Sofe and I decided to spend a few days in Edinburgh when she came over from Sweden to visit. We mainly based our choice of destination on the fact that we both love Scottish men, oh and that we hadn’t been before.

As we arrived in Edinburgh we followed our little map (it is a bit tricky to get there without instructions or a map although it is not very far from Waverly train station) and soon found out hotel. It is certainly unassuming from the outside just a simple red sign to give the name of the 5-storey hotel and not much else. The receptionist greeting us was very friendly and check-in was quick. We did have to leave a credit card which was swiped and then voided for them to keep the details and we were then given our key and a pretty complex explanation on where to find out room – trust us to get the most difficult room to get to. After walking across half the hotel and across 2 ramps we finally found our room. The first thing we noticed is that this was not the twin room we had in fact booked but a double room with a sofa bed made up. As I’m the quickest and managed to jump onto the double bed first I ended up keeping this bed for our two night stay, and Sofe got what we soon named the Peasant bed (whereas mine was clearly the Princess bed). I can’t speak for Sofe but my bed was very comfortable and certainly big enough for two. Sofe did try to sneak in once during our first night but she soon got kicked out – I guess it’s only big enough for two if you actually want to share beds. As for the rest of the room we were fairly impressed with how clean it was (I had silently imagined something from a horror movie with damp patches spreading all over the ceiling and trolls living in the corners). The bath room was a decent size and looked clean and neat. There was a bit of dust/cob webby thing hanging off one part of the wall and a strange looking hole on another wall but not more than we could handle. Except for the 2 beds there is also room for a desk and a closet but that’s it. There is no mini bar although there is a kettle with tea, coffee and shortbread biscuits provided.

On arrival we had been told that breakfast, although not included for us, was served in the adjoining Biddy Mulligan’s pub between 6 and 8.30. This did not help us much as we didn’t manage to get out of bed before 10 either day so I cannot say whether it would have been worth paying the extra £7 for a full Scottish breakfast. In all honesty, I wouldn’t have bothered with this anyway, as I’m a veggie and I don’t like to eat cooked food in the morning so I’m not spending sleepless nights regretting not having breakfast there.

We also asked to leave our bags at the hotel as our train was not until later that day. This seemed to be a little bit annoying to the receptionist, but she duly handed me a key and told me to go upstairs to the lounge where I would find the luggage room. The lounge was certainly not a place where I would like to spend much time and I was quite pleased that we had managed to miss this place. As I unlocked the door I found that the luggage room was indeed full of luggage and somebody less honest and more desperate than me could easily walk out with several pieces without being noticed. As we didn’t have anything valuable in the suitcase we still left it in there but it didn’t seem the safest place to leave your belongings.