Park Hopping

Today was a wonderful day. We were suppose to go to the National Portrait Gallery and do a tour but when the tour started there so many people in the group – it wasn’t just ISA – and it was hard to hear what was being said so most of us ended up leaving. I felt bad because Pippa had met us and took us there and everything but there is so much to do in this city that I haven’t done so I went walking… for almost four hours. The National Portrait Gallery is in Trafalgar Square so I went onto the square and snapped a few pictures of a live statue, a lion, and a man in a white body sock thing. He was on the plinith that is empty in the square as part of the city’s living art thing they are doing over the summer. He was just standing there. Very odd.

Then I headed over to St. James’s Park, walked to about the middle of the park, and then headed toward Buckingham Palace. I took random turns every once in a while to keep it interesting, snapping pictures of the water fowl, and flowers. I walked around the front of the palace, and then walked through Green Park which is really close to Wigram but I went the opposite direction and headed toward Hyde Park.

Hyde Park is about twice the size of Green and St. James’s put together and then some. It’s huge. Technically its two parks separated by a bridge that traffic travels over but either way I walked the whole thing and never in a straight line. I saw the gate with the lion and unicorn, the Princess Diana Memorial Water Fountain, and Peter Pan, the Italian Gardens, and the Elvin Oak, and a carousel. I found what think is the Queen’s Temple on the map. At night I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near it.

There are large chunks of Hyde I never saw and will have to see another trip. Speakers’ Corner is still on my list for a Sunday afternoon. There is the whole other side of the lake that runs through the park that I never went to because there were certain things I wanted to see. There was also a statue I saw from afar that looked like a guy falling off his horse that I think was what my map called the “Physical Energy Statue.” Sounds interesting. When I was trying to find a Tube station to get back to Victoria I was really close to Piccadilly but that is not something you so with almost zero energy.

It was a long day and I still have two papers to outline. I could have spent all those hours doing that but I needed just me time. Every once in a while I would stop on a bench and rest my feet and people watch. I saw a lot of families with small children. When I was at the Peter Pan statue there were children climbing all over it and it made me smile.

Tomorrow is the ISA Farewell Dinner and Cruise on the Thames. It should be fun, sad, and a reality check. We only have three days before we leave for the States!