3 Favorite Walks

Okay Ladies and Gents My 3 Favorite Walks:
 #3-The City East Walk- I loved this walk because I had sooo much good food on it, it was not too lengthy, and there were lots of cute alley ways.
#2-Inns of Court- We had a picnic in Lincoln's Inn Fields along the way. Nuff' said.
#1-BLOOMSBURY!- This walk was the best, because it was my first real escapade in London, and man it was oh so exciting because I LOVE LONDON! It was the perfect length of time and we stopped for tea in the park. Loved it.

Kew to Hammersmith Walk

Lyse and I at Hammersmith Bridge

Last walk done already? WHAT?!?!?! It's been good to be walking around London seeing some things I probably never would have seen. And really it's just heartbreaking to think I'll be leaving Europe in one months time. Anyway the walk today was good, I'm loving spring time in London, except today was a bit cloudy, but other than the length of the walk and the lack of sunshine it was nice. I saved the longest walk for last mostly because I didn't really want to do that long of a walk but you know it ended up being nice. We saw some bridges, churches, some famous people's house, and it was a nice walk overall.

Soho to Trafalgar Square Walk

Lyse and I did this walk this afternoon and it was a BEAUTIFUL day in London. By this time I have seen a lot of London and consequently I have seen a lot of things on these walks just by being out and experiencing all the things to do in London, but like always I found new things I hadn't yet seen. I love Trafalgar Square and it's soo fun when it's a beautiful sunny day. Then Lyse and I passed Soho Square a little into the walk and it's one of my new favorite places. I didn't really know it existed but I LOVED it. It was adorable and had fun little shops; not to mention it had a Ben's cookies. All in all it was a good walk and we had fun stopping and looking at little shops along the way. Also, Leicester Square is a mess, it's under construction big time for the Olympics, so that was interesting... hah.

me at some candy shop

Lyse and I at Golden Square

11 walks down 1 to go... CRAZY!

Central Parks Walk

Truth is, this walk was kind of my first London walk. 'You' see, it was our 3rd day in London and everyone was so excited to do one of the longest walks on a rainy cold day. Oh boy, how could I not be excited about it?!?!? That was sarcastic, I really just don't know how I ended up with half our program doing this miserable walk following the rainbow umbrella. Good thing I "got lost" half way through and went home. So naturally I had to finish this walk, and since half our program went on a 3 hour walk with 20+ people on the 3rd day in London in the rain, I finished this walk solo. I did this walk Saturday afternoon and it was one of the prettiest days in London by far. Kids were running around Hyde Park, birds were flying everywhere, flowers were blooming, and it was nice to just be walking around the city. I was snapping photos because it was so pretty and then when I got to the peter pan statue I decided it would be a perfect place to snap a pic of myself on this walk, when all of the sudden my camera wouldn't turn on...it had died. wah wah wah. So without further ado pictures of my walk, and a picture of me on the first walk (because yes I was there for the first 30 minutes):

I'm on the far right.

Lambeth and the South Bank

Last Monday Lyse and I did the Lambeth and South Bank walk. Truth is I felt like I've done this walk a thousand times before, because I have walked around that area a ton. But the cool thing is I saw new stuff that I missed the first couple of times. Like we saw a really cool skate park, some street bookshops/old record stores, some yummy hot dog stands (okay I've seen those before but they deserve to be mentioned), and a Roman bath. It had some really great views of the city and we had an enjoyable time. Plus who knew London had an aquarium?!?! New favorite spot? I think yes.

Roman Bath

Skate Park

Fleet Street and St Paul's

On Thursday Lyse and I did the Fleet Street and St Paul's walk. Lyse led this walk, and it wasn't her best day leading a walk, but ya know we figured things out hah. We once again did this walk backwards--I don't know how that always ends up happening. Anyway this walk wasn't my favorite, which is weird because it wasn't terribly long, it had lots of alley ways and it was a beautiful sunny day. I think it was just because we were really hungry the whole time... Anyway we got off at St Paul's station saw St. Paul's Cathedral (where Princess D was married), and that was cool. Some other highlights were seeing churches and Dr. Johnson's house. Without further ado:

Us on the walk

Me on the steps of St Pauls

Westminster and St James Walk

This walk was a really fun walk! It was a beautiful day, there was nice company, and it wasn't too lengthy. I, naturally, led this walk on the beautiful Thursday afternoon. I have been to Westminster countless times but I still saw a ton of cool places I hadn't seen before. We got off at Westminster and consequently saw Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster Abbey. We had arrived in the political part of London. We then saw cool places like Horse Guards Parade (which we didn't know existed) and Buckingham Palace. Overall it was a lovely walk--another one of my favorites! We also rewarded ourselves with Ben's cookies, because we just saw Big Ben...yes, we planned to have a themed dessert.

Horse Guards Parade

Buckingham Palace

Inns Of Court Walk

So last Monday the 7th Lyse and I decided to take a stroll over in the West End and do the Inns of Court walk. This walk may have topped Bloomsbury; well it was a bit windy, but soo fun. We got off the tube at temple and thought we were going on the walk the right way, but turns out we started backwards haha, I guess it's a thing we do. Anyway, we went into the most beautiful gardens, saw cute little cafes along the way, saw signs announcing the royal wedding, saw some churches and chapels, saw new square and old square, went through cute alley ways, and ended with a picnic in Lincoln's Inn Fields. We ate Thai food, in case 'you' were wondering. It was a happy happy day.

3 Walks In 1 Day.

3 walks in 1 day? I know, I've truly outdone myself. Needless to say it's been a LONG day. Let's start with the first walk shall we?

Bankside and Southwark Walk:
 Basically this walk was along The Thames River, ending with a stroll across The Tower Bridge. We (meaning Geoff, Lyse and I) started nice and early. I, once again, was the leader of this walk, and might I add I'm quite the leader. Anywho we got off the tube at St. Pauls (since blackfriars is closed) and walked over there to begin the walk. We passed some pretty cool landmarks; my favorite being the Globe, not the original since it burned down quite some time ago. We passed the harry potter bridge (aka the Millennium Bridge) and went passed the clink, and Borough markets. All in all it was a decent walk, but probably not my favorite of the day. A picture is worth a thousand words:

The group at the Southwark Cathedral

In front of The Tower Bridge

The Bankside and Southwark walk ended at Tower Hill station...right where The City East walk begins. That leads us into the next walk.

The City East Walk:
Geoff left before we (Lyse and I) headed on for our second walk. We took a quick pit stop at EAT. for lunch and went off. We shortly decided that the thing that makes walks pure bliss for us is A. when there are lots of alley ways (I really really love alley ways) and B. when it's just Lyse and I (lame I know but we just feel at ease and not rushed when it's just us two). So The City East walk was just perfect. I loved it, just as I loved the Bloomsbury walk. I loved the Trinity Gardens, Lloyds (it was big), all the alley ways (I just can't get enough of them), and Leadenhall market (SOO cute)! With out further ado:

Lyse and I in front of Trinity Square Gardens

Me at Leadenhall Market.

So after those two walks Lyse and I headed back, but she parted at South Kensington to go to the V&A while I continued to Notting Hill. While venturing home, I ran into Maddy, Laura, Sara and Julie. They convinced me to come on a walk with them...I thought 3 walks in 1 day? No thank you, but ya know I'm in London, and I should go do something, so after some convincing I headed back to the tube with them and we headed off....

Regent's Park Walk:
This walk basically went all through Regent's park and that is a HUGE park. The book says it's an hour and half, but please (maybe if you ran the walk it would take that long) it was way longer. Laura led this walk with perfection. I LOVED all the beautiful oasis' the park had to offer. Before we arrived at the park we strolled through chalk farm and it was absolutely charming. After that we went up Primrose road and had a beautiful view of the city. Then we passed the zoo, went over a bridge and through the beautiful gardens in the park. It was a nice stroll, but quite long. Possibly a little too long for my liking, but I'll definitely head back there another day to play in that park (cause it's a fun and beautiful park).

Me on Primrose Hill

Maddy and I in Regent's Park

Me at some water fountain in the park.

Notting Hill Walk

We started off this Saturday morning with a nice little walk around our neck of the woods. Once again we did this walk backwards... it's kind of thing we do, I guess you could say we like a challenge. The beginning of the walk was pleasant and beautiful. Notting Hill is a very nice neighborhood.

Notting Hill..

Lyse (group leader) and Haley

Me at the giant Kiln

Although this walk had good beginnings, and I would even go as far as saying the walk was nice all the way till the end. Basically the end of the walk was the walk from you know where. Not like it was terrible, but it did not even compare to the pleasantness (is that even a word) of the Bloomsbury walk. It all went downhill around Portobello road. Don't get me wrong, Porotbello road is fun and I'll definitely go back there to do some shopping, but we were a little too tired to give our best efforts shopping so we decided to sit down for some hot chocolate (it was a bit chilly outside). The service at this shop was horrible, I don't even remember the name of it (that's how livid we were). We sat down and waited for 15 minutes to order, when it wasn't even busy, we then ordered only a hot chocolate. Just a hot chocolate. 20 minutes later we still didn't have our hot chocolate...if you don't want our service, we won't give it to you. So we just got up and left, with nothing and we gave them nothing. From then on the rest of our walk went downhill, we were a bit chilly and just wanted to finish. Once we got on the tube, we started to head home and it was difficult since some of the lines close Saturday (the olympics are here soon so they're doing some construction and it's just the weekend tube lines). Long story short it took us like another hour to get home from tube. Outrageous? I know.

The group at Portobello road

All in all this walk wasn't too bad, it just took a really long time.

Bloomsbury Walk

I did my very first "London walk" today and it was oh so fabulous. Not only was it my first walk, but I was the leader. And not only did I lead this walk perfectly, I lead it perfectly backwards. By backwards I mean we started at the finish and finished at the start. Impressive? I'm aware.

Me (in Pied Bull Yard) just leading the walk.

 This area of London is gorgeous and so easy to navigate, our walk took us in a circle. We started at Tottenham Court Road Station and walked to the British Museum...where we stopped for a couple of hours. Then we hit the streets of London again and went through a few cute alley ways along the way (cutest being Pied Bull Yard). We stopped at St. George Church where I read to Lyse about the "Climbing boys" and how they were fed 100 of them Christmas dinners. We then passed through Queen Square and passed the Hospital of sick children, where I proceeded to to tell Lyse that it was the first hospital for children in London, and was founded in 1852.  We then continued on our walk admiring the architecture of London and having pleasant conversation.

My student Lyse, and I at Mecklenburgh Square.

We walked around Mecklenburgh Square and through St George's Gardens where we came across a few headstones, apparently people were buried there. We then walked passed Russell Station to Russel Square Gardens where we stopped for afternoon tea at the Russell Square cafe (it was very British of us).

Us drinking tea in Russell Square.

We happily strolled through the rest of the Square and passed by the University of London, before returning to Tottenham Court Road Station. It was an enjoyable walk, and I would even go on that very walk again, it didn't take too much time and we were enjoying the London life.