Edinburgh Christmas Markets 14th Dec

An overnight stay in Edinburgh meant that we could wander the Christmas lights and market stalls and travel back the next day.

Freezing temperatures gave rise to careful thought about how to see the sights and keep warm.

We decided not to spend time searching for city parking but use the Ingliston Park & Ride facility getting to ride on the new Tram service was a bonus to the plans.

Hot bacon rolls and hot drinks set us up for the first leg of stalls but cold fingers and toes made us head for Wetherspoons for thawing out slightly. We declined to take a ride on the fairground chairs and ferris wheels.



A return along the lower level of stalls got us back to where we began at Princes Street.

We then headed towards George Street where we booked tickets for the Ice Sculpture exhibition.
The surrounding streets were closed and buildings nicely decorated and further market stalls and high rise rides had been set up.

The ice sculptures were housed in a marquee with signs warning that the inside temperature was a controlled -10°!! As we entered the dry coldness hit you and everyone marvelled at the cold breath coming from our mouths. The pictures below need very little description as the superb sculptures depicted famous people, myths or events from Scottish history.

After 20 minutes we were glad to get back to the 'normal' cold temperatures of the streets of Edinburgh but decided to head indoors for an afternoon cuppa and general thaw. Luckily the ice marquee was in front of another Wetherspoons.

As darkness fell and the Christmas lights and decorations took on another dimension of 'twinkling', we headed off to catch a tram back to the car park. The trams were very busy and well used.

As we had some time before looking for meals,Ingliston was close enough to Falkirk for us to take a slight diversion to visit the Kelpies and see them illuminated again.

However, the car park and paths were extremely slippy from a shower of rain falling on frozen ground so we stayed in the car and took pictures from the open windows.







After a quick evening meal thanks to Toby carvery, we drove to our overnight stop at Holiday Inn Express at Ocean Drive Leith.

Next day was fine and bright so we did a little tour of local shops before taking a leisurely drive homewards.

A Dobbies garden centre, en route, enticed us to stop for a snack. A quick look around found a bonus of small shopping units (EWM and Lakeland etc) - I think this will be a regular stop if we return to Edinburgh in the future !!