Edinburgh climbs a volcanic spine from the Firth of Forth, with the Castle on its crag at one end and Holyrood Palace at the other, and the Royal Mile running between them down the ridge the glaciers left behind. It is a city that makes you look up: tall tenements, black stone, turrets, spires and, on a clear day, the green hump of Arthur's Seat rising out of the middle of the town like something the builders forgot to level. The old town and new town together form a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with the Georgian grid of the New Town contrasting sharply with the medieval jumble of the Old.
For a motorcyclist it is a city of two halves. The centre is a challenge, with cobbles, tram works, buses, bus lanes and a one-way system that seems to be designed by someone who disliked the idea of arriving. Parking for motorbikes is reasonably good, with designated bays in the centre, but be prepared for rain, wind and a surface that can be slick in the wet, especially the cobbled streets around the Grassmarket and the old town. Edinburgh is famously windy, and bridges across the Forth can be tricky on a blowy day.
Practicalities are easy. With nearly half a million people, the city has all the fuel, food, coffee and bed you could want, and the outskirts such as Colinton offer a quieter, leafier base. The Water of Leith walkway runs through a wooded gorge into the heart of town and is a pleasant place to unwind, while the Dean Village, with its stone mills and bridge, looks more like a hidden hamlet than a corner of a capital.
Edinburgh has a long literary and scientific history, from Robert Louis Stevenson and Walter Scott to the Enlightenment philosophers who made the city a centre of European thought in the eighteenth century. The Festival in August fills every pavement and doubles the price of everything, so if you are planning a stay then, book early. The food is better than the old stereotypes suggest, though a pie and a pint is still a perfectly decent lunch.
Heading south from here, the Pentland Hills and the Borders open up quickly and give a very different picture, so the city is both a destination and a gateway.