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Sights aplenty

Popular destination The Rosslyn Chapel

The moment you step into Scotland’s capital city, you are guaranteed to fall in love with the green landscape dotted with castles, country houses and ancient battlefields – a reminder of Scotland’s rich past.

The best time to visit this city would be between May and September when the weather is fairly warm. The train journey is scenic with picture-postcard glimpses of the North Sea surrounded by steep green slopes with fat sheep lazily grazing all over them. Edinburgh is popularly known as a city of contradictions — it offers the active tourist plenty of things to do and sights to see, and all the same, it is also a perfect haven for the lazy traveller to just lie back and relax.

Buy a pass for one of the hop-on hop-off bus services that will take you through the narrow lanes of the Old Town as well as the Georgian New Town. The Edinburgh Castle makes a stunning first stop with its crown jewels, great halls and secret passageways.

For a deeper delving into the rich culture and art of ancient Scotland, the intricate stained glass at the St Giles Cathedral is a must see.

While Edinburgh has a host of museums, including the Museum of Scotland, Royal Museum, the Children’s Museum and the War Museum, the essence of the city lies in its castles and churches.

The Royal Mile is a long cobbled street that extends for a mile in the heart of the Old City right from the Castle down to the Palace of Holyrood House. The history of Scotland is filled with myths of monsters, ghosts and witches and many places tell tales of preternatural and strange disappearances and events. This hoary past has a trendy new avatar in various tours such as an all-night graveyard tour famously known as the City of the Dead as well as walks at night with tales of the past exposed in the Edinburgh Dungeon.

Fashion lovers can swoon over all the big names such as Harvey Nichols and Louis Vuitton at the Princess Mall or the elegant George Street.

Jenners, an old structure on Princess Street, is said to be the Harrods of Scotland. The right place for a person looking for bargains would be the shopping areas of the Grassmarket and Stockbridge. If all the activity gives you an appetite, it is time to feast on Scotland’s signature dishes at Taste of Edinburgh.

For the less adventurous, Edinburgh is famous for its all-you-can eat buffets that cover almost all cuisines, even Indian.

AFRAH SHAFIQ

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