, bag piper and the Edinburgh castle are included. This guy was really good...I mean he can swallow a sword for goodness sake! Definitely entertaining!

And after browsing Anthropologie and grabbing some gloves for skiing next week we grabbed a few brewskies before dinner at The Dogs. Again another yummy restaurant but if I had to pick between the two...Under the Stairs wins for this trip!

We left pretty early on Sunday since both of the boys had work trips to prepare for in the coming week. It was a perfectly low key weekend with a great hike, delicious food and wonderful company!