London on foot...a great way to explore.

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London walking tour
Museums, parks and statues
I have tired feet.

I had a really good sleep last night. Must be because I had my own room and no squeaky bunk beds or noisy dorm mates to wake me up! So as you can imagine I slept in. 😊 Not too much though. Only til 9:30.

Richard drew up a bit of a touristy plan to go on since it all seemed a bit overwhelming to me. Plus I was tired and it was really starting to feel like homework to me to draw up a plan of places to go. We were ready and on the road about 10:30 and caught the bus that was just across the street and went down High Street Kensington, past Piccadily Circus and got off at Trafalgar Square. Along the way we saw a few monuments like the Marble Arch and various other War Memorials…lots of them! From Trafalgar Square we walked to the National Gallery. There was a bit of a queue to get in because they were a bit disorganized with their bag screen process. We eventually get in and wander around looking at the paintings. Most don’t really interest me that much. I’d say the most recognizable would have to be Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” painting. . Yup, either I really don’t appreciate paintings or I’m getting burned out and don’t really care all that much at the moment.

We then walked by Canada House and then onwards to Buckingham Palace. Huge crowds because the Palace is open for tours the next two months. I’m not willing to shell out £13.50 for a chance to see a few rooms. Actually I wasn’t impressed with the exterior of Buckingham Palace at all. It looks quite boxy and kind of like a municipal office building because of its boxiness. I must add that the Queen was in the Palace since the flag was flying but it’s not like she was standing in the window waving at us or anything. lol.

From Buckingham Palace we walked through Green Park, St. James Park, past Kensington Palace,10 Downing Street, Horse Guard Grounds and Westminster Abbey, opted not to go in since the weather was so nice and thought walking around outside would be a nicer option especially since it rained last night.

Hmm, what are some other sights that we walked through…Hyde Park, Soho, Oxford Street which the is place to go for shopping, St. James Cathedral where we sat down to eat our Japanese take away and I bumped into Cate, who I met on tour in Scotland, and her mom. What a small world! We also checked out Leicster Square which sort of reminded me of Times Square in New York, Chinatown where I bumped into Maria! I met Maria while traveling down from Edinburgh back to London. I had another case of that small World feeling. Our last stop of the day was at the British Museum where we only checked out a few select collections like the Greeks & Romans and Egyptians. It is absolutely huge at the British Museum and the glass roof enclosure was simply amazing.

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Photos

Richard in St. James Park...
but don't quote me on that! lol