Wednesday Walk around the Edinburgh Christmas Market - enjoying the lights and early festivities !

The Edinburgh Christmas market has been set up again in the centre of town, and we went to see it last night with some friends.

We all love the festive season here in our house, and some friends came to town so we went with them to the fair in the evening.

We started in the grass market on the opposite side of the city centre - and some places there also had christmas lights up nice and early.

From the Grassmarket we made our way up to the Royal Mile, and then down The Mound. From the top of the Mound we were treated to a view over the main fair area.

We usually try to go a few times each year, although it is quite expensive. And they have set up it fairly early I would have said this year, but I guess they are just extending the number of weeks over which they can extract even more money from the captive market !

To be fair, they do light up everything quite well. At this end of the town is the section for adults where you can get a beer, and the like. We had a good wander around this section, browsing past the stalls and taking in the lights.

They had some really cool lighting on the Scott Monument that was changing colour, so I stitched the collage above together - I really liked seeing it all lit up.

They had a number of fair rides setup to one side and it was quite funny as you could hear people screaming as they were fairly fast and scary !

A ferris wheel has also been setup, which looks lovely against the night sky.

They do make a good effort with the lights in the centre of town, and it does look quite stunning. While there we stopped for a quick pint (they had Paulaner from Munich), which for me is a nice way to take a break in the middle of a walk ! As said the fair is quite expensive, and true to form they were charging £9 a pint (which is about $11) ! Thats pretty steep, as a pint in a pub is around £4.50 to £5.

Having checked out the main section for a while, we started making our way back to the car and walked through Princes Street gardens, to the other end of the fair where the kids section is setup. We passed the Princes Street Gardens fountain which was looking fantastic with the castle in the background high up on its volcanic tor.

It was getting later by this time and although the kids section was still open, there was basically no-one left there. It was nice to see though.

To be fair, it was a lovely way to spend a mid-week night, and we probably walked around 2-3 miles all told by the time we went up and down the stalls a few times, and all the way around the city centre doing a revolution around the castle.

It did feel like we were all getting into the Christmas spirit, even though it was only November, and we all really enjoyed it - especially the pint mid-way through !