Edinburgh, capital of Scotland, day and night

As the capital of Scotland and the UK's second most visited city, Edinburgh city centre is not that big and is perfectly walkable. During my 48 hours in town, I walked everywhere, the longest stretch being just over 3km from my accommodation from the east side of the centre to a place called Dean Village on the west side. I shall be sharing Dean Village in my next post as it is so beautiful that it warrants its own post.

THE GEORGIAN CITY

If you've been to UK, particularly London before, you'll notice that Edinburgh is very un-UK. It's known as one of the few British Georgian cities, where it's architecture is known as, yes you've guessed it, Georgian style. The name derives from the period 1714 to 1830 when Britain was ruled by four Kings all named George. Since I'm not an architect, it's difficult for me to explain exact what Georgian architecture looks like. I sort of know it when I see it, just like I know an art deco building when I see one. The best way I can describe Georgian architecture style is formal, symmetric, and lots of rectangle windows in the front and a hint of Gothic.

Anyway, walking around Edinburgh city gave me a very relaxing feeling as if I was no longer in UK, something that many Scots yearn for. Scotland has been fighting for independence from UK for many years, and I'm sure they will continue to do so in the coming years. Who knows? Perhaps when I next come to Edinburgh in a few years time, I will really be in another country, not UK anymore. Same blue sky, different country. I hope not.

THE STREETS OF EDINBURGH

It's been a while since I've done so much walking, mainly because I haven't been out that much during Covid. Apart from meeting a friend, I had nothing else planned during my trip, and ended up walking aimlessly around the old town. To be honest I actually enjoyed that a lot as the area was so beautiful and wasn't packed with annoying tourists like myself. Plus the weather was absolutely gorgeous. I haven't seen the sky so blue for a long time. My friend told me the weather was exceptionally good those couple of days.

Victoria Street is probably one of the most, if not the prettiest streeet in Edinburgh city. Starting from the bottom of the street, it rises on a gentle slope and sweeps around slightly providing the perfect to angle for some great photo opportunties, which sadly for me, I missed the mark completely. On top of that, the cobble stone street and colourful shop fronts created that candy like picture making the street a very popular location for visitors.

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A bit futher away from Victoria Street is the High Street. The most prominent landmark here is the St Giles Cathedral (again that will be in another post) and the Adam Smith statue outside. Adam Smith was a Scottish economist and philosopher, often known as the father of modern economics. All economics students would know him. His most famous work is The Wealth of Nations written in 1776, where he talks about, amongst other things, the free market, division of labour and GDP. Pretty profound thoughts from over two centuries ago.

Walking around Edinburgh's Old Town, not only feels like you're not in UK, you also feel like you're not in modern day either. The place has so much history.

EDINBURGH AT NIGHT

I wasn't kidding when I said I was walking all day, ok minus the time I sat down for lunch and afternoon coffee, it was pretty much a walking tour from day to night. I got to the famous Edinburgh Castle in the evening, but not before I walked past the GhostBusTour black double decker bus. I think that is such a clever name. If you zoom in, you'll even see the hand in the front of the bus!!!!

Edinburgh Castle is perched on Castle Rock, which itself was created from a volcano eruption zillion of years ago. The castle is much younger by comparison, it's only about 800 years old. This is my third visit to Edinburgh, but I've never been inside the castle. There's always so much happening outside, particularly during the summer. Even when I got here at early evening, it was still quite busy because the view are quite spectacular up here.

I started my post with a selfie during the daytime in front of Scott Monument, another of Edinburgh's iconic landmark, so I thought I'll finish the post with another selfie at night time.

You can checkout all my travel post on the Pinmapple here or click on Mr Pinmapple below