Final Entry

Hallelujah... just kidding, sad, sad day. Really sad to be done with these. But in all seriousness, I thought the walks were a good way of getting familiar with the territory. It was fab. fab. fabbity. fab. fab.

My three fav. walks were: Central Parks, Lambeth, and Westminster.

Central Parks was fun because we biked it. That was a nice change. It is always nice to be in the parks and get some fresh air. The weather was beautiful and it was the perfect time of day. The sky was a beautiful color, I had good company and it was enchanting. I loved going by the Serpentine River and it was just really fun.

Lambeth was a really swankified scene. That aspect was fun to see, and it was in more familiar territory, but still not all things I had seen before. The Somerset house is always fun to be at and it was just fun to see different people and the night life. They also had a seagull statue. And random sculpture animal heads. You can't beat that.

Westminster and St. James was great too. All of the sights were familiar, once again, but always so fun to see. Every time I pop out at the Westminster tube stop I just am dazzled by how cool it is and the fact that I have lived in london for the past little bit. It is always a neat experience. It was also good, because it was easier to navigate because we have been around that area a lot.

over and out.

#10- The City

The City walk ended up to be a really cool one, and quite convenient because the starting tube stop was the Tower Hill stop. So we did the Tower of London and then I embarked on the city walk all by myself. Cue the Eric Carmen song. We had been to a lot of the spots before, like the Leadenhall Market. The Leadenhall market was Diagon Alley in the HP movies, so we had already seen that, but good to visit again. The Monument was pretty cool too. Definitely can't miss that. It was also raining, so that was unforgettable as well. I was quite glad to be doing my last walk and I went pretty quickly through it because it just sometimes isn't as much fun when you are by yourself in the rain doing a walk. Cool buildings and sights though. Enjoyable, but not my favorite!

#9- Lambeth

lord of the flies.


Me having some fun with the Seagull while Hannah does not...

I'm getting close to the end! But tonight Hannah, Shelisa, and I did the Lambeth walk. We went to the cricket match and then after an hour and a half of that we decided to go get Lambeth in because time is dwindling! PANIC!!! Just kidding. This walk was really cool though. It had a cool, totally hip night scene. There were people eating at these cool places etc and it seemed pretty fun. We might try to go get dinner there sometime, like maybe Saturday. The Somerset House is so awesome too! I loved that! Especially with the fountains and the statue heads. We had some fun with the statues. All in all this was a really pretty walk. The weather was really great and the buildings were all beautiful and the social scene was really cool too. We also got through it pretty quickly, which is a miracle for us. Sometimes we tend to walk slow.

#8- Bloomsbury

The top picture is just us behind the Lion at the British Museum and the other is knocking on Dicken's door, hoping he will invite us in for afternoon tea.

Shelisa, Catherine, and I did this walk together and Shelisa and I were team leaders again. We seem to lead pretty well together, because the walks that we have led together have all worked out pretty well. I really liked this walk, even though it was a little more relaxed. Maybe I even liked it BECAUSE it was a little more relaxed. But the weather was really nice too and that helped. Shelisa kept getting a kick out of the Hospital for Sick Children, which I found to be entertaining that she found it so entertaining. Dickens house was pretty exciting too, even though when I was preparing to come here and looking up different neighborhoods it seemed that Dickens lived everywhere. It was a little sad because we just barely missed the British Museum, it was closing right when we got there. When we were walking behind it we asked a lady to take a picture and she laughed because I guess they get a lot of tourists. This walk also had a cool little graveyard that was pretty. I liked this walk.

#7 Central Parks Walk

This walk was for sure the best walk I have done yet. I enjoyed every minute of this walk, which is maybe a little ironic because we didn't actually "walk." We rented barclays bikes- and when I say "we," I mean Shelisa, Amy, and Jared (The Miller's cousin) and I. It was magical. Not really sure who led, because Jared sort of took over. I hate to say it but sometimes the stereotype of men and needing to lead and being in charge of directions etc, turns out to be very true. I do not say this casually, but as the result of many incidences on this trip in particular where different gentlemen have stepped in and taken over. I also am not commenting on whether this is good or bad, or highly frustrating, just mentioning that it does indeed happen. We struggled a little bit getting the bikes rented and stuff, but it was dusk and so beautiful. I also haven't ridden a bike in a very long time, years and years, so I was a little nervous, but I guess riding a bike really is one of those skills you don't lose. It was the most picturesque and beautiful walk ever. Especially when we crossed the Serpentine River on the bridge. I had to stop and look it was too good to not. We did the path backwards, which took some extra map-skills and at one point we had to carry our bikes up some stairs, but it was worth it. I want to go bike riding every day now, this was an incredibly memorable experience. I loved it. Picture to come later.

#6 Inns of Court

Stopped to eat the roses instead of smell them...

Maybe this wasn't the best idea, but Amy, Shelisa, Hannah and I did this walk right after we finished the Bankside and Southwark walk. We had done some serious walking already that day and I think all of us were a little tired and done with the whole walking around thing. I think I also rode the tube more that day than I have any other day. So maybe those different factors led to me not loving this walk quite as much, but it definitely was not one of my favorites. It wasn't as exciting for me and it is all sort of a blur for me. There was a penguin statue though that I was very excited about. I like penguins. The Royal Courts of Justice were also mangificent and there were some really pretty gardens along the way. At one point we saw these different groups of older people that were dressed up really nicely, but they looked like they were in tour groups or something. It was kind of strange. I can't figure out the picture, so that will come at a later time.

Walk #5 Bankside and Southwark

ok, so this picture isn't actually of me, but i took it, so hopefully that counts for something. I have often heard that "excuses are the patches that mend the garments of failure" and that is probably true, but I really just can't figure out how to get pictures to work. so though, perhaps, a "lame" excuse, I hope you can find it in your heart to accept my attempts.

This walk was pretty crazy. For some reason we really struggled with the tube this day and so we tried to squeeze in part of this before the Globe tour, but we were running behind so we changed plans like a million times. But this was an awesome walk and I must say I loved stopping at Borough Market. Yummy. I also sang a lovely rendition of "The lion sleeps tonight" with a random man by the bridge. There was also a park across the bridge that was incredibly fun. Those children are very lucky to have such a park. Oh and I went with Amy, Hannah, Shelisa.
here is a picture of the other girls, somehow I don't have a picture of all of us, so I will also need to get some pictures of that walk. My bad... Also, I have discovered that I can't actually download pictures from my picture files for some reason, but I can steal them from other people. I have a hard time with technology. Oh and at the Southwark Cathedral there was a little string quartet that was very beautiful.

#4 Westminster and St. James's

We did this walk last Sunday and it was awesome but I was pretty tired. I sometimes walk slow when I'm tired and so I seemed to be lagging behind, but it was fine because Hannah walks slowly sometimes too. Our group consisted of Hannah, Shelisa, Kaylee, Scott and I. Kaylee was the team leader, at least I think. I'm having a difficult time remembering because I have done a few walks in the last little bit. I liked the Horse Guard place and the guys on guard. one of them had a tassle that fell into his face and you could just tell he wanted to move it so badly and he couldn't. I felt pretty bad for him and considered going up to move it for him, but I don't think that would actually go very well. Walking around Westminster was really fantastic and all of the buildings in that area are incredible. I really liked this walk, and I think we were a little late for dinner because of this one. Oopsie. I can't currently find a picture for this walk, so I will have to post it later. Double oopsie.

walk #3- picture

i forgot to put the picture!

Walk #3- Soho and Trafalgar Square

I was team leader for this walk with Shelisa and we didn't even get lost! Well, at least not for too long:) We missed a turn once, but we got on course again without too much trouble. Rule number one was that everyone had to speak in a British accent. It was a neat walk though, it had a lot of cool stuff. They have those plaques all over with "So and so lived here" etc and on this walk we saw one that had a name and then said "inventor of time travel, lived her 2198" or something like that, it was hilarious. Soho was quite happening as well, especially in Soho square. There wasn't a ton of space in the little garden area, but it was just covered with people. Also, I think Trafalgar square is one of my very favorite places, I absolutely love going there. It always has such interesting people and such a fun atmosphere. The toy store was way cool too. They have these cute little things that play music and I thought those were fun. We went with Laura, Sarah, Sydney, and Molly. It was a lovely walk.

Walk #2- Fleet Street and St. Paul's

I really enjoyed this walk even though it took us a very long time to complete it. That could have been because we walked into EVERY church, or house, or building, or even a candy store at one point. It was kind of fun to do that though. Scott was our team leader and we went Shelisa, Nick, Alison, Kaylee, and Hannah. St. Paul's is incredible and it was great to be able to do the supertour after that. We went into St. Bride's church and the man there was so nice and gave us a little history and mini tour of the place. Down in the crypt at the church there was a little memorial plaque thing of people that had served in one of the World Wars (don't remember which one) and there was a guy named "A. Pearce" on the list. That was kind of exciting, because rarely do people spell "Pearce" like that. It is usually "Pierce" and I have ancestors from England. That was exciting to me. I also really loved seeing Samuel Johnson's house. I am tempted to go back and do the tour, but I'm not sure how exciting, or not exciting, it is. But I really like Dr. Johnson. He is the man.

Walk #1- Regent's Park Walk

Group shot Nick and swan

So I am not very masterful at this blogging thing yet, so bear with me. I could not get over how beautiful Regent's Park was. I will say that by the end I was a little tired, especially after the being a gangoozler all morning too. But I loved it. I almost got eaten by a swan. I also ran through the birds to make them fly and then about two minutes later I saw a very little girl doing the same exact thing and I felt very mature. But it was fun. We had a really great group consisting of Sam, Nick, Scott, Shelisa, Kaylee, and myself. We took some fun pictures at one of the little statues, and we enjoyed a moment of respite on a bench overlooking the boating lake where some people were in paddle boats. I really want to go back in a few weeks when the flowers are more in bloom, because they looked like they were starting. We also had an older British lady take our picture and she surprised us all by dancing and making noises to try and get us to smile bigger. It was awesome. Loved the walk.