Edinburgh | spinningpixels

Edinburgh – View from my hotel room

As is frequently the case I have been traveling a lot for work recently – after a week in Phoenix, I jetted off to Scotland for meetings and was met with sunshine – a first for me I grew up in the UK and am used to seeing grey drizzly weather – every time I have visited Scotland for work it has been the same so I was quite shocked and delighted to actually need sunglasses on this trip 🙂

Dundee – view from hotel room

I started in Dundee where our offices are located, staying at the Malmaison hotel for the first time – nice hotel very stylish refurb of an historic building, hip but comfortable rooms with lovely views. (However the bathrooms had no lighting and there wasn’t a single plug near a mirror for blowdrying my hair in the entire room – clearly designed by a man LOL)

Not a bad place to work from 🙂

After a couple days in Dundee we headed to Edinburgh to stay at The Caledonian (the perks of traveling with a VP means staying in very nice hotels LOL) This is a beautiful old hotel, right next to Edinburgh Castle that has recently been refurbished – absolutely gorgeous! Since I have some status at Hilton properties they upgraded me to a room with a view of the castle, so I can’t complain too much about the twin beds.

The Peacock Bar in the hotel was a great place to set up for my meetings and get a little work done – all the more exciting since the actor Brian Cox was hanging out here too – my brush with celebrity.

Brian Cox sighting

Apparently he is originally from Dundee and has a home in Scotland. I think he is a great actor – I enjoyed him in Red, The Grudge and remember he played the original Hannibal Lector in Manhunter.

Timberyard restaurant

The first night in Edinburgh, my coworkers and I ate at the Timberyard – fantastic food and amazing and unexpected cocktails with ingredients like smoke, marmalade, pine etc. I had one with a picked elderflower in it – so weird but absolutely delicious. It was called Rumpy Pumpy which is a saucy old British term for sex – if you are a Blackadder fan you know exactly what I mean. Of course, I had to order it – now I can say I had some rumpy pumpy in Edinburgh LOL

“Rumpy Pumpy” Cocktail

The next day my meetings ended in the early afternoon and I wasn’t flying out till the next morning so I seized the opportunity to visit Edinburgh Castle.

Royal Palace

It is the highest point in Edinburgh and also the longest continually occupied Castle in UK I believe – there are some building from the 12th century right up to some built in the 1800’s I explored the Castle, saw the Scottish Crown Jewels and wandered around Grassmarket before heading back to the hotel for dinner. It was an unexpected treat to get such a clear day and take in the incredible views.