We regularly 'do something' as a team at work, and this time we decided to pop to Edinburgh for the day. We flew from Luton on easyJet. The flight was at 08:05, but as we'd already checked in online, we met at the airport at 7am which gave us plenty of time to get through security. The flight was on time, and we were soon being called to the gate, so we barely had time to have a quick squint round the new(ish) terminal before making our way to the plane. (It's ok, if you're wondering! Like any other airport, really. With shops and stuff). We were soon on the plane and on our way to Edinburgh. The flight was a fairly uneventful 60 minutes. It was a bit murky, so you couldn't see a lot. When we got near Edinburgh we headed out to see and back in again - that was about the most exciting part of the whole journey.

So we landed about 9am and wandered out of the airport and caught the number 100 bus into the city centre (3 pounds for a single, 5 quid return, if you're interested). It takes about 25 minutes and goes through some fairly cacky parts of town before terminating at Waverly Bridge railway station, which is where we got off.

First task was to find some breakfast. We had a quick look round the Princes Street area and either didn't like what we saw, or it was closed, so we ended up wandering over North Bridge towards the Royal Mile. The first decent looking place we came across was The Bank Hotel right on the North Bridge / Royal Mile crossroads and we were pretty hungry by that point, so in we went. It turned out to be a wise move. We all went for the full breakfast, and some of the less civilized among us had a pint of one alcoholic beverage or another. Breakfast consisted of toast, butter, hash brown, potato scone, mushrooms, tomato, baked beans, haggis, black pudding, fried egg, sausages and bacon. Oh, and some green herb thing sprinkled over the plate. That was the best bit. Actually, it wasn't. But it was rather a good breakfast, and we were all pretty stuffed by the end of it. It was a very good breakfast, and considering it was on the Royal Mile, reasonably priced at around 6 and a half Scottish Pounds.

After that, we were ready for action, and waddled up to the Castle. They were in the middle of setting up for the Tattoo, or something like that, so there were half-finished seating areas dotted around the square. We went in, and the queue looked pretty bad. So we split up and some of us very kindly stood in the queue, while the rest wandered around the gift shops. You can always find such quality items in these sort of shops, and this was no exception. Particular highlights were the silver-plated spoons with your name on, and the similarly personalised thimbles. A real treat, I can tell you. But, sadly, it was time to move on, and into the castle we went, after having parted with a substantial wedge of cash to get in.

To be perfectly honest, there's not a great deal to see in the castle - you get a slightly better view from inside than you do from outside, and you get to watch as some uniformed bloke fires off a big gun at 1pm (it's very very loud, incidentally). There's also a little Scottish War Museum in there where you can read about Scotland's contribution to various wars over the years, and look at guns and swords and stuff, if that's your bag. All very interesting.

Once we'd got bored of castles, we headed back down the Royal Mile, stopping off at various gift shops to browse the quaility products therein. We passed the Museum of Childhood on the way down and decided to pop in. It's worth a gander to kill half an hour or so, and bring back a few childhood memories. They even have some of those weird 'film camera' things. You know, where you have to go and get the film developed afterwards?!!!! I couldn't believe it!

By now we were feeling a bit museumed out so we decided beer was the order of the day so we went in the first place we came across - not sure what it was called, but it was on the corner of the Royal Mile and Jeffrey Street. It was pleasant enough, and had a couple of ales on. So we stayed there for a bit and had a gander through the guides to see what to do next. We decided on the Edinburgh Dungeon. This is best described as an interactive theatre show. You're basically herded from one dark room to the next where somebody dressed in macabre clothing talked you through various torture devices, or showed you how to dissect a human body, and usually with some audience participation, so be prepared to be picked on! It lasts about an hour, so allow plenty of time for it.

By this time it was gone 4pm, and having had no lunch at all, we were only just starting to be hungry after our hearty breakfast so we hunted around for somewhere to eat. We wandered over to West Register Street to try the Cafe Royal, but it was heaving, as was the Guildford Arms so that was a no-goer. It had also started raining, so we were keen to get inside somewhere. We ended up stumbling upon the new shopping centre, The Omni. There were all manner of restaurants in here, and we decided on good old Frankie and Benny's. If you don't know, this is a chain of New York American restaurants which does pizzas, pasta, steak etc. Basically, Italian food, but made stodgy for the American market. It's decent enough, anyway. Most of us had steak, and for dessert it just had to be cheesecake - it was Elli's cheesecake, which is what they have in Pizza Express and is easily the best cheesecake around.

Time was marching on now, so we decided to head back to the airport. We jumped on the bus at Waverly Bridge and collapsed into a seat for the journey back to Edinburgh International. It was absolutely dead when we got there. The perfect time to travel, it would seem. The flight was due to leave at 20:35, and by about 10 to 8 they were already putting out a final call, which seemed a bit odd. Well, it seemed that the plane was so empty (26 people in total) that they'd decided to get everybody on and get off early. And that we did, just about. Landed about 21:20 at Luton, and got home to bed before 10pm. Lovely!

And that's about it. It's a nice city to visit, but I've been twice now and I don't think I'd bother again. It's hard work walking up and down all those hills, for one thing! And it does lack a river, which is always somewhere nice to veg out in other cities.

Byeeeee!