We have breakfast at Costa and then head to the Portobello suburb. We find a parking space near the beach and immediately feel at home here. It’s touristy, but you find just the locals. We stroll up and down the beach promenade and even spot a service offering beach wheelchairs that you can hire by booking (in advance?). We order a drink from a food truck and sit down on a bench with it. It’s lovely just to watch the people here for a while – and especially the many dogs chasing balls and happily jumping into the water. They’ll sleep well tonight.

As we stroll down the small but charming high street, we spot a bakery with a delicious looking display of baked goods – unfortunately, no photo. Here we stock up on snacks for the afternoon and for when we get peckish on the journey home. Then we head back to the outdoor shopping centre we visited yesterday, which is already buzzing with activity! Lunch at Wagamama is Gabi and Chrige’s idea: They feel sorry for me because I couldn’t find any ramen noodle soup yesterday. So they grant me this wish and I happily order the Gochujang Ramen, as my favourite (Shirodashi Ramen) has been taken off the menu last year. Chrige finds the Chicken Katsu Curry a bit too spicy, and Gabi enjoys her Crispy Duck with noodles.

Speaking of wishes: Chrige wanted to have a browse in a bookshop, and there’s one here too! She buys a lovely book about castles in Scotland – so she can read more about the history of the sights we’ve visited at her leisure. A little further on, we pop into a large Lush branch, where Gabi finds a perfume she’s been searching for for ages. We’re also amazed by the bath bombs shaped like Yoshi eggs, E.T. and the DeLorean from Back to the Future.

Just before 3 pm, we drive back to the hotel to collect our luggage, and then on to the airport. Returning the hire car is a simple, straightforward affair: we bring it back without a single scratch; not even the wheel rims have suffered a scratch. We’ve driven 677 miles on our holiday – 1,090 kilometres.

Edinburgh Airport is really charming; small and easy to navigate. In the duty-free area, for the very first time in an airport, we feel we come across a really good selection. The Scottish souvenirs on offer here are high quality, and at last we find the “tablet” fudge for which Scotland is famous. We snap it up straight away!

Then it’s time to board. That goes very smoothly and stress-free too, just like the flight itself. We land in Zurich as scheduled at 10.15 pm. Two hours later, we arrive home – tired but happy.