Well, I can now definitely see why the tourists love London! Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day, and so I decided to start walking through Hyde park. This included a nice walk along The Serpentine over to the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain (which, while pretty, is not what I would call a fountain ... more of a lazy river). Then I crossed over to the Wellington Arch (I must say the monuments in London are ENORMOUS ... I'm having to plan my pictures from a hundred metres - or more - away). As I was about to pass through it, a police car started coming through from the other side. After it was a procession of some of the horse guards. So I headed through after that and went down Constitution Hill through Green Park, towards Buckingham Palace, just in time for the changing of the guard. It was neat, and long, but not as "wow" as I'd expected. Buckingham Palace itself is pretty nice though, and the gates around it are beautiful. My impression of the ceremony probably wasn't helped by the enormous crowd which had all gathered to watch the procession. As soon as the changing was done, almost everyone left. From here I walked into St James Park, which is a BEAUTIFUL area (I expect it must be absolutely stunning in the summer). The flowers were in bloom, and there were pelicans walking around, and there were tourists everywhere. Heading further, I passed by the Horse Guards Parade and then up to Trafalgar Square. As I was looking at the column dedicated to Nelson, I noticed that the Canadian Consulate is right there as well, so now I know where to go to get my passport renewed. Then I headed back south, past various parliament buildings, and over to Westminster Abbey. Maybe it's age, or maybe it's a lack of upkeep, but I didn't find this to be all that spectacular. But, right across the street, I was very impressed with Westminster Hall and Big Ben. The gold sparkled in the sun, and the bells could be heard for quite a distance. Then I crossed Westminster Bridge, which took me past the London Eye (something I guess I'll have to do at some point) and the aquarium. Somehow I thought the Thames would be wider ... although it didn't look as dirty as I'd heard. Then I hiked north to Waterloo station, and took the tube back to my hotel.
Not too much to report on the housing front. I've now seen two really nice places, and wrote down the phone numbers for a bunch of other places I want to check out. The first place, while pretty, is in Wimbledon ... quite far from the city and would require a transfer at one of the tube stations. The second place (in Maida Vale) was on the perfect tube line, but the owner seemed a bit weird. While the Wimbledon owner was pressuring me to commit, this owner was avoiding any sort of commitment or offer I tried to make. So I'm not sure what's going on in his head. Surely one of the places on my list will work out. I'm fortunate in that I only need it for 2.5 months (until Feifei gets here), so it doesn't have to be anything super-special.
And I guess that's about it for this report. I've now had an enormous portion of fish & chips, and I'm going to go try a traditional London breakfast after I send this note. Oh, and I'm on a mission to try to only have European beers (preferably from London - although I've already "slipped" and had a German beer), and not have the same one twice.
Sorry I'm not including any pictures. I left my memory card reader back in Toronto and haven't found one here yet. But they will be forth-coming :)
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