a guide for a (runner’s) weekend in edinburgh

some preparation in advance, in addition to flight and accomodation you want to look after one or the other thing beforehand. a runner’s weekend should be versatile with touristy, cultural, culinary and of course running elements. edinburgh provides this all in one great package. a city that has seen it’s first buidlings in the 12th century, having a history well intertwined with the monarchies in the UK and all over Europe, having developed local culinary highlights such as scones, whiskys, haggis and deep fried mars bars and great running trails all over around the city. 3 to 4 days are sufficient to get to know the place and enjoy it.

touristy

• royal mile, real name is high street, lots of stuff: shops, pubs, cafes (good for breakfast), places to eat, accomodation; hit the link or just go there, it’s a must anyway
• the castle, another must, well prepared for tourists with good audio guides, short plays of court characters telling about their life in the castle, the one o’clock gun (a must! stay as close as you can get to it); it’s adviced to go there in the mornings - after breakfast on the royal mile - to avoid the crowds at the ticket booth
• princess street gardens, take a stroll or a jog in the park, nice view on the castle and a lot of benches for a rest, where you can relax and e.g. read.

cultural

• theatre shows, there’s a list of venues, two venues that show more popular plays are the playhouse and the lyceum theatre, you want to reserve tickets in advance, tickets are relatively inexpensive, so called restricted view tickets are perfectly fine at the lyceum.
• walking tours, although slightly murder, ghost and death biased, quite entertaining and informative in a light way. the city is really old and you understand it best through all those stories from medieval times. the earlier “murder and mystery walking tour” in the day is more suitable for children.
• stand-up comedy, free on sundays at 1pm, great fun and food is alright, too. don’t miss it.

culinary

• loads of great restaurants, we tried and liked the maison bleue and howies
• loads of great cafes, e.g. on the royal mile, have the healthy option breakfast with juice, cereals, jogurt and toasts
• haggis, better than it’s reputation, it’s the spices, in ball form and fried even ok to look at (in the maison bleue), no visit to scotland without it
• deep fried mars bar, well try it once and make up your mind yourself…

running

• around and up arthur’s seat, as described in saturday’s post a must for the running visitor, challenging trail and best view
• the south loop around edinburgh, along larger streets, through residential areas, forests, along rivers and canals and though parks,  you want to get in touch with the portobello runners, who meet on sundays to do this run.
• run and become in edinburgh, the friendly running shop who help you with everything regarding running in edinburgh, pop in and say hello to manager adrian stott.

Tags: arthur's seat, edinburgh, run and become, running vacation, tourist guide