Edinburgh

Edinburgh is Scotland’s beautiful capital, dominated by Edinburgh Castle sitting high above the city. Before the castle lies the long green band of gardens that separates Edinburgh’s Old Town, with its narrow streets crowded with ancient buildings, and New Town where Edinburgh’s shopping street, Princes Street, is backed by wide roads of elegant Georgian houses. The city’s principal sights are easily explored on foot, but as an introduction to Edinburgh take one of the double-decker sightseeing buses from Waverley Bridge opposite the Tourist Information Office and railway station. The tours run every ten minutes and wind a circular route through the city with a commentary on the significance of the buildings along the route. Your ticket is valid for twenty-four hours and the bus makes frequent stops so you can take the entire tour for an overview of what there is to see and then later use it as transportation between the sights, hopping on and off to visit the places that interest you. Several guided walking tours are offered, some exploring the city’s ancient underground chambers—purported to be haunted! The most popular time to visit Scotland’s capital is during the Edinburgh Festival. Actually the name applies to a collection of festivals that take place between the end of July and the end of August. The Jazz and Blues Festival kicks off the event followed by the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in the last three weeks of August. The Fringe offers everything from the avant-garde to the eccentric along with jugglers, mimes, and buskers, making this the most comprehensive international arts festival in the world. Pipers dance down the streets and kilts are worn almost as a uniform. The hum of bagpipes sets the stage with parades, flags, presentations, floodlights, and color appearing everywhere. The Military Tattoo provides tradition with massed pipes and drums from Scottish regiments alongside other military participants. It’s an outdoor spectacle that culminates in a fireworks display. Tickets go on sale the previous December and sell out early.