The Edinburgh Insider Blog

What better place in the world than Edinburgh to say goodbye to 2009 and hello 2010? With its Harry Potter architecture, famous Midnight Fireworks and street party excitement, the city is the perfect backdrop to spectacular New Year's celebrations. Tickets for Edinburgh's Hogmanay 2010 went on sale earlier this month. Full details are available here. 

The name Edinburgh Castle can be misleading, since it's not so much a single castle as a complex of buildings from different eras. One of these is the oldest surviving building in Edinburgh, St Margaret's Chapel, which dates back to the early 12th century.

With the opening of the John Hope Gateway Centre, the Royal Botanic Gardens of Edinburgh has acquired a world-class biodiversity and visitor centre that is already drawing the crowds. The Gateway project, housed at the Gardens' West Gate on Arboretum Place, is home to a restaurant, shop, science studio, interactive media, plant sales, education rooms and exhibitions. It's the perfect destination for a weekend stroll or family day out.

Anyone visiting Edinburgh with kids - or, indeed, anyone with an interest in animals and animal conservation - will enjoy visiting the Budongo Trail at Edinburgh Zoo.

The annual Edinburgh Doors Open Day (Sept 26-27) gave people the chance to see for free dozens of landmark city buildings, ranging from police stations to dance studios, monuments to geological surveys, and caves to paper-making premises. Many of the buildings are normally out of bounds to the public or would charge for entrance, so this was a rare opportunity to explore more of Edinburgh's heritage.

The Bruntsfield area of Edinburgh probably has the highest concentration of writers anywhere in the world. That is, with the possible exceptions of London's Hampstead and Manhattan's Upper West Side, which also have higher-than-average numbers of writers in their midst. Respected authors including Alexander McCall Smith, JK Rowling, Ian Rankin, Nicola Morgan and crime writer Lin Anderson all live in and around Bruntsfield and neighbouring Merchiston.

Edinburgh cyclists may have more than their fair share of hills, wind and rain to contend with. But they do enjoy the advantage of an extensive off-road cycle path network considered to be among the best in the UK.

Last month the network gained an important new section, dubbed by some as its 'missing link', when the Rodney Street Tunnel to the north of the New Town area re-opened as a cycle path and walk way. The re-opening came forty years after trains stopped using the tunnel.

Edinburgh's most iconic concert hall has at last re-opened its doors to the public. The saucer-shaped roof of the Usher Hall is no longer hidden under scaffolding; earlier this month it emerged from its dust, tarpaulin and ladders. Just in time for the Edinburgh International Festival. Inside the Grade A-listed building are wonderful new facilities. Perhaps most notably, the vast spiral staircase that connects - for the first time - all the levels. The massive refurbishment project - not yet quite complete, as the Portakabins remaining outside can testify - is turning the well-loved Victorian building into a state-of-the-art facility for the 21st century.