Edinburgh is the City of Enlightenment - Scotland

This picture is taken from Edinburgh Castle

Never have I felt so peaceful visiting a place like Edinburgh. The city is neither too big to enable you to navigate on your own nor it is too small to bore your visit. As a capital of Scotland and the second largest city after Glasgow, Edinburgh is endowed with its rich culture, incredible history, legendary romance, fine architecture and home of the prestigious University of Edinburgh. Hence, it is not surprising that tourism is a major business here and its popularity is second after London. In early spring, the city is just nice and not so crowded like summer. Millions of people flooded the city in summer to enjoy the world’s largest Edinburgh Festival. 

We stayed not far from the famous Edinburgh castle, which is pretty close to the Scottish parliament building and The National Gallery of Scotland.  In the evening before sunset we enjoyed rambling all over the city in the cool spring weather. From Princess Street we began our walk across the garden and climbed up the countless stairs to Edinburgh Castle. Arriving on the hilltop, we stopped to catch a breath and our eyes were hypnotized by the panoramic view of Edinburgh city! 

After a short rest and picture taking, we started descending the hills, walking towards the west where the financial hub of Edinburgh’s economy is located. The row of office buildings typified the unique Scottish architecture combining the old and new dimensions. Not only for its great architecture, but Scotland is also well known as the home of the world’s renowned economic scholar, Adam Smith and several other enlightened scholars of the 18th century. On the high street of Edinburgh, Smith’s bronze statute stands proudly and the UK banknotes commemorate Smith, making him the first Scot to be featured on English banknotes. His theory of free market remains in the minds of every economic being. 

“To feel much for others and little for ourselves; to restrain our selfishness and exercise our benevolent affections, constitute the perfection of human nature.” (Adam Smith)