Arriving in London, I headed toward the hotel to drop off my bags as it was too early to actually check in. My meeting with Phillip was delayed due to his over-sleeping, but I managed to entertain myself by walking around Notting Hill until his train arrived at Paddington. Afternoon number one began with a walk through Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park. Kensington Palace itself is rather forbidding. Made entirely of red brick, it rather reminded me of large, industry-magnate estate home in the northeast, or of the buildings in Williamsburg, VA. Next to the palace are two items of interest: the Orangery and the Round Pond, a man-made pond filled with water fowl and surrounded by relaxing Londoners. But back to the Orangery for a moment. This is a lovely, very swanky restaurant. The customers were very obviously quite financially comfortable, even well-off; however, I had to laugh when I noticed two very large Golden Retrievers flopped under a table inside the building at which was sitting a rather well-to-do middle-aged couple. The other man-made water feature of the park is the Serpentine, a 28 acre Lake/River that spans both Kensington and Hyde Park. At the head of the Serpentine is the Italian Garden, a lovely sculptured area of statuary and fountains. The most beautiful and compelling of all the fountains in the park, though, is the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain. Alas, I completely failed to take a picture of it. Of course, the only way to really experience it is to be there. The fountain is a sort of abstract mobius that flows up and down the hill on which it rests. It also holds a small, medium-depth pool at the top. “Why,” you ask, “does it contain a pool?” Very simply because the fountain is open for public enjoyment. Really. You can take off your shoes and wade your way around it. It was fantastic. I also blame my absolute wonder and enjoyment at wading through the fountain on the fact that I didn’t take a picture. haha. Again, what I found interesting was how much of both Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park is manicured. That said, I was delighted to find some “ok, well, we’ll let this part grow a bit wild for you” places within the Park. It really is quite an interestingly aesthetic place. (random factoid: Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park together are just about 200 acres smaller than Central Park in NYC.)
After journeying leisurely through the parks (including a brief relax in some beach chairs parked helpfully along the Serpentine), it was on to see Buckingham Palace. Now that’s ostentatious. It is an incredibly beautiful structure but in a way that projects power and assurance. It does not inspire one to take the monarchy, or their money, lightly, to say the least. haha. Across from the Buckingham Palace is the Queen Victoria Monument/Victoria Memorial. This is not the only monument to Queen Victoria in England, or even in London, to say the least. Victoria is definitely the most celebrated of any English monarch, for good reason, of course. This monument is the greatest of them all, though. Not only is it very large, it’s beautiful as well. From the monument, the Mall extends down through admiralty Arch to Trafalgar Square. As the traffic was pretty brisk, we eschewed walking down the Mall for a walk through St. James’s Park. Again, manicured and lovely, St. James’s Park did enable me to get a lovely picture of the Whitehall/Parliament St. skyline with added London Eye. We exited the park and cut through the Horse Guards Parade Grounds and then over to Trafalgar Square. The Horse Guards (or more properly the Household Cavalry, made up of by the Life Guards and the Blues and Royals), by the way, are quite impressive. I didn’t take a picture because, well, tact. Also, there were already several people making fools of themselves taking each other’s pictures whilst trying to make one of guards lose focus. Tacky. At any rate, this is what they look like. They have a saber. They win.
Trafalgar Square is dominated by the neo-Classical facade of the National Gallery. In front of this, stands Nelson’s column, a tribute to Vice Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson, the Naval badass whose unorthodox tactics allowed the British fleet to entirely destroy the French and Spanish navies at the Battle of Trafalgar. Four lions sit in guard around his monument, which lend themselves to children wanting to conquer and climb them. haha. Also in the square are four plinths, bearing the following things: George IV, Henry Havelock, Sir Charles James Napier, and a succession of art displays and sculptures. The sculpture gracing the Fourth Plinth when I was there was a beautiful model of Nelson’s ship in a bottle. After Trafalgar, we walked down the Victorian Embankment on the Thames to Westminster Bridge, Big Ben, and the Houses of Parliament (also known as the Palace of Westminster). Here is something I never realized: Big Ben is shiny. Ok, I know that sounds like a ridiculous thing to say. haha. What I mean by that is that all the decorative bits are gilded, a thing that somehow I never realized until I saw it in person. The Houses of Parliament to which it is attached reminded me oddly of stalagmites; I suppose that is due to the Gothic Revival design chosen when the buildings were reconstructed in the mid-19th century. Westminster Abbey, around the corner, is a beautiful example of combined Gothic and Gothic Revival architecture. The Abbey is, of course, the most noted and historically important church building in London, as well as the most famous church in England. A meandering walk through Belgravia, (a super wealthy and incredibly lovely section of London, home to many of the ambassadorial homes and offices) an absolutely delicious dinner at a Lebanese restaurant, and a view of Royal Albert Hall and the Albert Memorial at night eventually led back to the hotel for well-earned sleep. Day One accomplished.