Edinburgh, Scotland is another one of Europe's truly great cities, a place noted for historic
sites and modern culture that makes it one of the most popular destinations in the world.
(crowd cheers) The main street that visitors love to see
is the Royal Mile, loaded with shops, restaurants, statues, monuments, and great old buildings
and lots of street entertainment to please the crowds.
The pub culture is alive and well here, a great place for a drink and to meet some locals.
You can eat in a fancy restaurant from a variety of international cuisines.
Or go casual with fish and chips, and you can even stand up on the street and needed
like these young locals do.
Fish and chips has been a standard meal in England for hundreds of years and it's still
very popular today.
You can find it all over town.
Perhaps not the healthiest meal, but very tasty and you don't have to dress up for dinner.
It seems that the Royal Mile is just one restaurant after another, mixed in with a few shops and
old historic buildings.
It is just the place to hang out when you're in Edinburgh .
Protestant reformer John Knox lived here, and his house is open as one of the small
museums on the Royal Mile..
Cockburn Street is another one of those fun places that you want to come back to several
times in your visit, and it connects the Old Town with the New Town.
Edinburgh Castle, of course, is the most famous site in Edinburgh, a must for every visitor
and it will not disappoint.
You can easily spend two hours on the visit exploring the many rooms filled with historical
artifacts and reenactments of life in the past.
Located high up on Castle Rock, you get a great view looking down from the castle into
the city.
From down below, looking up, you get that iconic postcard view of the castle up on its
rock, impenetrable fortress.
Princess Gardens are a delight to stroll through.
You don't want to just look at them from the street.
Get on down into the pathway and enjoy the floral displays.
Sunny weather always brings out the local crowd.
Next to the gardens, you'll find Princes Street.
It's the main street of downtown modern Edinburgh, always a busy place.
It's got department stores a lot of little shops, and a wide sidewalk to handle the crowds.
You'll find it's a great place to spend your money and purchase authentic woolen goods.
This new side of town is also loaded with historical buildings.
Called the New Town, it was created in the late 18th century to provide housing for the
growing community which had gotten very crowded in the Old Town.
With construction of the New Town natives of Edinburgh now had the best of both worlds,
the majestic old downtown with sturdy buildings that continue to function as their business
center and home for workers, and a brand new residential area for the affluent, well-designed
with spacious homes and gardens.And you can get a big dose of history in the National
Museum of Scotland, which is loaded with natural history and cultural artifacts.
This is one of the top museum experiences you can find in the British Isles.
If you like art history, then the National Gallery is another must place to visit.
Admission is free, but the collection is priceless.
You’ve got masterworks by Velasquez and Rembrandt, Gauguin, and other great painters.
The other very popular historical museum is a short bus ride out into the suburbs to Leith,
which is a beautiful waterfront community.
You will enjoy those reflections and a stroll, arriving at the Britannia, the Royal yacht
of Queen Elizabeth.
You are of course welcome to come aboard.
You pay your admission fee.
And it's like the queen just stepped out for a moment.
The furnishings are just the way she left them.
The yacht is now retired, no longer in active duty, but it went around the world many times
in the service of the royalty.
It’s docked at a modern shopping mall, so you can browse around.
Maybe get a bite, spend some money, and then get back on the public bus for the fifteen-minute
return ride to town.
That was a quick summary of things to see in Edinburgh, which could be done comfortably
in three days: on day one, Royal Mile and castle, day two, New Town, National Museum
of History, and shopping, day three, to the Royal yacht Britannia at waterfront Leith,
then the National Gallery of Art and free time.
Of course, in between all of these wonderful attractions your main activity is just the
sheer pleasure of walking around in this beautiful city.