I now know that Classically Grace readers really enjoy travel content, because so many people visited my site after I posted the first honeymoon recap, my blog crashed! Preston (my husband and tech guy) usually gets a notification when the blog is overloaded, and he can optimize it, but so many people got on this time it just quit! So I apologize if you were trying to read the blog yesterday morning and afternoon, but it should be up and running again. In the next few months, he may try moving it to a different host, but in the mean time, here we are!
Thank you all so much for reading the post on Sunday. It was so much fun to relive the first part of our honeymoon. Since the last post turned out SO long, let’s jump right back in to keep this one short.
Day 5 // Scotland
When we were first planning our London honeymoon, we both agreed that we had enough time for a day trip or two. We went back and forth between exploring England more, with a trip to Bath or the Downton Abbey property, but we ultimately decided to visit a country completely new to both of us since Preston studied abroad in England two summers ago.
I was pleasantly surprised by the price of our plane tickets, 140 pounds for us both to fly round trip from London to Edinburgh. In the U.S., one plane ticket from Knoxville to Memphis would be more than that. We first wanted to do a train, but the tickets were much, much more (think 140 for each person, each way, yikes!) and the trip would have taken 8 or 9 hours. With only a day and a half to spend, we didn’t want to cut out that much time.
We chose Edinburgh, mainly because of Harry Potter, but also because it’s the capital city, and I think if you only have a day or two to spend in a country, going to the capital is best. We really want to go to the Highlands and Glasgow, so we may make a return trip as soon as we save up enough to go back to Europe.
This is also where i want to mention how affordable the tube system is! There’s an express option to the airport that is 50 pounds a person, but with just a little self-confidence, you can easily navigate the tube system and pay 1/5th of that. If we had used the express option, we would have spent $262 per person for all our trips to the airport. Instead, I think we spent $150 total on our tube rides for the entire trip.
We got to LHR and checked in, but we were incredibly “early.” I think we are both used to flying international from the U.S., which recommends a three hour early arrival. We arrived to the airport two hours before, thinking we were cutting it close, but we were so early by their standards, our gate number wasn’t even up. We ate at Wagamama (an asian chain restaurant), and it was really good.
Our flight landed, and we bought a round-trip bus ticket to take us into the city and back to the airport for 7 pounds each. We arrived in Edinburgh around 2 and did early check in at our hotel, The Balmoral. Preston and I both agree this is the nicest hotel we have ever stayed in, and we spent longer than expected just looking around at everything. I booked the room one up from the most basic, mainly because I knew we wouldn’t be in the room for long. The kind staff at the Balmoral upgraded us to the city view suite, and we enjoyed our room so much! As soon as the honeymoon video is out, there will be a room tour included.
After we got checked in, we set off for the Royal Mile to explore the city. The nice thing about Edinburgh really is the opportunity to set off on one street and be able to see all the big sights from start to finish. Everything we wanted to see was either on the Royal Mile or forked off conveniently. There are a lot of Harry Potter shops and photo opportunities in Edinburgh, and we really enjoyed walking through those. Preston even picked up a lambs wool Slytherin scarf as his souvenir for the trip. We ventured up to the Edinburgh castle, but it was too close to closing time to go in, so we decided to come back the next day. For dinner, we went to The Queens Arms. I thought I had made reservations for their Sunday Roast that someone had recommended to me, but our reservation was actually too late for this! We settled for the Shepherd’s Pie of the day, and we never looked back. It said it was a sharing size, but Preston usually eats enough food for at least 2 people, so we both ordered a side item. This was completely unnecessary, because it was HUGE!
After that, we went to Coro for dessert, and let me tell you- this place was amazing. If I hadn’t been absolutely stuffed, I would have gotten three or four different things to try. We got the caramel shortbread half waffle and split it. We went back to the hotel after this, mainly because our room felt like a small house, and we just loved the vibe and wanted to be there!
Day 6 // Lots of History
We started the day with a pastry and coffee from The Elephant House, which is the cafe J.K. Rowling wrote a lot of the first few Harry Potter books in! I think you have to make a donation if you want to look around and take pictures, but taking a picture outside was enough for me! Their breakfast also looked really good, so if you had time, I am sure a sit down meal would be nice there too.
We walked to Holyrood Palace next. I have loved all things Mary Queen of Scots ever since I watched the series Reign on Netflix. I also love observing the Royal Family, and Holyrood being a place where Mary Queen of Scots lived and the Queen’s current official residence in Scotland, this hit two birds with one stone. Preston and I really enjoyed it. It wasn’t crowded at all. We got the audio tours, and we both think those added a lot of information. They do a student discount, so don’t forget to bring yours if you have one.
We had reservations for Dishoom at 12:30. I had been trying to get in to one of the locations in London for the entire trip, but even in the dead of winter, it was packed and had a two hour wait every night. You can only make reservations for lunch, so I gave up on London and made reservations for our only lunch in Scotland. So many people had recommended this place, and once I saw it the first time, I feel like it popped up everywhere. Preston was skeptical because we don’t really eat Indian food, like ever.
This turned out to be the best meal we had the entire trip, and Preston and I might argue that it was one of the best meals we have ever had. The food was just so good. We got the Behl, Chicken Paneer Roll, Edinburgh Special and Chicken Tikka Masala. I will warn you, even the meals that aren’t labeled as spicy, are pretty spicy. But it’s more that they are heavily spiced and not traditionally spicy. Does that make sense to anyone? I hope so, haha! Make sure you get the Paanch- it is a better version of Butterbeer and what I always thought it would taste like.
We left with extremely full stomachs but ready to explore Edinburgh castle. We walked back up the Royal Mile (Edinburgh Castle is at the very far end of it, but closer to all the sights than Holyrood!) and bought our tickets. Unfortunately, there is no student discount here, and the prices were kind of steep, but we decided to go because it was too good to pass up. We really enjoyed the different exhibits and just walking around the grounds. I had seen a few people say it wasn’t worth the time or money, but I think if you have a good two hours to spend there, you can really see a lot. It was raining while we were there, but I would have went for the many picture opportunities overlooking the city alone. We also really enjoyed the gift shop here, and picked up most of our little Scotland souvenirs here.
After this, we found our bus stop and headed back to the airport. We got on the last flight to London of the day, and I think we made it back to our hotel room at 10 p.m., so a day and a half in Scotland is totally doable!
Day 7 // Best Harry Potter day ever
We woke up early and excited for a day filled to the brim with Harry Potter fun. We grabbed breakfast at Cafe Nero, and got our pictures taken at the Platform 9 3/4 photo station at King’s Cross. We paid 15 pounds for one of photo of each of us, which we thought was worth it for the ability to use the scarves and wands. You could also just use your phone and not buy them if that’s what you prefer. We also looked in the shop, and it was one of the best ones we saw the entire trip. I picked up a Platform 9 3/4 pin to go on my blue jean jacket, but there were a lot of unique items I hadn’t seen there before.
We then bought train tickets to take us to the town where the Warner Brothers Harry Potter studio tour is located. (Hint** buy your tickets for the WB tour months in advance! Especially if you’re going during the summer or a busy time!) You can find all this travel information on their website, but we bought our bus tickets on the bus- you seriously can’t miss this bus, it’s a double decker fully wrapped in Harry Potter images.
Our tour time was at 12:30, but we got there at 12 so we could look around the lobby and explore the gift shop. This tour was probably the highlight or my trip, and I think it would also be for any big Harry Potter fan. This was Preston’s second time doing it, and he enjoyed it even more than the last because there really is a ton of information. They also had opened up the Gringotts part of the tour, and it was incredible! I can’t wait for our video to be finished. Because it can take 4+ hours to go through the tour, we had to eat in the conveniently placed cafe. If we could have, we would have definitely brought our own sandwiches from PRET. We paid more than $20 for small sandwiches, one drink and a bag of chips!! It was insane.
We exited through the gift shop and couldn’t pass up the wand section. We each had been wanting a wand for a while, and the set up they had in the gift shop was really enticing. I got Luna Lovegood’s wand, and Preston got Sirius Black’s.
We then traveled back to London the same way we travelled there, and stopped at a pizza place Preston ate at pretty often when he was studying abroad. We then went back to our hotel to have dessert at the hotel restaurant. We got all packed up and ready to head to the airport in the morning.
Day 8 // Fly home
Our flight out was around 12:40 p.m., so we got to the airport and flew home with no complications. We were so blessed to have a perfect experience with our multiple flights, trains, tubes, water taxis, etc, and Preston and I were sooooo grateful. We arrived to our condo around 3 a.m. London time (yikes!) but saw the sweetest surprise in our kitchen. Our moms and family friend Carol left a full haul of groceries at our condo for us to have for the first few weeks of our newlywed life.
Preston and I are so blessed to have family and friends who are so invested in our relationship and lives. We are thankful for everyone who gave us the opportunity to kick off our married life in such a special way. Thank you all for reading this extremely long post. I can’t wait to create lots more wedding and travel content over the next few months.
