Wednesday Walk around Edinburgh town centre on a lovely sunny sunday

A few sundays ago my wife and I had a lovely walk around Edinburgh town centre taking in some of the sights.

We started of by walking to an area of town called Dean Village, which is close to where we live (its halfway between us and the town centre). The iconic building above is located there. I just love the rose/pink colour of the brick work and the typically scottish styling to that building. It also has a beautiful courtyard inside it, but we didnt venture in as we didnt want to disturb the people that live there.

A little further along we had this nice view over the 'Water of Leith' which is the main river that flows through Edinburgh. The building on the left used to be a mill, and then you can see the lovely church high on the hill in the background. It was a beautiful blue skies autumn day, and fairly warm for this time of year.

We kept making our way towards town. Behind Charlotte Square we got a nice view of the Scottish Records building (centre) and the Hotel Du Vin (a French Pub) on the left - I really like the odd mix of styles there with the french-faux-period-medieval building.

Taking the shortcut to Charlotte Square we then got a lovely view of the front of the Scottish National records Building with its lovely green copper dome shining in the morning sunshine.

The park above is in the centre of Charlotte Square and was covered in autumn leaves. The Scottish First Minister's formal house (our presidential house if you like) is also in the same Square in the row of houses at the back of the square you see above.

From there we made our way to Rose Street, which is a nice alleyway that runs between the grand streets of Princes Street and George Street. Its famed for having a ton of pubs along it (around 40 or so). This lovely mosaic was at the entrance to the street.

While there we had a look around a record store that had newly opened. I loved this T-shirt design they had on display (above). Button moon was a kids programme here in the UK when I was a child and I love this parody of it with the famous Pink Floyd album cover !

We were making our way to a new gallery space that had opened up in one of the Scottish Gallery buildings in the centre of town. Its actually below the building you see above. They have opened a new permanent exhibition of important Scottish artworks. It was absolutely stunning, and stupidly I never took a single picture !

Part of Princes Street gardens lie directly adjacent to the gallery, and the ferris wheel had been put up ready for the christmas market, next to the Scott monument (to the right).

From there we clumb up the steps that go up 'The Mound' and take us towards the royal mile. I caught this moody view of New College which is one of my fav buildings here. It houses the School of Divinity for the University of Edinburgh.

Making our way to the Royal Mile, we passed the headquarters for the Bank of Scotland (above). And no, they didnt lend me any cash to spend on HIVE - the skin-flints.

We quickly took in the view of the stunning St Giles cathedral up on the royal mile. My daughters Christmas school choir service will be held there later in December - we are really looking forward to it already !

We then made our way up George the 4th bridge towards the Museum of Scotland (above). Our intended objective was actually the great ice-cream shop across the road from it (which I again failed to take a picture of) !

As we started making our way home this flock of pigeons suddenly descended pretty much on top of my wife. I thought they were going to take her away - but I had no such luck !

From there we dropped down into the Grassmarket via the old Flodden Wall (Edinburgh's old city walls - not much of it remains now) where we were treated to a view up to part of the castle, which sits a the high point in the centre of the city.

We then started heading home and caught a nice view of the building above which used to house the Point Hotel. Its still a hotel but has changed name now, but what a stunning building it is.

We had a great day out wandering around the town. The gallery was great and we enjoyed the ice cream, plus we probably walked about 4 miles or so by the time we got home, so it was also great from an exercise perspective.

That wraps up my Wednesday walk for this week. All the best from Scotland !