Day 3 in London
One of my favorite things about traveling to different cities is the adventure I get when I go on a run. I love getting to discover areas I would never see in a vehicle—as we drive by them too fast to notice, or they’re tucked away in places only a wanderer can find.
I awoke early and started the day with a morning run, heading towards Hyde Park, only knowing where I was going from a quick glance at a map in the dark hotel room. Many times, these are my favorite runs—no specific route, free to roam about.
I ran over the Serpentine, with the sun glistening off of the water, Kensington Palace standing in the distance and the fountains flowing. Lots of cyclists and runners out for 7:30 am, the park was beautiful, clean and had numerous helpful maps—although I still managed to get ‘lost’ and had to run fast back to the hotel since I told Todd I’d be gone 30 to 40 minutes and time was ticking.
I met Todd in the conservatory for our morning breakfast date. He only briefly mentioned the breakfast in the last blogpost, but I could rave on and on about it.
Seriously, I was in breakfast heaven— croissants the size of my head, hearty muesli, cheese, yogurts, toast, coffee, orange juice…I ate (at least) one of everything to give me the energy for a day full of sightseeing.
Day 3 consisted of us trekking all over London to Buckingham Palace, St. James Park, Tower Bridge & Notting Hill.
We arrived at Buckingham Palace accidentally/coincidentally at the same time the changing of the guard takes place…ie: super duper busy and crowded. We’d heard that it’s not really that ‘exciting’ to watch, so we just took a few pictures (had to get a jumpshot in), and then we left.
The Royal Marching Band was warming up nearby, so we watched them….
…and then found a park bench in St. James Park where we sat and just watched people for an hour or so and talked. September is a great time to be in London, the weather was absolutely beautiful the entire time we were there, and I never felt like it was overrun with tourists (disregarding the Palace craziness).
Party foul: I caught Todd playing solitaire on his mobile device. He’s never really “on vacation”. (sigh).
This is London Bridge:
A slight disappointment for me until I realized that the nursery rhyme says “London Bridge is FALLING DOWN, FALLING DOWN….”, so apparently the important one ‘fell down’ a long time ago and they replaced it with that boring 20th century structure.
And this is Tower Bridge:
MUCH cooler. We probably took a couple hundred pictures of it; I love the architectural grandeur, bright turquoise support beams and intricate detailing of it.
Also along the Thames riverfront sits a hard-boiled egg, I mean…the London City Hall, another architectural marvel.
We headed back across the Thames by the Tower of London. This dude was built in the year 1078. That’s OLD. Trying to comprehend that makes my head hurt.
Moving on, we paused for awhile at a WWI & WWII memorial park to honor tens of thousands of soldiers who lost lives in those wars. It was an eerily peaceful place right in the middle of the bustling financial district.
The ‘Gherkin’, Swiss Re Insurance London headquarters. Quite the juxtaposition of such a crisp, modern building nestled amongst the historic Old London buildings.
The security guard really did not like Todd getting close to take this picture. I think he almost got arrested.
By this time, we’d been walking around all day and it was time for our afternoon pub time, so we hopped on the Tube to Notting Hill. We got a window seat at a corner pub, a couple beers & cider, and hung out there for the evening before walking back to our ‘home’.
No dinner, just tea & biscuits (cookies). Guess that’s one way to save money. Todd’s still napping and I just watched a Steven Seagal movie. Time for bed.
That’s right, we’re crazy fun like that.