So we did the Queen St walk yesterday, from Roncesvalles to Fallingbrook Rd (a little east of Victoria Park). The 14.2km took us five hours, although we did stop for breaks and I took a few pictures.

We caught the streetcar out west at 11:45am, and arrived at Roncesvalles around 12:30pm. I haven't been out in Queen West west since I moved out of my condo. The area reminds me a bit of Leslieville. Heather wouldn't mind returning to check out all the vintage clothing stores. Roncesvalles isn't that far west; we were surprised at how quickly we reached the Drake. Passed by Dufferin where the construction project to tunnel Dufferin under the tracks and remove the Dufferin jig is well under way.

We were getting hungry and stopped in at The Prague, a friendly little sandwich place at 638 Queen W. Heather had a turkey sandwich, and I tried the perogies. Both were excellent, although after seeing other people's food I had a hankering for the chicken schnitzel.

Back on the walk, it got really crowded with pedestrian traffic between Spadina and University. East of Yonge the foot traffic really dropped off. By the time we got to the Don Valley (which is about the halfway point as we later looked up) there was hardly anyone else on the street.

We stopped in at F'Coffee for a washroom break (and had a beer while we were there). The place has a very nice vibe. We usually only walk by later in the evening, so it was one of the few times we've had a chance to try it out.

Decided not to drop in at home along the way because we wanted to stay on Queen St. Pedestrian traffic picked up through Leslieville, and then got very busy again once we crossed Woodbine into the Beach.

Once out of the busy central part of the Beach, it becomes a nice little neighbourhood again (although too far from downtown for our liking)

I had though Queen St ended at Victoria Park, but it actually continues three side streets east until Fallingbrook, where it ends / starts unceremoniously (there is a nice apartment building called Queen's End though).

We walked back to Quigley's which has a large outdoor patio and had a beer to celebrate. It was starting to get cold, so we caught the next streetcar back home.

I took pictures of all the independent coffee shops on Queen St. There were more independents than chains through most of Queen St, except in the Beach where chain stores abound. Most of them were on the north side of the street (23 out of 31), I guess to take advantage of the sun. I tried in include only coffee shops that were primarily about coffee (and not a bistro or pub for example), but we didn't stop in at them so it was more a guess. I was also surprised that there weren't more people sitting outside sipping their coffee (which would have made the pictures look better).



Now we need to look up another street about 10km long to do another tour.