Postcards From Edinburgh, Scotland

Luckily I got a golden chance to visit Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland, just before the coronavirus lockdown. Home of antiquated and romantic castles, starkly beautiful landscapes, incredible old buildings, and structures, Scotland never disappoints its visitors resulting in finding itself in the bucket list of numerous travellers. And for a person like me, who is from India and grew up watching Bollywood movies, Scotland holds a special place in my bucket list too. Used as a location for many Bollywood songs, no doubt Scotland attracts many tourists every year from India.

About Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital and the second-most populous city in Scotland. Though Edinburgh is best known for its summer festivals and Hogmanay parties, but this city has a lot to offer at any time of the year. The Capital’s charm is clearly visible in wide streets and Georgian mansions of the New Town and Gothic buildings and cobbled streets of the old town.

Steeped in culture and history, and teeming with a range of stunning architecture, Edinburgh is also popular as one of the UK’s most beautiful cities and offers everyone to enjoy and admire its beauty with an organic mixture of architecture ranging from gothic to the Ultra-modern.

Read here about our visit to Cotswolds - the most picturesque village in England.

One fact that people might not know that Edinburgh’s nickname is Auld Reekie (Old Smoky). This comes from the time that coal and wood were predominately burnt for heating, filling the air of the city with smoke.

The city hosts a series of festivals that run between the end of July and early September each year. The best known of these events are the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the Edinburgh International Festival, the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, the Edinburgh Art Festival, and the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Our visit to Edinburgh

As mentioned earlier, I visited Edinburgh with my family just before lockdown. It was not planned but was rather a trip out of necessity. In fact, we were there to apply for a Schengen VISA for our Europe trip (which we had to cancel because of the coronavirus outbreak)  because we couldn’t get an appropriate appointment in London VFS center.

Sometimes unplanned trips are more fun than planned ones. I must say that our three-day excursion in rainy and chilly weather was rather amazing.

Although the chill and rain made the excursion a little bit uncomfortable, on the positive note this Scottish winter weather just added a flavor of adventure to our visit. 

Best shots of Edinburgh

• Photo ©The Blissful Aura

Edinburgh’s New Town, viewed from Edinburgh Castle

The New Town is the central area of Edinburgh. You can see the tram running through the town above. I loved how this city still retains its history and old buildings. It’s certainly a masterpiece of city planning - built in stages during the 18th century and maintained much of its originality of elegant neo-classical and Georgian period architecture. We captured this view from Edinburgh Castle. I must say that the castle grounds provide some very nice views of the city below.

• Photo ©The Blissful Aura

Edinburgh Castle - the Entrance

Hybrid of architectural styles and visual delights, Edinburgh Castle is the most visited place in Edinburgh. We visited this Castle on our first day of the trip. Ironically, the poor weather helped us to get tickets quickly otherwise people generally have to wait in a long queue to get them if they haven’t booked them online. It wasn’t much crowded that day thanks again to the cold weather.

• Photo ©The Blissful Aura

Scottish National war memorial

This is a beautiful war memorial within Edinburgh Castle and displays the Rolls of Honour of Scots servicemen and women from all the Armed Services, the Dominions, Merchant Navy, Women’s Services, Nursing Services, and civilian casualties of all wars from 1914 to date. The National War Memorial for Scotland, Established by the Royal Charter was to commemorate the sacrifice of Scots in the Great War, Second World War, and subsequent conflicts. Photography is not allowed inside the memorial. This whole picture is the combination of three different shots that we took to capture the glory of this museum in one frame.

• Photo ©The Blissful Aura

Night view of Edinburgh Castle

As you can see above, the night view of Edinburgh Castle is a view to behold. This view was captured from the outlook tower of Camera Obscura which is open for visitors until 9:00 pm. Keeping this in mind, we planned to visit the Camera Obscura on our last day of the trip and especially in the evening. And we did manage to get this beautiful night view of the Edinburgh Castle from the rooftop of Camera Obscura.

Photo ©The Blissful Aura

Photo ©The Blissful Aura

Photo ©The Blissful Aura

The Royal Mile runs through the heart of Edinburgh’s Old Town, connecting the magnificent Edinburgh Castle, perched high on a base of volcanic rock, with the splendorous Palace of Holyroodhouse, resting in the shadow of Arthur’s Seat. If you simply walk straight down the Royal Mile without stopping it would probably take you around 15 to 20 minutes to reach from one end to the other end. It is a really interesting walk where you can witness Scottish culture in many forms, shops with Scottish souvenirs, Scottish bagpipers, and people showing off their unconventional pets.

• Photo ©The Blissful Aura

National museum of Scotland, Edinburgh

If you are visiting this city with kids, do not miss the opportunity to visit the National Museum of Scotland. The best part is that entry is free in this museum. If you want to explore the diversity of the natural world, world cultures, science and technology, art, design and fashion, and Scottish history, all under one roof then this the place to go. This the exterior of this museum that we captured after our museum visit was over.

• Photo ©The Blissful Aura

Street photography, Edinburgh

When you roam around this city, you can’t stop your self but to click some random pictures. If you love street photography you will get plenty of outstanding picturesque view to capture in your camera in this city. We clicked many street pictures and this one was one of the best. 

• Photo ©The Blissful Aura

Rock Garden, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh

I have seen many postcards pictures in my childhood days with a beautiful garden, waterfall, plants and flowers. As a kid, I assumed that I would never able to see it for real. The rock garden is one such attraction at the Royal Botanic Garden that one should never miss. The small waterfall falling from height and water flowing calmly down the garden is a scene to behold.

• Photo ©The Blissful Aura

Camera Obscura, Edinburgh

Camera Obscura and the Word of Illusions is one of the popular places and fun attractions in Edinburgh. I found this place best for kids to enjoy if you are looking for indoor attraction. In the winter season with a sudden nip in temperature and continuous drizzling it’s difficult to roam outside in this city. Camera Obscura is a five-floor building of crazy optical illusions. We saved this place for the last day of our trip - just two hours before boarding to our return bus to London.

• Photo ©The Blissful Aura

New Town, Edinburgh

This is one of the best night views of this city we captured during our last day of the trip. Though this city is full of visual delights which you can easily see during day time, in the night with glittering lights every where, the beauty of this city gets enhanced manifolds. It would have been a crime if we did not capture this beauty in our camera.