Queueing this one up a little early whilst I have a spare half hour this evening as I’m off to Birmingham on business first thing tomorrow and not back until late Friday. Time will be at a premium Saturday morning!

This weekend I’m heading off just up the road to Edinburgh for the FlyerTalk weekend do. Huge thanks go to crazy8534 for doing the hard yards organising this shindig.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...er-2024-a.html

I have to admit that I have vacillated mightily about attending, mostly due to the brutal hotel prices. What tipped the balance was a post by Cymro regarding the number of points needed for the Hilton. Unfortunately my points balances across the board were close to zero as I’d not long since booked up all the hotels for the next nine months, and wiped out pretty much every point I had in the process. However, Hilton had a double points sale going and Ł130 worth of points secured me a room that at that time was selling for Ł469. i’ve just checked and right now they’re asking Ł806 for the basic queen bed room for the Saturday night! I definitely owe Cymro a beer for that suggestion.

As you can see from the thread above, there are a number of event streams planned for the Saturday, and then the weekend culminates with a visit to the National Museum of Flight and Concorde,

My personal plans for the weekend are:

Saturday

• Fairly early train from Newcastle to Edinburgh, hopefully able to check in early at 13:00 ish.
• Lunch and beer somewhere nearby.
• Johnny Walker whisky experience. I wanted to do this the last time I visited Edinburgh and just ran out of time.
• Dinner, plans to be determined.
• Pub meet up. Hopefully there’ll be a dozen fellow FTers present.
• Haunted Graveyard tour to walk off the beer.

Sunday

• Leisurely breakfast compliments of Hilton Diamond.
• 11 am departure for noon at the museum.
• 3-4 pm back to Edinburgh.
• Back on the train to Newcastle and home by 8pm or a little earlier.

There may or may not be time for a little wander Sunday morning, but at the moment, probably not, headaches may need to be nursed

Next update will be Saturday morning once I’m on the move.

It wouldn’t be one of my trip reports if everything went according to plan

Standing at Birmingham station contemplating the journey home to Newcastle on the EDINBURGH train… you know what is coming! A quick check on the Hilton app and there was a room available for 40k points, and the points sale was still running, and the rest, as they say, is history.

I have managed to find a seat on this fairly busy cross country train and about to get settled in for the multitudinous joys of five hours of cross country comfort.



Now the question is…. Is there a buffet on board?!

Buffet, ha, wishful thinking. There might be a trolley if you're lucky...

Five long and miserable hours later and I’ve made it to the Hilton. There was a buffet trolley for the first half of the journey but after Darlington, nada for the last two hours.

Very foggy up here right now which I believe is messing with flights



The Hilton is clearly being renovated inside and out



Reception is definitely NOT that way

No room upgrade this weekend and honestly I was not expecting one given that occupancy must be nigh on 100%, especially tomorrow







I do, however, get access to the lounge so time to go hunt it down

The lounge is on the first floor along with the restaurant and bar.

First, the restaurant, which is currently appears to be closed





Following along the corridor and passing the executive lounge, the bar is at the far end





And then back to the lounge




The lounge is inexplicable, it’s more like a cafe. There is nowhere comfortable to actually lounge, and nowhere to work??? All in all it’s a pretty unappealing space. Honestly none of the three spaces are that appealing but this one least of all.

When I arrived the buffet was set out for afternoon tea/snacks








I have a longstanding love of Tunnocks teacakes and caramel bars. Some of these may well wander off to my room



At 5pm they started to vey slowly transition over to evening snacks. I expected better.




Around 5:20 the alcohol made an appearance




To add insult to injury, the sausages were tasteless, the falafel greasy and soggy, just a very poor showing.

That lounge is just... yikes.

Looking forward to hearing about your time in Edinburgh. We seem to be hopscotching each other around the world the past few weeks - after Tirana, I headed back to London before going up to the Fringe for the last weekend of August, so had my own (very different) experience of Edinburgh there.

Your suggestion of a Hilton hotel for 40k points intrigued me. Managed to book the DoubleTree at EDI airport for that on Saturday night, which seems a reasonable deal.

I was very pleased to see it at 40K, I was expecting 60K. I missed out on that rate when I booked for tomorrow, it had gone to 60K by the time I saw the post. Looking now, the Hilton is completely sold out.

Clearly not getting fed in the lounge, it was time to head to dinner. I already knew where I was going, having spotted it on the way to the Hilton.

If you look closely at the previous exterior shot you will see Bread Meats Bread on the far left. BMB is far and away my favourite burger chain, predominantly, maybe solely, found in Scotland.






I’ve gone for a caramel and Jack Daniels milkshake to kick off the festivities and then the Luther Burger that is made from two glazed ring donuts! For a side I chose the poutine. I guarantee I’ll not finish it, even the small side is a lot of heavy food but hopefully it is as delicious as I remember it.



I got slightly sidetracked during the fifty or so steps from hotel to BMB.

Dinner is served

Chatting to reception on the way back in and apparently all of the renovations are expected to take another six months. The bar, restaurant, and lounge are all moving again which explains the state of them. The bar is moving to the ground floor, opposite an expanded reception. The restaurant is moving to -1, and I forgot to ask where the lounge was heading.

Full of very, very tasty burger, it’s back to the lounge for a nightcap and then an early night. Whilst I’m enjoying the beer I think I’ll look for a walking tour for tomorrow morning, might as well see a bit more of the city.

And I thought I eat a lot. Man, I feel stuffed to the point of bursting just looking at that "burger and fries" you got.

re. the Hilton, I am guessing the lower redemption rate is tied to the renovations? (The way I expect it, lounge is heading to the oblivion)

re. walking tours, I've just been thinking of you in Heidelberg the other day, I need to get it into my mind to look them up. I missed one in Cluj (to be mentioned in an upcoming TR) and then looking at several busloads of presumably Korean (going by signage) tourists, I perhaps should have gotten one in Germany. Or two, if there was a late one in Stuttgart.
And the stupid thing is, I know, from experience, they are great ways to see a city. I've taken a fair few. I just rarely remember to book one.

Wow a donut burger...Did you manage to finish it ?

Ah....Friday again. And so another Japes saga commences. Looking forward to the rest of the weekend's read. Must say that burger looks most unappealing - any guess to the calorie and fat content??