I drew £60 out on Sunday at a Barclays and managed to get proper money.

Had a good weekend in Edinburgh as it is not a place I had visited before so a welcome experience and nice to sample some bars away from Bridge St or Stockton Heath.

However looking back at the 2 Cardiff trips those won hands down in my opinion.

Murrayfield was a good stadium and a good venue for the rugby but wasn't impressed with the local vicinity, half of the place seemed to be falling down or being dug up.

Lots of walking to be done during the weekend and as we were based in Grassmarket, we found most the pubs we drank in shut at 1am and weren't always well populated. Did have a good night on the Sunday in the White Hart + Three Sisters.

Some of the locals were fine and good to talk to but others were less than welcoming

I'll likely be back next year but maybe not for fri-sat-sun.

I'm finding it very difficult to simply vote "Cardiff or Edinburgh" because the two actually provided very different yet still very enjoyable experiences. For that reason, i have voted for Edinburgh in this poll, because having been to Cardiff for the last two years, I think it was nice to get the variety of a new venue this year.

I could ramble on at length on this subject, so I'll try to be concise using some key pointsThe Cities
I think Edinburgh wins hands down here, so much more to see and do. Bit more spread out, but I had a family weekend there last year and if you do your research you can cover everything.

Stadium
Bit of a tie here, the Millenium is more modern and with the roof is less of a risk to the weather, plus it's location is more convenient. But Murrayfield has a certain charm being older and it being in it's own grounds with plenty of room for on site entertainment and catering made it more appealing. Big risk of bad weather though.

Variety
Edinburgh wins here, Cardiff is bit too High-Street-Chain bog standard for me, compared to Edinburgh's more traditional pubs, shops and restaurants.

Locals
I spoke to several Scots myself over the weekend and heard lots of Scottish accents at the ground, especially on the Saturday. My opinion is the locals definitely showed more interest than they did in Wales.

Building site
Several bizarre comments on this thread about the building work in Edinburgh - did you have your eyes closed in Cardiff? Massive projects going in Cardiff re-building the centre, much more than in Edinburgh.

Rain Risk
Clearly Cardiff has the edge here - had the weather been bad this weekend, then Edinburgh would have been a disaster.

"Fans Together"
Again Cardiff wins hands down - being smaller and having the stadium in the centre did mean there was much more congregating of fans going on, compared to in Edinburgh where everyone was very spread out. That said, every pub we went in to in Grassmarket, on the Royal Mile and on Rose Street had RL fans in mixing with the locals, so that in itself was good.

Conclusion
I think the RFL should be applauded for creating the concept and for being willing to move it around. That in itself can add to the appeal, rather than it getting stale. They really ought to promote it better though - surely a few posters and billboards around the city wouldn't cost too much? Anyway, I had a cracking weekend, but then I was there for 3 nights and had done my homework on what to expect and what to do with my time. It was great taking part in the Edinburgh 10k too.

Cardiff for me. we were based just off Rose St and it was a disapointment, on the saturday night we were refused entry into some pubs due to having replica shirts on and the ones which allowed us entry closed early.
Murryfield ground was a little bit better but the location let it down. if it had rained it would of been awful. it was ok for the fanzone area but i think there still could be more entertainment on in this area.
Hotels were expensive, food expensive and drinks expensive.

Loved it Stayed with Family in Glasgow, did the park and ride near airport, just £4 for 4 of us to get dropped off on main road short walk to the ground and planty to do for the kids...pain in the there was no baby changing or feeding facilities but not the end of the world.
Defo do it all again next year.

I thought that was bad. Saw a poor couple with their 18 month old changing a nappy in the stairwell.

get powers there she'll sort it.

Sorry last time I looked the British currency was Stirling and The Bank of Scotland issues its Scottish notes in... Stirling. Therefore, I think you will find that it is legal tender.

On the note of Edinburgh. I loved it and I think it is a simple case of what you went there for. I only went to Murrayfield on Sunday, taking in the Leeds Catalans game and then us. The rest of the weekend I spent touring the wonderful city... including ghost tour. I can see peoples point about the drinking culture though, everywhere was quite far from the ground. I'll be definately going back next year though!

Quote: Cobblers Wire "Sorry last time I looked the British currency was Stirling and The Bank of Scotland issues its Scottish notes in... Stirling. Therefore, I think you will find that it is legal tender. '" Sorry last time I looked (in researching my considered opinion before posting), I understood Scottish bank notes were not legal tender in England. But you may be right and this link maybe inaccurate. www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknote ... aqs.htm#15 PS - Don't worry it's an easy trap to fall into mistaking legal tender for currency.

Quote: Cobblers Wire "Sorry last time I looked the British currency was Stirling and The Bank of Scotland issues its Scottish notes in... Stirling. Therefore, I think you will find that it is legal tender. '" Sorry last time I looked (in researching my considered opinion before posting), I understood Scottish bank notes were not legal tender in England. But you may be right and this link maybe inaccurate. www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknote ... aqs.htm#15 PS - Don't worry it's an easy trap to fall into mistaking legal tender for currency.

Aye our little one is only 4 months so it was a bit of a pain but we managed. Bought her some ear defenders so the noise didnt upset her and had a great time.

He actually said that the scottish notes are issued in Stirling - I assumed it was the site of the manufacturing plant for scottish bank notes similar to the Royal Mint in Pontyclun.

Some shops won't accept Scottish notes due to the fact that the hologram dectection things don't work on them

Hey now just wait a minute SEB, I wasn't criticising TANCW's blog contribution more his innate superiority complex in broadsiding the whole board membership as being filistines (sic) just because they may not dig Edinburgh Castle or Arthurs Seat as much as him - whilst in the process mispelling philistine. I found that amusing.

Peace out.

Do you really think I didn't know how to spell philistine (or more properly, Philistine)? And I couldn't give a monkey's if people prefer to sit in a pub all day and moan about the venue when they have a great city to visit. Makes the queues shorter.