Walk, Edinburgh, Queens Street & Princes Street

Walk, Edinburgh, Queens Street & Princes Street, Approximately 4.0 mile or 6.5 kilometres.

A minibus from the campsite dropped us in a back street (Charlotte Lane), where we walked through a passageway to Charlotte Square where we turned left and walked along Glenfinlas Street.  This led to Ainslie Places with its great Georgian terraces, we exited down Great Stuart Street into Moray Place with its even bigger Georgian terraces.  We exited on Heriot Row so we could walk through Queen Street Gardens but discovered they are for residents only and are locked.  So we ended up on Queen Street but in the shade it was very cold, so we headed to the relative shelter of busy George Street.

 

We headed east along George Street towards St Andrews Square and eventually the St James Shopping Centre.  After a quick look in the shops we came out and took some photos of the Nelson Monument and City Observatory, high on the hill to the east of the shopping centre.  We did consider walking up there but decided against it, instead we walked to the Old Town, over the North Bridge but as we had already done the Old Town we took a right down Cockburn Street and over Waverley Bridge back to Princes Street.

 

Opposite the train station we stopped for a rest by the Albert Memorial in Princes Street Gardens, then it was onto Princes Street and a look around a mockup of how new trams will look.  We then had another quick look in the some of the larger shops (I say quick look, Dot managed to buy two coats).

 

I was now feeling a bit peckish, so as we were close to the Hard Rock Cafe we went in to see what was on offer.  Well as you probably know, we operate on a tight budget and I was not very impressed with the prices in there, also the choice of beer was poor, so we had one beer and left.  We walked back to the east end of Princes Street and down Leith Street, along to where the cinema and theater are.  Here we found a pub called The Conan Doyle, where we had good beer and good food at reasonable prices.

 

We came out of the pub onto York Place, we headed west and turned left onto St Andrews Street and diagonally across St Andrews Square to Rose Street.  Rose Street runs parallel to George Street and Princes Street and as we had done the other two, we walked that way back to the pickup point.  We even had another beer in one of the many pubs (The Kenilworth) along this Street (it was my birthday after all).