Hello Happy Bunny

The Chocolate Teapot is a small cafe with indoor and outdoor seating in Bideford. As you can guess from the name, chocolate is the highlight here. The Chocolate Dipping Platter is quite popular here, where you are provided with fruit, marshmallows and other treats to dip in melted Belgian chocolate. The Ultimate Hot Chocolate allows you to make your perfect drink. You can melt Belgian chocolate drops in the hot milk provided to you and add fudge and marshmallows according to taste. For those who don’t want to make so much effort, the Luxury Hot Chocolate is a creamy hot chocolate, with marshmallows on top (I tried this – it was very nice!) The cafe serves hot food, sandwiches and other puddings, but for me, the cakes are the best thing here. Homemade and inventive, I would happily go back for more! During my visit, I opted for the trio of traybakes, in which I got to taste the Chocolate Orange, Caramel Shortcake and Eton Mess cakes (the Eton Mess is a recent addition. I heard it h...

Mary’s Milk Bar is a small shop in Grassmarket, which specialises in homemade gelato. The ice cream is delicious! I had one scoop of coconut ice cream in a cone (£2.00) which I ate outside in the sunshine. I saw another customer order ice cream to eat in. Their ice cream came in a special swan bowl! The counter staff are very happy and friendly and the ice cream is superb. If you are in the mood for ice cream, you can’t go wrong here.

Edinburgh Zoo is a short bus ride from Princes Street. We arrived nice and early in order to maximise our animal-seeing time. Admittance is £16.50 for adults. There are plenty of animals to see, although sadly we didn’t get to see all of them! The orangutan enclosure was closed for medical reasons and the Sumatran tiger was hiding from us! Zebras Koala Bear Edinburgh Zoo is the only zoo in the UK which plays host to koala bears and giant pandas. There are currently four koalas. Hello Tian Tian Tian TIan with her bamboo It was recently revealed in the news that Tian Tian is pregnant, so the zoo had warned that visitors might not be able to see her. However, Yang Guang will be encouraged to come out for regular feedings. For the pandas, you have to book a viewing slot. During our viewing slot (about 11am), Tian Tian was sat with her back to the visitors eating bamboo. She reached to the side table for more bamboo, nearly losing her balance in the process. Eventually,...

The Elephant House is most famous for its literary significance. This is where JK Rowling wrote the Harry Potter books and Ian Rankin is said to have frequented here – he even mentions it in his novels. The Elephant House serves hot food, cakes and coffee all day and attracts many locals and tourists alike. The styling of the interior is quite unique – the tables and chairs are not what you would find in a typical cafe. In my table was a chest of drawers which contained notes and letters from past customers. There are a lot of elephants (obvious if you look at the name) – models, posters, chairs, books…Also, there is a display case with photos of JK Rowling and a signed copy of Harry Potter in another display cabinet.   Having read reviews online, the hot chocolates are a speciality of the The Elephant House, so I decided to try a Banana Bounty. This is hot chocolate with coconut and banana liqueur. The taste is quite surprising – it tastes quite summery. The fruit flavo...

The National Museum of Scotland is a vast building filled with exhibitions and displays covering nature, history, art, literature and science. There are also sections dedicated to Scottish history and culture. There is so much to see, I could possibly see one spending the entire day here! Another bonus is that it is free admittance. We were only here for a few hours, so unfortunately we didn’t get to see everything. My particular favourites were seeing the displays on different world cultures, natural history and the environment and the pivotal role Scotland has played in popular culture and art through the ages.

Nearby Edinburgh Castle is Castle Terrace Restaurant, which we visited for lunch. We selected the 3 course lunch set menu at £29.50, which for Michelin starred dining is fantastic value! Also included was an amuse bouche – three things to sample on one dish: black pepper pork, mini hamburger and a “Caesar salad”. This was followed by a pre-starter of jelly and tomato gazpacho with a black olive cracker on the side. For starter, I ate the ham hock trifle: ham underneath a pea puree topped off with savoury ice cream and a crisp. For main course, I chose the free-range chicken with chicken ravioli, a buttery sauce and summer vegetables. Dessert was the Eton mess, very unusual compared to a normal Eton mess. The components are there, just re-imagined in a different way. A new addition is the sesame seed casing around the cream. Although not included, I had a Breakfast tea (from the Eteaket range, which I spoke about previously). Alongside my tea, a selection of sweet t...

We arrived nice and early to Edinburgh Castle, which opens at 9.30am. Already there were long queue already! Tickets are a little expensive (£16.50 for an adult ticket) but this is a must see attraction if you visit the city. There is the option of the audio tour for a little extra cost, but we chose to go on the free guided tour. Our tour guide, Liz, was a friendly and knowledgeable guide who took the group around the key highlights of the castle grounds and their historical backgrounds.The tour took about 30 minutes, after which we perused the castle at our own leisure. The Lang Steps There is so much history encapsulated in Edinburgh Castle. St Margaret’s Chapel is the oldest building in the city, built in honour of one of the Scottish royals’ wives. She was famed for her benevolence and generosity, always seeking to make sure the poorer people were well fed and clothed. After her death, she was made a saint.  The War Monument contains books dedicated to those who fo...