Win Tickets To The Edinburgh Foodies Festival 2014, And Take Advantage Of Our Special Offer - Just For Readers Of Blethering Boys!

Love food?

   

      

​             From l-r: MasterChef The Professionals finalists Scott Davies and Adam Handling  

The Three Sisters Bakers

Do you fancy a day ogling some of the best chefs in the country, and tasting some of the finest flavours available?Are you dreaming of a day spent indulging your passion for food and drink in a foodie paradise?

Jacqueline O'Donnell

Foodies Festival brings MasterChef winners, top producers and award winning street food to Inverleith Park

And you could win a pair of free passes to this fabulous event! 

See our Rafflecopter below for details on how to enter.

Foodies Festival – Inverleith Park, Edinburgh – Friday 8th, Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th August 2014

www.foodiesfestival.com

Foodies Festival, the UK’s largest celebration of food & drink returns to Edinburgh’s Inverleith Park on the 8^th, 9^th and 10^th August for a weekend celebration of Scotland’s finest produce, international street food, and culinary masters.

Having started as a small event in Edinburgh eight years ago, the festival has now grown into Scotland’s food and drink event of the Summer, transforming Inverleith Park into a foodie paradise with over 200 artisan producers, pop-up restaurants, premium brands and the chance to watch your favorite chefs cooking live. 

Festival Director Sue Hitchen said… “Edinburgh is where it all started for Foodies Festival, so it’s a very special event for me and our team. This year we are delighted to be the official partner of the MasterChef Street Food Bus, which offers our visitors a unique onboard experience with contestants and winners from the series cooking tasty street food dishes from the purpose built kitchen. “

MasterChef winner Mat Follas, finalist Jackie Kearney and the MasterChef Street Food Bus​

Top chefs joining the festival this summer include MasterChef the Professionals runners-up Adam Handling and Scott Davies, Great British Menu’s Jacqueline O’Donnell of The Sisters, Mark Greenaway of Bistro Moderne, TV Chef Tony Singh, The Pompadour by Galvin Head Chef Craig Sandle, Café St Honore’s Neil Forbes and Glasgow’s The Three Sisters bakers Gillan, Nichola and Linsey, all of whom will cook their signature dishes live in the Chefs’ Theatre while explaining how home cooks can prepare the same dishes for friends and family.

 MasterChef's Adam Handling said… “I am delighted to be a part of the Foodies Festival in Edinburgh, I always love it when I can meet other foodies and share my love of cooking with them, and if I can help to inspire and encourage people in their kitchens, then that for me is an honour. Coming back to Scotland is always special for me, it was the where I undertook my first apprenticeship when I was 16, where I gained my first two AA rosettes at Fairmont St Andrews, and where I was awarded ’Scottish Young Chef of the Year 2011’. Being a part of the Edinburgh Foodies Festival will add to the many special memories that I have here.”

Exciting new features for 2014 include a spectacular Chocolate, Bake and Preserves Theatre, which will host top pastry chefs, chocolatiers, bakers and sugarcraft experts. This is complemented by the new Chocolate, Baking and Preserves Village, for those with a sweet tooth and who enjoy home baking, with a selection of stalls selling baking essentials and the latest gadgets. 

A brand new outdoor BBQ Arena will appeal to lovers of al fresco dining. The purpose built BBQ stage will feature hourly BBQ cooking demonstrations and invite the audience to take part in BBQ challenges; meat-eating competitions and they can even learn how to make a ‘BBQ cake’!

A new Chilli Market spices things up with a range of chilli-growers and artisan producers of sauces, sweets and jams. For those who can handle the heat a Chilli Eating Challenge takes place at 5pm daily.

A new Feasting Tent at the heart of the festival becomes a social hub, where visitors can relax and enjoy their purchases in the company of chefs, friends and family at long banqueting tables.

Another exciting addition this year is the Vintage Tea Tent that will hold daily tea dances, alongside a Vintage Kitchen Market allowing visitors to pick up beautiful pieces to add to their own kitchens at home.

Returning features this year include the popular Drinks Theatre, where regular masterclasses and demonstrations allow visitors the chance to taste and learn about wine, champagne, sherry, ales and spirits with experts including TV’s Charles Metcalfe, beer expert Melissa Cole and champagne expert Neil Phillips. There is also a daily cocktail making competition to find the best cocktail in Edinburgh, judged by an audience of Foodies visitors.

Foodies Festivals are recognised for their focus on street food with the introduction of the Street Food Avenue in 2012. This year visitors can enjoy a huge selection of award winning hot and cold food from around the world including hog roasts, Vietnamese buns, exotic meats, tapas, churros, burritos, Moroccan tagines, South American prime beef, Jamaican and Thai street food.

There is plenty for little foodies to do as well with the Children’s Cookery Theatre hosting “Around the World” themed cookery classes. These workshops will help children find their taste buds and teach them basic cooking skills.

The entertainment stage features live music acts and fringe performers throughout the day until 7pm.

Ticket Information

2014 Foodies Festivals tickets are now available from www.foodiesfestival.com or by calling 0844 995 1111.

Tickets:

1-day adult ticket for Friday £10.00
1-day adult ticket Saturday or Sunday £12.00 (£10.00 concession)
3-day adult ticket £18.00 (£15.00 concession)
1-day VIP ticket £38.00 (Friday VIP ticket £35)

Opening times:

Friday 8th August 11am - 7pm

Saturday 9th August 10am - 7pm 

Sunday 10th August 10am - 7pm

VIP tickets include a glass of Sparkling Wine on arrival, access to the VIP tent throughout the day, a goody bag and priority entry to theatre and masterclass sessions as well as a private bar with refreshments throughout the day and great views of the entertainment stage.

All children aged 12 and under go free to all Foodies Festivals when accompanied by an adult.

Foodies Festival has also kindly offered all readers of Blethering Boys a 2 for 1 deal on all early bird tickets.

For your chance to win one of two pairs of free tickets to Foodies Festival Edinburgh, simply leave a comment to let us know what you will be making a beeline for at the festival?

For us, we are heading straight to Adam Handling - a Dundee boy done good.  Go Team Adam!

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Chop-Chop, Haymarket, Edinburgh - Dumplings to Die For!

When someone asks you to review a restaurant which has been awarded the AA Rosette 4 years in a row, voted Britain's favourite Chinese restaurant 2 years in a row in the TsingTao Legacy of Taste competition and also the Pagoda this year in March for being in the top 32 Chinese restaurants in the U.K, you don't turn it down.

I was dying to see what the fuss was all about.

Jac and Stuart get settled with some TsingTao!

I was lucky enough to be invited along with the gorgeous Jac from Tinned Tomatoes and the lovely Stuart from Cakeyboi to see why Gordon Ramsay himself had cause to visit in his quest to find Britain's best local restaurant.

I volunteered to drive for the evening, so we all hopped into my ever-reliable Aggie (That's my car.  Yes I named her.  Makes it easier to drive motorways at night if I think we are a team!) and drove from Dundee to the Haymarket restaurant, our stomachs rumbling at the thought of Unlimited Banquets.
Which is a thing on the menu at Chop-Chop by the way. (Are you excited yet?)

Situated across the road from Edinburgh's Haymarket Train Station on Morrison street, we found parking directly outside and moseyed on in, to be given a very warm greeting by the manager, who was extremely friendly, taking the time to make sure we were properly furnished with drinks before explaining the menu for us.

As a fussy vegetarian (I don't like mushrooms, I'm not fond of tomatoes and I really don't like aubergine - I am every restaurant manager's nightmare.  I'm the one who asks for the dishes to be modified.) I was very pleasantly surprised that not only was there a huge and varied vegetarian menu, but we were also not limited to trying just one dish! And there was not a mushroom in sight.  Check out the Vegetarian Menu  for yourself - it offers an amazing choice, and is all very tasty.  I had a hard time trying to pick!  Luckily, the manager helped us out by recommending the Unlimited Banquet, with vegetarian substitutes. 

As the menu helpfully explains:

If this is your first visit here, we would like to explain our Chinese style of serving. In China, diners order collectively and share all dishes, which are brought to the table in random order as soon as they are ready. In this way, mixing the textures and flavours of the dishes adds to the enjoyment of the meal.

The plates began to arrive quite quickly.  At first we were presented with some very fresh salads.

From the off, I knew it was going to be hard to choose a favourite!

First up, the Cucumber Salad, consisting of shredded cucumber Chinese leaves and glass noodles which was fresh and delicious, served in a tangy vinegar and lemony dressing with a  hint of mustard.

Crispy, savoury and extremely moreish!

Hot on it's heels came the moreish Crispy Shredded Potato.  I cannot at this point iterate how important it is to have a wee practice with your chopsticks before attempting to eat.  I'm not talking a lot of practice or classes or anything, but even just a wee bit before you dive into fine shredded potato.  Because it gets a bit messy and embarrassing if you don't know what you are doing, and yes, we did have a few comedy moments.

But once we got going, there was no stopping us!

I am very sure that if you preferred a fork and knife by the way, you could ask for some.  Eating with traditional chopsticks definitely added to the overall experience. And I became a bit of a pro by the end!

Mixing our own sauce at the table for the next instalment of our meal - the famous dumplings! - added to the theatre of the occasion; a marvellous touch.  Soon we were mixing vinegar, soy sauce, chilli and garlic in the little dishes provided to dunk those delicious dumplings into.

Jian Wang

Jian Wang brought the recipe for her now famous dumplings over to Edinburgh from her home region of Changchun in North Eastern China. Jiao Zi, as they are called in Changchun, became so popular here that Jian built a factory, distributing them to Chinese supermarkets throughout the UK and even on P&O cruise ships.

Chop Chop restaurant was born in 2006 and with the dumplings, as well as other fresh, healthy and authentic ingredients at the fore, became a roaring success.

Soon our table was groaning with a vast array of dishes.  The dumplings of course were outstanding.  Clearly made and cooked just before they came to our table, they were full of flavour, and dipped in the sauce they burst into even more life.  They were simply amazing.

I also ate some of the Aubergine, which until now I would never have had - but here I had loads!  Very savoury and fried, it was actually delicious.  I even had seconds.  And thirds!

Other dishes brought to our table were, Stir Fried Potatoes, Tender Green Beans and Chilli, Stir-Fried Beansprouts, Tofu and coriander, some nice and sticky Boiled Rice and tasty, fresh, Prawn Crackers.

And the best thing about the Unlimited Banquet?  It was UNLIMITED!

You can re-order any of the dishes at any time, so no need to worry about etiquette when you find a dish you really love - you are free to consume as much of it as you can manage.

But remember to save room for dessert!

Jac perfecting her chopstick technique - concentration is key!

When handed the dessert menu, we were pretty stuffed.  But the bar had been set so high in the main course - could the dessert match the standard?

I often find in Chinese restaurants, the dessert falls behind, but in Chop Chop, this was certainly not the case!

Top of my list comes the Baked Mongolia, a dish which took slightly longer to be prepared for us, but was completely worth the wait.  Served as a pastry, the Baked Mongolia is hot, but with melted cold ice-cream which pours out of the middle when cracked open.  The result is a delicious mix of hot and cold sweet - a Chinese version of Baked Alaska.

Baked Mongolia

Stuart was desperate to taste the Sugar String Apple - caramelised apple pieces in a sugar coating.  On arrival, it looked amazing.  Steaming hot, we were told to dip each piece in a ready-made bowl of iced water to crisp up the coating before eating. It did not disappoint!

Sweet, but not sickly, the apples were moist and very, very, very tasty.

Mixed fruit dumplings coated in fine powdered sugar. MMmm!

More dumplings were available for dessert - both Mixed Fruit (which were very fruity and full of flavour) and Peanut ones too.

Jac was extremely keen on the Peanut Dumplings - fried dumplings with peanut butter, raisin, sugar and sesame seed filling. 

As we were served with a taste of all the flavours of ice-cream - Mango and Lemon Sorbets as well as real Chocolate, Vanilla and Strawberry ice-creams, we took the opportunity to pair all of our desserts with them.  The ice-cream itself was amazing, and would not have been a disappointment to anyone who ordered.  Real ice-cream with real flavours - no skimping on quality.

When we eventually managed to fit in our last dumplings it was almost a sad affair.  We gazed fondly at the leftovers, unable to pack another morsel in.  It was a flawless and faultless service with some of the best food I have ever eaten, and I do not say this lightly.

As someone with quite a fine palette I am quite sensitive to greasy, heavy food and very fussy when it comes to taste and even texture, but I cannot fault my experience at Chop Chop.

Clean lines and beautifully presented

The food was healthy, well-presented and nothing was too much of an effort.  As someone who has spent a lot of time working in the service industry, I know good service when I see it, and it was certainly prevalent in this restaurant - the staff were attentive and helpful to all of their customers and everything ran smoothly and effortlessly.

We made our farewells and headed for home, very full and very happy.  Even a long drive home in the foggy, misty dark didn't dampen our mood - we all spoke enthusiastically about the food and none of us had a bad word to say.  In fact, we were all waxing lyrical about how we were going to return and bring our partners next time.

I must admit, I did feel bad going without Dave.  And he was very jealous when I returned home and told him of my amazing experience.  I did console him with the fact that I joined the loyalty scheme though.

No charge for joining and offering 10% off every meal, Sunday to Thursday, 5% off every meal Friday and Saturday and up to £5 off per guest with the Celebration Vouchers they send you on both you and your partners birthdays AND your anniversary, there's a strong chance we'll be back.  I am seriously looking forward to convincing anyone who'll come with me to return.

*Disclaimer - I was asked to review Chop Chop.  In return I was given a free meal at the restaurant. All of my views are my own and I remain honest about my experiences.

A very wet day at Edinburgh Zoo

Lovely weather! Not!

Day 2

Welcome to Day 2 of our trip to Edinburgh.  It was a jam-packed day, that's for sure!

For info on how utterly unorganised and stressed we were before we took this trip, and our Day 1 shenanigans, click here.

I will iterate again - plan ahead!  Paying £48 for zoo tickets and then not being able to see any animals because they are hiding from the rain - as you should be - is not the best way to spend a day!  We should have checked the forecast at least!

After waking up in our lovely apartments, we packed a picnic, made sure we had our tickets for the zoo and headed out to catch a bus.

Disaster struck, however, when we realised that from the short walk  from our apartments to Princess Street, Ethan's thin coat wasn't up to the job, and he was pretty much soaked through.

We headed to the nearest department store we could find and prayed for sales!

So much for Edinburgh on a budget!

I was so glad we got these - look how wet we were just going from the shop to the bus stop!

Thankfully, BHS had a big sale on, and we managed to get two very well padded and waterproof coats for under £10.  It seemed as though our luck was changing.

We jumped on a bus and went to the zoo.  We were very lucky - because Edinburgh was so close, Tom and Ethan's Uncle and Auntie and gorgeous wee cousin came to join us for our day out.

We all met in the foyer and had a wee moan about the rain, and then Dave and his brother decided they would get more rain-ready, which involved the purchase of umbrellas, and in Dave's case a super-cute poncho.  Which he rocked for about...ooo...five minutes before he plumped for a brolly.

Looking awesome and rain-ready!

After everyone got waterproof (ish), we headed out into the zoo to meet our fate.  Our Panda visit wasn't booked until 2.30p.m, so we had lot of time to kill!  And with a picnic in our bags (which we foolishly let the kids know was there) it wasn't long until we'd had enough of staring into animal-less enclosures and headed into a cafe to grab a bite to eat.

By this time we were all freezing and soaked, so it was a welcome relief to head into somewhere warm.  Unfortunately we hit the cafe at a time when packed lunches aren't permitted, so our picninc packing proved futile, as we were obligated to order some cafe food.

Four bowls of chips hides a sandwich pack quite well though.  Or at least cancels them out a bit.  It pays to be sneaky with your sarnies!

A rather cool Panda brolly!

Once everyone had re-fueled, we carried on our way and had a mosey around the Jaguar, Sea Eagles and Koala Bears before making our way up to the top of the zoo.

Usually the zoo runs a rather handy train service up to the top of the hill, which is much better for small feet and buggies, but for some reason it wasn't running until later on in the month(the poster describing why had blurred in the rain).

All so cold and wet!

It wasn't such bad weather for the birds, and the penguins didn't mind the cold and wet one bit.  All of the animals are in full-swing breeding season right now too, so a lot of them were very busy building nests and courting mates.

Cheeky!

Some of the younger penguins were too young to build nests and have partners yet, and were very inquisitive!  Only three made it out for the penguin parade. 

I love the parade, and although it was a rather dreich day, there was still a sizeable crowd for it.

There was a huge build up to it though, and at the end Thomas slightly missed the point.  I swear he doesn't look at things properly sometimes.  After they had passed us and we all started to move again, Tom leaned to me and said 'when's the parade starting?' *face-palm*

We eventually got to our slot for some Panda time, and, like most of the other animals, were sensibly curled up, fast asleep.  The male Panda was hilarious - flat out on his back!

Happy days

I heard on the radio today that the zoo are expecting the Pandas to mate anytime in the next 7-14 days. Apparently all that sleeping and eating is due to the start of mating season and plays a key part in the process! Fingers crossed for them this year.

The baby monkeys aping around were very entertaining!

We were freezing and soaked again, so a welcome visit to the cosy monkey house was in order.  The monkeys were by far the best part of the day - well apart from a Gibbon trying to attack Dave through the glass.  We all got a huge fright when the huge monkey lunged forward - his teeth were massive and he was really quite scary! I think poor Ethan will be having nightmares about it for a while - he keeps muttering 'daddy monkey very scary' whenever we talk about the monkeys!

Another monkey-based highlight was when we visited the Gorilla House.  It's a massive enclosure with different kinds of rooms for the Gorillas, which they are free to move between.  They too are going through breeding season and are very aggressive towards visitors at the moment. They kept battering the walls and threatening everyone.  I can't say I blame them - it must be pretty annoying having intruders at such a delicate time! 

Once we had made sure we had seen everything that we could (got to get your money's worth!) we said our goodbyes to the others and headed back to the city centre on the bus, where we met some lovely friends who live close to Edinburgh for a take-away meal back at the apartments, followed by a cheeky beer.  Despite the weather, we'd had a lovely day at the zoo with our family, and we did laugh a lot!  We'll definitely be checking the forecast next time though and dressing appropriately!

It was supposed to look like this...

Even though the kids were knackered and really could have done with just going to bed after such a long day trailing around in the wet and the cold, they were really keen to go out to Saint Andrew's Square to catch one of the exhibits for the Science Festival, Field of Light.

It was so wet, that it looked like this...

I'll give it to them - in the sunshine it did look as though it would be a spectacular display on a nice dry night, but our luck just wasn't it.  However, we satisfied their curiosity and had a walk around before heading back to the apartments to tuck them in for the night.

The next day we headed to the train station, sorry our little trip was over, but kind of glad to be going home.

Edinburgh is a fab place - full of so much culture and lots to see and do.  Next time I would certainly plan ahead much better.  I should have planned a tighter budget and tried to adhere to it - we spent way more than we wanted to, despite some general forward planning and taking picnics when we could.  If we'd planned ahead better we might not have been caught out so much.

Also, the next day, despite planning to get the train at 11a.m, we arrived only to discover that the privatization of railways means that if you buy a ticket online, you are at the mercy of the carrier and their timetable; the train we went to get wasn't an East Coast train (which was on our tickets), so we then had to wait until 2.30p.m for the next East Coast Train!  We didn't choose this, nor did we realise.  And the end result was trying to entertain two small children in a very small, very quiet public library for nearly two hours!  With lots of extra walking with all of our bags!

Every day is an adventure - and it always helps to have a sense of humour, which luckily, we do! :)

Edinburgh Trip Report: Surviving The Capital With Two Small, Excited Children (part 1)

Holiday Time!

Day 1


We have spent the last two weeks fielding tantrums of the worst kind, dealing with bad behaviour, courting questions from two small, very excited, very anxious children about what is going to happen on holiday, how long we are going on holiday and how long it's going to take to get there.

Ethan has spent the last two weeks flipping out at the smallest things - the amount of milk we pour in his cup 'want it bigger!', getting to wear his wellies to nursery 'they my crocodile boots, my not like shoes!' and going to sleep at least two hours after being put to bed 'my. not. TIRED'.

He was, clearly, very bloody tired.

Thomas has had a breakdown at the school disco because he left his lunchbox in after-school club, he's had a breakdown on the way to school because I put an apple in his bag for play piece instead of Haribo sweets, and he has had a breakdown at bedtime because 'my bears are not all wanting to go to bed, they want to play my game with me.'

Dave spent the last week knackered after being away (in Edinburgh, har de har) at stupid-o-clock in the morning for training sessions for his job, I'm knackered from dealing with all of the end-of-term stuff plus work, plus the fall-out from what can only be described as annual pre-holiday hell courtesy of two small excited children and in short, we are all completely done in before we get there.

But when we get to that train station on Monday morning, bags packed with more teddy bears than we told them they could take (we didn't find out just how many Ethan had sneaked in until we got to the hotel) and picnic at the ready, we were all extremely relieved to be finally on our way.

Going anywhere with two small children is always going to be hard work.  You must plan everything to within an inch of it's life.

This is where the problem lies - I am a planner, Dave is not.  And when I am not carrying my A-game because I'm knackered, stressed and basically completely finished, then my planning ain't all that either.

Thus our Edinburgh trip, although it had a basic framework to it, didn't have the precise information needed to make it a completely stress-free and happy trip.  Yes, we had fun, but like most times when we go on holiday with two erratic balls of energy, we came home feeling like we really need a holiday!

There's a LOT of walking in Edinburgh!

Do yourselves a favour when planning a trip:

• Check the weather forecast before you spend nearly £50 booking a zoo trip
• Don't leave the house without making sure that everyone is wearing appropriate clothing in case it rains
• Make sure you have appropriate footwear for all the walking in the rain
• A packet of biscuits in your bag will save you approx. £17 in a National Museum
• Make sure you book your trip the week that all of the fun, free stuff actually starts - not the week before.
• If you book on the trainline.com, be aware of which train service provider will carry you to avoid disappointment 

That being said, we did have some great fun and the kids had a great time - which is all we went for.

Here's our Day 1 trip highlights:

The Train!

It was Ethan's first time on a train, and Tom's first time for a wee while, so this was actually a very pleasant way to spend an hour.  Once we were on the train (and the food was out of course), the kids just sat and chilled out and enjoyed the view from the windows as we went over the water.

The train was very busy and all seats were booked.  Like all under-5's, Ethan didn't have to pay for a seat, but this also meant that he didn't have a seat.  We were fortunate that we'd booked a table seat, thus nobody wanted to sit beside a family who were engrossed in eating and chatting total nonsense to each other, but if someone had seriously needed that seat, we would have had to give it up.

I do think train services should think better about placement of family groups on trains - especially as they charge so much.

Outside Art!

Passing the Mound precinct, we came across an outside gallery of a celebration of fluorescence in nature, called Living Lights

We spent about half an hour here just wandering around and having a look at this huge and interesting display.  Tom was really surprised to learn about all of the natural colours in nature and why animals and plants use them.  It was cool to see art on such a large and accessible scale too.

This is why i love Edinburgh - so much culture and art in one place, just naturally cropping up.  there's always a chance to learn.  It must be great to pass something like this on the way to work every day!

National Library!

One of the gorgeous book sculptures

I couldn't resist popping into the National Library - and they had an exhibit on about Scotland's Inventors.  It was a great excuse to have a nosey around and the kids loved seeing what we had come up with as a nation.  Plus, they are housing some of the gorgeous book sculptures which have been mysteriously appearing in libraries all over Edinburgh.  I saw them on tour a year or so ago and it was great to see the most recent ones on display.  If you've never heard of them before - check them out here

They are absolutely fascinating - and anonymously donated to various different libraries, each purporting the cause of libraries and their importance to society.


National Museum!

T-Rex! Huge teeth!

The museum was awesome.  The first thing we saw was the T-Rex skeleton, intermingled with other prehistoric and endangered critters.  This huge building is just filled with inter-active points of interest and is very well laid out.  We only had the afternoon, but after spending at least four hours in here, we were all exhausted.

My only gripe was the price of the cafe.  Trying to get a mid-afternoon snack to refuel a bit and get some more energy to carry on, we sat down in the cafe on the balcony.  Dave came back to our table with four medium-sized tray bakes and four cans of juice. Grimacing, he informed me that our little treat had just cost us somewhere in the region of £17!!  That was definitely a learning curve.

Tom checking out animal hearing frequencies

Our last inch of energy was given to the lovely children's area tucked away in a corner of the building, which had a dino-bone dig, dressing up boxes, tree-house and science experiments for little hands.  It was so good just to chill out here for a bit after trailing around and let the kids run free for a bit.

Ethan got stuck right in to the dressing up!

It was a lovely way to spend an afternoon, but we were really tired afterwards - and we still had to walk back to our hotel, which although was city centre, was still a fair walk for wee legs.

Pizza Express!

We did have a cheeky pit-stop at Pizza Express on the way home.  I would definitely recommend this place!  The food was amazing, the service was second-to-none and the kids were treated like royalty, even leaving with their own chef's hats at the end.  It was quite pricey, but we never eat out any more and we were on our holiday, so we tried to forget about it!

Chilling at the Hotel!

The Blue Rainbow Apart-Hotel was really good - a good value for money stay and somewhere I would book again without hesitation.  We were left to our own devices, everything was clean, comfortable and uncomplicated.  The location was great too - just a stone's throw away from anything you need and right opposite the National Portrait Gallery.  They were kind enough to let us check our bags in early too so we didn't have to lug them around Edinburgh, which would have proved painful!

All in all, a great first day's trip, with lots of little extras packed in.  And yes, the kids went to sleep with no complaints!

• See part Two of our trip HERE