In the city of Edinburgh, capital of Scotland

 "... For auld lang syne, my dear

For Auld Lang Syne
We'll take a cup of kindness yet
For auld lang syne...."
-- lyrics from "Auld Lang Syne, a popular Scottish song written by Robert Burns in 1788
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(in southeastern Scotland) The city of Edinburgh, with its history, culture, and non-stop festivals, is packed with things to do around the clock. An easy way to get to know the city is by taking a long walk around the center to see the World Heritage Sites in Old Town, trendy shops and restaurants in New Town, and the museums and galleries in both. {Take a break for afternoon tea and scones at a cozy tea room or duck into a traditional pub to grab a bite and a drink.) And, should you find yourself at a festival, the city has many of them: from live music performances in the summer to traditional Burns Night celebrations honoring the poet Robert Burns (complete with bagpipes, haggis, and whisky (in the winter).

+ The capital of Scotland, the city of Edinburgh, with its center near the southern shore of the Firth of Forth (an arm of the North Sea that thrusts westward into the Scottish Lowlands), and its immediate surroundings constitute an independent council area.

+ Edinburgh has been a military stronghold, the capital of an independent country, and a center of intellectual activity. Although it has repeatedly experienced the vicissitudes of fortune, the city has always renewed itself. Today it is the seat of the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Executive, and it remains a major center for finance, law, tourism, education, and cultural affairs.

+ The medieval Old Town and the Neoclassical New Town were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1995. The contrasts that make Edinburgh unique also make it typically Scottish, for, despite its reserved exterior, it is also a city capable of great warmth and even gaiety. Historically, its citizens have also been capable of great passion, especially in matters royal or religious. In 1561, for example, a mob spurred by the fiery Protestant preacher John Knox tried to break into the private chapel in the Palace of Holyroodhouse, where Mary, Queen of Scots (1542–67), newly returned from France, was attending a Roman Catholic mass. In 1637 a riot in the cathedral of St. Giles in protest against a new service book provoked a Scottish revolt against Charles I. It precipitated the War of the Three Kingdoms, which engulfed the whole of Britain in the 1640s and ended in Charles’s execution.

+ Some 600 feet (180 meters) north of Castle Rock, across the valley now Princes Street Gardens, lies the New Town, a district planned and built in successive phases between 1767 and 1833. It offers a dignified tribute to the international taste of the Enlightenment and to the surveyor’s set square. Its design was overly regular to begin with, but later developments paid more respect to natural contours and softened the regimentation of the right angle with curves and crescents.