Kew to Hammersmith

The last and final walk... and I'm not just posting this now because I saved the walk until the very bitter end. Nooooooo, I am no procrastinator. Well maybe I didn't used to be. Anyyyyyways. This walk was actually alright! Anytime I get to be enjoying a view of the Thames, it is a good time, even though this wasn't my favorite part of it. It had a strange smell to it that I didn't particularly enjoy. The highlight of the walk was probably the beach houses at the end. It felt a little bit like a beach in California, but I liked it for different reasons. The beach homes were simply perfect. They were lovely and quaint, and everything you could ever hope for in a beach home. The fronts were even overtaken with fresh, full, purple lilacs, or "those purple things" as Brenden so wisely referred to them. This area had a different feel to it. At the very end by the Hammersmith stop I felt like I was back in the city, but during it didn't feel like I was. It was far enough away to have a smaller feeling to it, which was slightly appealing. I cannot say I'm mad that these walks are over and done with. It has been lovely, and it is even more so now!

Walks Final

The City East  A favorite of mine because of the atmosphere of the general area. We went at lunch time when at the business men and women were venturing out in their business attire to find lunch, and I loved seeing everyone like that. The area was clean, the architecture was diverse but incredible, and the Tower of London at the end of the walk was a perfect way to end it.

Fleet Street and St. Pauls. As I look back through the walks I have completed, I am realizing that we did the majority of them at night, and the night time ones were usually my favorite. This one is another example of that. Seeing St. Pauls all lit up was brilliant. I liked this one for the inspiring pubs. I use the word inspiring because they housed major literary figures in their most productive days, and I love that atmosphere. I love walking in to a pub and knowing that it was there that masterpieces were created.

Central Parks A day time walk that was absolutely gorgeous. This walk introduced me to a whole stream of parks I had no idea about. The St. James park for example, I didn't even know it existed, so to get to spend time in it was gorgeous. We did this walk on one of the first nice days, so it got me excited for Spring.

Lambeth and the South Bank was my favorite walk. We did this walk at night, in our favorite area, and I suppose that is why it is my favorite. Seeing everything lit up was fantastic. Big Ben is even more splendid at night than it is during the day, and I didn't even think that was possible.

Even though these walks seemed like a chore at times, I really am glad I did them. It was so neat to get out and explore different areas of the city that I would not normally go. Doing this helped me to find neat little places that I later went back to and enjoyed again. This definitely added to my London experience and helped me to get to know the city better.

Regent's Park

The Regent's Park Walk. What do I have to say about the Regent's Park walk? Regent's Park, and it's sister park, Primrose Hill are almost as beautiful as my sister, and that is saying A LOT. We did this walk when I was I'm quite sure, the most tired I have ever been. I think I had achieved sleeping a total of about 10 hours in three nights combined, and it was showing on this day (feel free to mock how gross I look, I won't even be mad). It took everything in my power, and Brenden's for that matter, but we got there! The moment I saw the park I forgot about how tired I was. This place was beautiful. At the beginning of the walk was  Regent's Park Road with cute little cafes and shops, and you could tell what kind of an area this was just from the cars parked out from. I don't think I saw one that wasn't nice, or worth less than $35, 000.
Into Primrose Hill Park we went first, and I wanted to cry when I saw the hill I had to climb up, but I suppose that panoramic view was worth it. We kept ourselves entertained with talk of the London Zoo and it's animals, as we made our way into the Broad Walk of Regent's Park. So lovely, so gorgeous. Now that Spring is here, everything is that much better, and the green colors in this park are the perfect examples of that. From Hanover Terrace right down to Cambridge Terrace, all of them named from titles held by various members of the royal family during the reign of George IV. I was sufficiently awe struck. Each one was grand in it's own early nineteenth century glory, and John Nash, the architect behind them, well he seemed to know exactly what he was doing. We managed to reach the end of the walk without me collapsing or falling asleep, we were enlightened, and our eyes were pleased with the sights they had seen, so I will mark it down as a success.

Westminster and St. James

This walk came at the most perfect time. It is not often I find myself worrying, and I certainly don't admit to it, but this is one time I will confess, I was full on worried. Not worried I wasn't going to finish the walk or worried I'd starve along the way or anything, just worried that I am leaving in two weeks. Have I seen enough of London? Have I experienced enough of the incredible cultural aspects? Did I write enough down? Am I going to remember it? This was the raging state of my mind. It hit me that it might be awhile before I am back here, and I have a lot of things I need to remember, ya know? So I strapped on my little red sneakers, grabbed my walking partner, and we embarked, down to my favorite area of London, down along the bank. The moment we stepped out of the underground I knew I was going to be ok. Big Ben was staring me right in the face. Big Ben in all it's London, English, European glory. I breathed in a huge sigh of relief, I live in London!

 

 This walk got even better as we made our way into Horse Guards Parade, where some horse exchange thinga-ma-jig was going down. I'm sorry I cannot tell you what it was, just some changing of horses, but all I know is at this point my London blues were long gone. This did it for me. Followed by glimpses of St. James Park (perhaps my favorite), Buckingham Palace (no, the Queen was not in, I did check) and Queen Anne's Gate. The architecture here? Exceptional. It is amazing how much they knew what they were doing in the 1800s. If they created all of that glory with none of the modern technology we have today, what are we doing in North America with such hideous, bland buildings? 

Made our way back to Westminster Station, grinned a bit over a successful English-filled morning, and then I headed home because judging by my forehead wrinkles in the photos I spared you from seeing, I had a lot more work waiting for me. Blasted Sonnets :)

Notting Hill

Bankside and Southwark

We just got home from completing this walk, and I am satisfied with the results. The walk took us along the Thames, and any time I get to be down there I am a happy walker. It truly has become my favorite area of London. I have spent a great amount of time down on this bank, but not this side of it, so this was a new experience for me. We started off by crossing Blackfriars Bridge, erected in 1869. We got across the river, descended the steps to our next point on the walk, and the riverside walk was closed. Fortunately I was the fearless tour guide this time and so we maneuvered our way through the detour and got back on track. I hadn't seen St. Pauls Cathedral very well in the daylight, and there it was staring me right in the face, such a neat building. The Tate Modern, Cardinals Wharf, and Provost Landing were the main points here. The Tate Modern being my favorite of the three, I can't wait to go back and actually go inside this modern gallery. We spent a bit of time exploring the Naughty Place, no folks, don't get any funky ideas, this is simply an area along the bank. Called 'The Naughty Place' until the 1600s, it is simply a neat little alley full of taverns and brothels. Alas, the Globe was in sight, and this had been what I was looking forward to most. It was neat to go through the bear-baiting arena and the original sight of the Globe. I felt like this walk was the most windy of all of them. We were going in and out of little alleys and different areas, it was confusing at times but we made it through and were able to see a lot of really neat things. I only wish I had more information on some of them as I was going. We didn't go on a day when Borough market was open, so I vowed to go back, have since done that, and would definitely recommend going. I tried every tester in that place and it almost satisfied the raging Costco craving I have had for the last four months (I acknowledge that it is kind of creepy how much I like that place). The Tower Bridge was the last point on this walk, and I'm glad they saved the best for the last. The Tower Bridge is a landmark, built in 1894 and still as precious and ornate as ever. This is London!

Fleet Street and St. Pauls (The City West)

Forgive me, the rest of my pictures have failed me. As you can see, we chose to do this walk at night, and I am glad. Seeing St. Paul's Cathedral standing their, lit up definitely inspired me to learn more about Sir Christopher Wren. He was obviously brilliant if he can create a masterpiece like this. 

Seeing pubs such as this, 'Ye Old Cheshire Cheese', is one of my favorite things. I am a total pub person, not in the sense that I frequent them to drink and watch a game, I frequent them to pour my thoughts into my notebooks. To read about ones such as this where great literary men were inspired fascinates me. I went inside the pub and gazed around, taking in the ancient, dark wood paneled walls, what was it about this place that provided inspiration? Was it the way the dim lighting gave the room a bit of mystery? For Johnson was it being there amongst people he was comfortable with? I think I could sit and write a bit here too, unfortunately there was no room for me on this night, but I think I will go back.  This was certainly the highlight, but I did enjoy the entire walk. This area of the city was particularly dead at night, but it was a peaceful sort of dead, not a creepy one, and I liked that.

Central Parks

Brenden was our fearless leader for this beautiful walk, and he did a grand job. We seemed to time our walk just perfectly somehow, and as we made our way out of St. James' Park we ran right into the changing of the guards. It was epic! It wasn't absolutely freezing, there was a nice amount of people out, and it made it easy to love this walk. It was fun to go through Hyde Park a different way, because I was able to see vast areas of it I did not know existed, and I was able to scope out spots for the many picnics I will be taking the moment it is warm.

Lambeth and the South Bank

These pictures pretty much sum it up, doing this walk at night was one of the best decisions I made that week. I could have stayed there snapping photos for hours, the skyline lit up like this is nothing short of gorgeous. The walk was full of beautiful things, St. Mary's churchyard being another one of them. I appreciate so much the work that goes into creating and maintaining grounds like these. It takes a special kind of person to be a gardener. I pictured my Mom coming in the back door, dirt stained on her jeans, mud caked under her fingernails, her face and neck looking more leather like than the day before, and in her hand a prize winning bucket of vegetables; she would love this place.

It is refreshing to do these walks, and to actually know some of the specific people and events that are being spoken of. It ties in so well with our history class, and I love being able to see a structure that has such significant historical meaning. I often times wonder just how many people have paused and gazed at what I am looking at. This ties us all together and makes the world seem a little smaller and closer. I have not yet taken my obligatory London Eye walk, but now I know when I want to do it. I want to do it just before sunset, when I can still see the city, but when a little bit of dark mystery is setting in. All in all, an extremely enjoyable, successful walk.

Inns of Court

Forgive me for leaving you hanging with a blank post. How lame. I'd like to pretend like I did this walk because I was really craving a stroll in the rain, but that would be a lie. Soooo I'll confess just once, that I looked through the book, found the shortest one, grabbed my partner in crime-Haley, and we ran out the door. It is late and I'm confessing things, so I'll just keep right on confessing... I had absolutely not one clue what the Inns of Court were. Sooo shoot me. Gray's Inn, Lincoln's Inn, Middle Temple, and Inner Temple are where lawyers train and then practice. Ok so after reading that I was a bit interested, shout out to the lawyer brothers, I do care about them. This is smack dab in the middle of legal London. We stopped along the way and took photos of things we needed to look up when we got home, because even though we were freezing our hineys off, we were a bit on the intrigued side. That is why Haley is not only a fearless walk leader, but a smart one at that. I love that we can have intelligent conversations, and I value her opinion a lot. Unicorns have become something that I notice straight away since being here. Maybe because of somebody's odd obsession with them, or maybe because they are everywhere, but anyways, the ones in Charles Dickens' Old Curiosity Shop were certainly something of interest to us. I heart Charles Dickens. Always have, always will, and the longer I am in London the more I learn about him, and I love him even more.

In the end I was grateful for both this walk, the new knowledge I gained, Haley, and Starbucks waiting for us at the end of the tunnel. Mostly I was grateful for Starbucks, but that isn't important is it?

The City East Walk

I enjoyed the area of this walk. It was the business area of London, and we chose to do the walk around noon, so most of our walk was spent in a sea of well dressed business people, something that I loved. A lot of great pictures came from this walk, the arcitecture was really quite great. There were dark, Georgian churches blended in with beautiful smooth buildings, and I enjoyed the contrast. This area seemed to be one of the cleaner areas, and that combined with the business attire of the people around me really appealed to me. We did not have enough time the first day to complete this walk, so we went back out the next night, and I am glad for that. We followed the river, looking incredible with the lights shining on it, and then got to my favorite part. At the end of the walk is the Tower of London, and seeing that at night with a gleaming full moon was incredible. It was neat to learn of the Great Fire that happened in this area and stormed so many buildings. I must admit I previously had zero knowledge of this, so to see some buidlings that were once burned to the ground and rebuilt was neat as well.

Bloomsbury Walk

As I sit here thinking of the Bloomsbury walk, I cannot help but grin. I absolutely loved this walk. It has been my favorite of the ones I have already completed. The area was so quaint, quiet, and lovely. The district gained it's name from the Bloomsbury Group, artists and writers who lived in this area in the early 1900s. We chose to do this walk in the morning, and even though it was positively freezing, I could not help but enjoy it, even the pooring rain. Our walk began close to Bedford Square, completed in the late 1700s,  and apparently the finest surviving Georgian square. This walk included a trip to the British Museum, which was fantastic. A bit on the overwhelming side, as the building is absolutely massive, but great none the less. The museum is a place I hope to return to multiple times before I leave this city. I have always been a fan of Charles Dickens, and his works, so seeing a spot where he lived and wrote his first three novels was motivating.  The English major in me craves to see where other writers feel inspired. My favorite part of the walk came last, we wound our way through little alleys, and wound up in a square with just a couple of book shops, a cafe, and a camera store. I absolutely loved it here. The air was warm from fresh rain, and the entire atmosphere just felt content and relaxing. Certainly a spot I will revisit to do some writing sometime soon.

Soho to Trafalgar Square Walk

This was the first walk I decided to go on, and it surely did not disappoint. Mike, Amanda, Natalie, Collin, Brenden and I chose to do it at night, so that we could get the real feel of the Soho area. That too did not disappoint. It was entirely sketchy, and I loved it. It was interesting to learn how Soho became the way that it is. Who caused this rowdy area to come about? It was first the French, followed by many other foreigners, and that is why Soho is the way it is. Colorful, bright, and crazy! The other greatest highlight of the walk would have to be Chinatown. By the time we got there, my eyes were going a little crazy from all the neon lights, but I adore Chinatown in any city, and London's did not disappoint. Everywhere I looked there was intricate, oriental design, and fun little shops overflowing with Asian goods. It is absolutely amazing to learn that some of these structures have been standing since the 1700s. The architecture is my favorite style, and it is extraordinarly beautiful. Trafalgar Square was a neat sight as well, and it became even more so when I learned of the history. This square, standing for the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, is beautiful. Their is a massive monument, dedicated to Admiral Nelson, who was the victor of the battle. I thouroughly enjoyed this walk, and it actually got me rather excited to do more. I feel that each time I do one of the walks I am increasing my knowledge of London, and it is great to know the city I live in. Exploring has led to some brilliant discoveries thus far!