Excellent communication up front. Yvonne was quick to accept our request to stay at her place, and immediately forwarded me to the caretaker of this particular location who took care of the actual stay.

The neighborhood is great: it's literally the first building directly east of the castle and the view is spectacular. Be warned as the ascent to the apartment from the station where the bus from the airport drops you off is pretty steep, especially for people like us from the Netherlands who don't understand what a slope really is ;-). The apartment itself is on the 4th floor so you have to do the climb and then ascend a few flights of stairs. Winded at the top, but it's worth it, and a great workout!

Since the apartment is right next to the castle, basically everything you care about is not only within walking distance, but you can actually see it from the living room. It's right between the oldest parts of Edinburgh (where all the sights and cafés are) and the more modern city center where all the shops and public transport hubs are. It's kind of neat being able to look over at the castle from wherever you are and pointing out the apartment you're staying in, too.

During out stay one of the caretakers got in touch to ask if a handyman could stop by to fix a broken window handle. We of course agreed and upon our return one afternoon found that the window had been fixed. Very proactive and nice of them to reach out that way.

Some minor quibbles: since the apartment is obviously quite old, it doesn't keep heat in quite as well as you're used to at home, and initially the broken window handle mentioned above was causing the window to randomly blow open. The caretaker also indicated that the boiler was acting up and may break down randomly, and the shower and toilet might have trouble getting hot or flushing respectively because of "water pressure". None of these were issues during our stay and we accept that it's part of the experience but they're obviously things that can be improved :-)