An Autumnal Trip to Edinburgh
(This post is an ad - press ticket from LoganAir, but all opinions are my own)
I love coming in to land at Edinburgh Airport. On approach from England, the plane flies over the city, swoops across the sea in a loop and cruises back down for landing. I get a little excited feeling in my stomach every time the plane soars in that loop over the sea and the twinkling lights of the city come into view - it’s a sign that I’m back in my favourite place in the world!
Many of you will know that I’m super busy at the moment studying to be a Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner, spending part of my week at work and the other half at uni, so I was keen to squeeze my trip into the space of a single weekend. Setting off straight after work, I arrived at my friend Stacey’s flat at around 9pm on Friday night, giving me plenty of time to get a good night’s sleep ready for us to hit the ground running on Saturday.
Saturday
We started our day with a visit to the gorgeous Mimi’s Bakehouse, which you may have already seen on my Instagram account. They serve a range of gorgeous but well priced hot drinks, food and delicious cakes in their pretty pastel coloured cafe. There are a few different branches in the Edinburgh area but we stopped by their Comely Bank branch, and I enjoyed a delicious hot chocolate with marshmallows, warming lentil soup and a jammy dodger cupcake.
After lunch we headed off to Stockbridge to visit the city’s newest addition to the bookish scene: Rare Birds Bookshop! They specialise in stocking a range of fabulous books by female authors, and it was so lovely to have a browse in their bright and airy premises. I bought one of their wonderful bookish candles, which are all hand poured in Scotland and are exclusive to their shop. They have a few different scents but I opted for the ‘poetry’ candle which smells like Palma violets - one of my favourite scents.
As we were in the area we then decided to pop into one of my favourite Edinburgh bookshops, Golden Hare Books. Their shopfront is iconic and they always have a brilliantly curated selection of titles in their cosy Stockbridge based building.
Our third and final stop for the day was Grow Urban, which is a gorgeous plant shop, also based in Stockbridge, who serve yummy coffee and sell a sprinkling of plant related books. I’ve followed the shop online for some time on Instagram so I was super excited to finally visit, and it definitely lived up to my high expectations. The staff were lovely and wrapped my plant purchases extra carefully ready for my flight back to England, but the shop itself is an absolute showstopper. Filled with a huge range of wonderful plants, I spent a great deal of time perusing through four separate rooms before hunkering down with a cup of tea to have a read of my book. Outside of books, plants are one of my true loves, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time visiting Grow Urban - I’ll definitely be back during my next visit to the city!
By this time our stomachs were starting to rumble and the sky had turned dark, so we jumped on the bus back to Stacey’s flat to retire for the evening.
Sunday
Heading out on Sunday morning, we had two more bookshops on our to-do list before I had to catch my flight back to England. Naturally, we bumped into another plant shop and just had to go in. Green Meadows, just like the previous plant shop, had wonderful friendly staff and a fab selection of products. I love chatting with other plant enthusiasts and one of the employees excited showed me the pink(!) Peace Lilies that they had in stock (I didn’t even know that they existed!). After perusing their wares I picked up a lovely (white) Peace Lily for my new desk at work with a pink pot that had been recycled from used plastic. They actually had a really great range of pots - from those that had been created by local artists to others that had been 3D printed with recycled materials, they all had a story and were ethically made. The shop also has an email service for all customers where you can keep in touch and contact them about any issues that you’re having with looking after your new plant purchases.
After eventually leaving the shop we headed towards the Salisbury Arms for a delicious Sunday lunch. This lovely gastro pub has a countryside vibe and serves a range of different roast options, including a vegetarian fig roast which I enjoyed with a glass of non-alcoholic gin, and followed with a delicious berry crumble.
Feeling pleasantly full, we had a few hours to fill before I needed to leave for the airport, so made a beeline for two more Edinburgh bookshops that I was yet to tick off my list.
Just down the road from the pub, Tills is a modern second hand bookshop with a great range of titles. Composed of just two small rooms, I was impressed by their wide selection, and enjoyed having a little peruse of their shelves.
For me, the highlight of the day was my next visit - Lighthouse Bookshop! They’re a fabulous LGBTQ+, anti racist, intersectional and feminist shop which I wished I had more time to explore, and will definitely be revisiting during my next trip to Edinburgh. I don’t know why it’s taken until my third visit to finally pop into Lighthouse, but it was so worth it and I’d highly recommend prioritising it for your own trip to the city. I managed to find two books that I had on my to-read list: Quarantine Comix by Rachael Smith and Earthed by Rebecca Schiller. There were honestly SO many books that I could have bought and it made me think wistfully of Gay’s the Word in London, which I haven’t managed to visit since I left the city earlier this year.
After spending far too long in Lighthouse Bookshop, it was time to set off to the airport for my flight. My advice is to leave plenty of time to get there as it’s on the outskirts of the city and takes a while to reach from the city centre. We got a bus from the bookshop and then I continued my journey onwards by tram, which took around 30 minutes from Prince’s Street. Make sure you buy your ticket before you board, which is £9.50 for a return from the airport or £6.50 for a single. There are ticket machines on the platform or you can purchase yours online here.
Although this was my shortest trip to Edinburgh to date, I had a wonderful, restful time exploring one of my favourite cities and catching up with one of my best friends. Arriving back in Southampton at 7:25pm on Sunday evening, I felt refreshed and relaxed, ready to head into work bright and early on Monday morning.
Getting to Edinburgh
Flying has become my new favourite way to get to and from Edinburgh, especially as I can jet off directly from Southampton Airport. The flight itself is super quick and takes just under an hour and a half, which makes it possible for me to head up just for the weekend without using any of my annual leave.
This was my first time flying with Loganair and they were truly brilliant from start to finish. The staff were friendly, we were offered a free drink and snack during the flight, and they were really relaxed about my hand luggage which was included in the cost of my ticket. During my return journey I nervously brought along a medium sized paper bag with a few plants I’d purchased during my trip, but they were more than happy for me to take it onboard in addition to my backpack, tucked away by my feet during the journey. I was pleasantly surprised by the planes themselves, as they’re the smallest I’ve ever been on! Each row has just three seats, two on one side of the isle and one on the other, and it made for a really cosy feel when we were cruising through the clouds at 35,000 feet. The seats were also really comfy, and I was lucky enough to be allocated one of those single window seats on my return flight.
A huge thank you to Loganair for providing me with the plane travel for my trip; it wouldn’t have been possible without you and it was lovely to support both Scotland’s airline and Southampton’s local airport. I’ll definitely be flying with you again.
To book your own trip with Loganair, visit their website here.
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