Christmas Time in Edinburgh

Since having babies, Christmas has been focused on them, this year, my best friends and I decided to treat ourselves and having been pre-kids we decided that Edinburgh would be the spot.  We booked the trains more or less as soon as the fares were published (you can register on the website for an email reminder when your travel dates are released).  We went for an early-ish train departing Newcastle Central Station at 07.45 and back on the 18:30 to get a good full day out.

After nearly missing the train! yikes! we finally settled down in our seats and cracked open the goodies.

https://www.edinburghschristmas.com/markets

Nice early arrival into Waverley meant that we got to sample the market before it properly opened and the hordes descended.  The only downside being that the mulled wine/cider etc was not being served yet.  The markets have been going for 20 years and start end of November then generally run through to the first weekend in January.  They are set up in the middle of Princes Street and they are all set up in gorgeous wooden cottage/huts.  So festive and beautifully decorated.  The first thing we noticed was the glorious food smells wafting about! mmmmm!! If you could bottle Christmas to sell as a perfume, this would be perfect. We had a good browse of all the stalls and Domonique also performed a bit of haggling to get us some lovely little snow globes for the girls.

It was the perfect time to have a look around as it was really quiet, by the time we had made our way through the whole market it was starting to get quite busy.  There were lots of stalls selling all sorts of goodies, wooden toys, christmas decorations, handmade bits and bobs and tons and tons of food stalls.  To be honest though, the stalls were generally repeated quite a lot so although there were many of them, they were selling a lot of the same stuff, not a problem though as it enabled a bit of price negotiation!!

We reached the end of the market and our thoughts turned to food!! We had previously been told about The Dome and that they served a delicious Afternoon Tea so that was us sold although we had some time to kill to popped into nearby Jenners to check out their Christmas Tree.  I am glad we did so, it was huge, pretty much floor to ceiling, absolutely gorgeous. We picked up a couple of tree decorations and then made our way to The Dome.

 http://www.thedomeedinburgh.com/

The outside of The Dome was breathtaking and there was even real snow to our amazement! Totally festive feel.  We arrived about 11.30 ish I think and there was already a queue, word has clearly got around.  Listening to people in the queue, it seems to be somewhat of a local tradition to have tea at The Dome at Christmas, one we were only to glad to join in on.  There was a doorman on the front to direct people (and to stop queue jumpers!) and he directed us in and up the stairs.  Once we got inside, all I can say is wow!! It was breathtaking! The decorations were just beautiful and the smell of cinnamon amazing!

 

The tea room was upstairs and after a short wait we were shown to our table and given menus. We already knew what we wanted, afternoon tea x 5!!! Well, actually as it was £25 for two people we ordered 6 and split the extra! greedy but it was Christmas!

                                       

The food was devine, the sandwiches gorgeous, the scones delicious and crumbly and the cakes, well, we ran out of room and our server kindly boxed them up for us to takeaway.  It was a truly festive experience in beautiful surroundings and we would not hesitate to visit again.

Now, any trip to Edinburgh would not be complete without popping into Harvey Nicks and we did just that. Had a wonder at the Jimmy Choo's in the shoe department and a giggle at the daft things in the Food department.

As the weather had now decided to take a turn for the worst, the only thing for it was to spend the reminder of our time perusing the various drinking establishments around Rose Street, what a delightful way to spend a rainy and windy afternoon with lovely friends.

We had a gorgeous fun filled festive time in Edinburgh and would highly recommend a visit.