Our First Adventurous Walk

   On Monday January 10th Jessica and I took our first adventurous walk together around London. We took the Tube from South Kensington station and started off in Green Park. They have so many beautiful parks in London it really is a wonderful place to live and everyone has dogs here. If you've ever watched 101 Dalmatians and remember in the first scene when it shows Pongo staring out at all the dogs in the park trying to find one that he likes, that is exactly what it looks like here. Everyone walking everywhere with their pooch, the park, the sidewalks, the tube and even bars. I know Patrick would love it here because he would be able to bring Butters with him all the time and I wish I had Chesney with me so I could bring her to all these cool places!
   After Green Park we made our way to Buckingham Palace. No matter how many times I see this building it will never cease to amaze me, as well as the grand monument built in front of the Palace of Queen Victoria who was the longest reigning monarch in British history who was Queen for 63 years! Although the current Queen Elizabeth II is approaching the record and may pass it up. We took pictures in front of the Palace and walked around the fountain, then we made our way down Mall Road and ventured into St. James's Park. The scenery was beautiful so we stopped took some pictures and sketched out some drawings. From there we made our way over to Westminster. We saw the Clock Tower. Our guide from our bus tour on Saturday informed us that we should not call it Big Ben because that is the name of the bell inside it and we should address the building as the Clock Tower with Big Ben inside. We also saw Westminster Abbey, the House of Commons, the House of Lords and even a statue of Abraham Lincoln. After taking a few touristy red phone booth and "Big Ben" pictures we made our way to Trafalgar's square. This is where you will find the national portrait museum and the huge lions everyone takes pictures with. We had some fun with that and took a bunch of silly pictures as well. One thing I have noticed while being in London is all the Latin on the buildings. I cannot understand a word of it, but it definitely makes me aware of how old the city is. It becomes very easy to forget that it has been around for centuries because it is so modern, even with all the old architecture and castle-like buildings.
   After that we made our way to the Thames river, but not before stopping into the Sherlock Holmes Pub for a nip and some fish and chips. It was a cozy little pub that allowed us to warm up for a bit. Once there it was only a short ways to the river. We crossed a bridge and took a nice little twilight stroll along the water. We saw a bunch of little shops, restaurants, pubs, art and even a skate park. The river was beautiful at night with all the lights lit up from the city and it gave me the feeling as if I was coming home. I felt content as if I was always meant for this and I was exactly where I should be. We passed the Globe Theater where they perform Shakespearean plays in the summer and walked across Millennium bridge, (aka the bridge that gets destroyed in the beginning of the 6th Harry Potter film). We stopped for a quick photo on the bridge with the view of St. Paul's Cathedral in the background and then made our way towards that very structure.
    St. Paul's Cathedral like Buckingham Palace is just astonishing. One look at the structure and your jaw will drop. Like many wonderful buildings in London it was designed by Sir Christopher Wren an architect from the 17th and 18th centuries who's responsibility it was to rebuild the churches after the Great Fire in 1666. By the time we had gotten to St. Paul's Cathedral we had walked about 3 miles and were a bit worn out. So although we had wanted to keep our adventure going we decided to set that aside for another date and we headed home on the Tube.

   This isn't the last of our adventurous walks so stay tuned... :)