I had all intentions of starting the day off with the 10:45 London Walk’s “Royal Tour”, but the headache I woke up with told me otherwise (I should have stuck to beer, no more wine). So, after sleeping in a bit, I headed out around 11:00 to Piccadilly Circus.
Piccadilly’s not too much to speak of, it really is just a very busy intersection with a bunch of billboards—a small scale Times Square—but a site to see nonetheless. From there I walked down Regent Street to Pall Mall and came to the far more impressive Trafalgar Square.
I spent some time walking around the fountains, talking pictures of the column, avoiding pigeons. I was set to visit St. Martin-in-the-Fields, but was dismayed to find it under construction and completely hidden by scaffolding.
I tried to find Craven Street to see the one time home of Ben Franklin, but couldn’t, so I turned back to the Square and visited the National Gallery.
The Gallery has a very cool feature where you can enter your interests into a computer which then prints out a personalized tour to help you navigate through the giant museum. I selected the “Highlights Tour”, but most of the highlighted paintings were, for some unknown reason, it rooms that were closed “until further notice”.
Regretting my two pound donation to the Gallery, I left the museum and headed down Whitehall to St. James’ Park, which surprisingly became one of my favorite places. The park is beautiful, and a nice, peaceful break from the buzz of the City.
I stopped for a sandwich and watched the birds for a while. Then headed to Buckingham Palace.
Arriving at the palace I was glad that I skipped the early morning tour.....
After viewing the palace, and watching the guards, I got myself royally lost looking for Hyde Park.
Well, I came to Wellington Arch, and was disappointed to learn that I couldn’t go up to the top as I had heard.
Then I realized that I wasn’t in Hyde Park, but Green Park. I consulted my A-Z, then was again on my way.
Hyde Park was stunning.
It was the last day of November, and the Rose Garden was still in bloom! I watched the Winter Carnival being set up, then wandered along the Serpentine taking in the views. I made my way to the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain which was deserted at the time, but I can imagine it being full with playing children in the summertime.
By this time it had started to rain, heavily, so I started off towards the nearest tube station when, to my surprise, I stumbled upon all the glitz that is Harrods! The pictures just don’t do it justice—the lights, the trees, the windows—what a fabulous end to my day’s journey.
I headed off back to the hotel to dry off and meet up with Dan for dinner.
We hit the White Hart Pub on Bishopsgate Road for proper British pub fare—fish and chips for me and a meat platter for Dan, not to mention a few pints.
Went back to the Hoxton nicely stuffed and buzzed, and drifted immediately to sleep.
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