Princes Street

Description:

• If the Royal Mile is the life vein of the Old City, then Princes Street is its equivalent in the New Town. Just a short walk from the Old City, Princes Street extends from Lothian Road to Leith Street and is home to numerous tourist sights and museums. It can be seen from Edinburgh Castle. With dozens of high-end retail stores aligning it, including the uniquely Scottish department store Jenners, Princes Street is a fashion diva's heaven. During the Christmas season, a ferris wheel and amusement park are erected, and locals and tourists alike peruse through the annual German market for unique holiday gifts like nutcrackers and delicious German pastries and sausages. Next to the street are the two sections of the beautiful Princes Street gardens. Here, students and locals often gather to play football, picnic during the summer or listen to concerts at the Ross Theatre. In between the two sections of the gardens lies the Mound, an artificial hill that connects the old and new cities. Here, two of country's best art galleries are located: the Royal Scottish Academy Building and the adjacent National Gallery of Scotland. Both exhibit masterpieces from Titian to Rembrandt and are worth seeing. Fans of the cult-hit film Trainspotting will recognize this location from the opening scene of the movie, where Mark Renton (Ewan McGregor) is chased by security guards.
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