Five Cool Things to do in Edinburgh

I love Edinburgh and whether you are visiting for the first time or have been a few times like I have, there is always something cool to do. On a recent trip to Scotland, we stayed in Edinburgh for two days and these are some cool things we got up to when we were there.

Soderberg Swedish Bakery in Edinburgh

Everything Scandinavian is so hot right now. So hot that even Edinburgh is the proud owner of a couple of Swedish style bakeries called Soderberg. My friend and I just happened on a smaller one of their 4 outlets, just off busy Princes Street on  Queensferry Street.

A Spooky Tour at Mary King's Close Edinburgh

I do like a good spooky event, be it a Ripper Walk or a Victorian ghost story evening at a grave yard. So when my friend told me about The Real Mary King's Close experience, I put it on the list for my weekend break in Edinburgh.

The Real Mary King's Close experience takes you down into a labyrinth of underground alleys and tenements houses that were covered when the city decided to build the Royal Exchange on top of them. People that were living in these streets and houses were forced to move out, but their traces remain.

A Tour at Edinburgh Gin

I know, I know, this should've been a blog post about whiskey, but since I'm not much of a whiskey lover, my friend and I decided to take a tour at Edinburgh Gin instead.

I had pre-booked just before we had left for our weekend away in Edinburgh, which was a good idea as tours and experiences at this distillery sell out fast. We went on the Gin Discovery Tour which only costs a fiver and takes about an hour. There are other options as well, and even one experience where you get to distill your own gin.

Three Peak Challenge

I have to start this post by saying that this is not about THE Three Peak Challenge, but it's about MY Three Peak Challenge. I didn't climb Ben Nevis, Scafell and Snowdon within 24 hours, I didn't run up and down the three tallest mountains in the UK either, nor did I dress up in fancy dress. Why would you want to do that anyways? My Three Peaks Challenge was to conquer each one at my own pace and on three different days. Boring? Not so much.

Photo by Dave under Creative Commons Licence

Whiskey Tasting at Dalwhinnie Distillery

You can't go to Scotland without having a glass of the local brew, so last weekend my travel buddies and I took a detour to one of the many whisky distilleries this country holds.

After or arctic-like adventure on Ben Nevis, we deserved something special and at Dhalwinnie they not only give you a choice of fine whiskies to sample, they pair it with chocolates that really complement the flavour of the whiskies.

Now I'm not a big whisky drinker at all, but anything that involves chocolate will get me interested. So I was in. And since the town of Dahlwinnie is the coldest town in the country, I thought the whisky would warm me up a bit.

There are different packages that range from 3 to 6 different whiskies which you can also combine with a tour of the distillery. We had to miss out on the latter as they were closed for reparations.


So the whisky. We started with the distillery's own 15 year old 43% paired with a cocoa dusted velvet truffle. The whisky had a smooth vanilla and honey flavour to it that wasn't too bad and the truffle made it taste like a chocotini.

The second one was a Cragganmore 12 year old 40% with a Nigerian ginger truffle.  I didn't like the truffle, but together with the smooth and herby tasting whisky it actually was very easy on the palate.

The third whisky was an Oban 14 year old 43% accompanied by a green cardamom truffle. Yummie truffle and the whisky wasn't too bad either. A great combo of flavours between the choccie and the whisky. The description said that it had a fruity flavour with a whiff of sea air. I didn't get the sea air at all, but you gotta give it to them for being original in their descriptions.

The last one was a smoky Talisker 10 year old 45.8% and raspberry and black pepper truffle. It was supposed to have a salty peat taste, but at 45.8% all I could feel was gulps of burning liquid  with a hint of raspberry and black pepper truffle travelling down to my belly.

All in all it was fun, but I think I'm still a bigger chocolate lover than whisky fan.

Hiking Ben Nevis

On my list of walks to do in 2013 was hiking Ben Nevis, the tallest mountain in the UK  So last weekend me and a group of friends travelled to Fort William to conquer the tallest mountain in the UK, the mother of all walks and boy were we in for an adventure.

The weather forecast kept showing us a cloud with raindrops no matter how many times we checked it. Those raindrops were predicted to fall in the afternoon so we set off early, booted and suited and ready to get wet.

Still smiling at the start

The walk up and down the Ben Nevis path is 17 km long and starts at the visitors centre. It goes along a stream then through a meadow and then up the path hugging the mountain. We were treated to plenty of vistas and photo ops and even a smidgen of sunshine. We walked  over bridges, jumped across small streams and  waded through a waterfall while admiring the views.  Near the top the path zigzags its way to the summit and that's where the fun began. At
The first zig we had to shuffle through a patch of snow and at the following the zag the path was completely snow covered. When we turned to the next zig there was no path. Just foot prints in the snow which were showing us the way.

Look, a patch of blue sky

Suddenly the wind picked up and those promised raindrops started lashing down. Clouds gathered round and suddenly all we could see was white snow and white sky. All other hikers seemed to have suddenly disappeared off the mountain somehow. It was just us, the mountain and the atrocious weather.

As we were trying to put on our waterproofs which is really hard when they're flapping around in 50 kmph winds. We were debating whether to go on or turn back. Just when we decided we didn't want to be plucked off Ben Nevis by mountain rescue we saw a group of hikers appearing out the fog on their way down. 'You're not far, only ten more minutes', they said. Reassured that we weren't being completely stupid being out there in those harsh weather conditions we went on.
We admired the foggy view, took some hasty photos and then quickly started our descent, sliding down the mountain as fast as we could.

The ice summit

Back in the car, toasting to our accomplishment with the champagne we bought at the Co-op especially for the occasion, we felt extremely proud of ourselves. Not only did we hike Ben Nevis all the way to the top, we did it in proper Arctic like conditions. We sure did deserve that bottle of champagne. Even if it was from the Co-op.