But as I do this fairly often, and never really stop to enjoy the view properly I thought I would photo chart my walk back and share a little taste of this gorgeous city, looking especially stunning in the sunshine.
My first stop of the day is Hyde Park, beautiful and hazy in the summer sunshine. Wish I'd spent the day sat out on the grass like the woman below. Lucky cow!
One of the things I love most about Hyde Park is the diversity. You'll see everything and anything on any given day. Today apparently was the excuse to get the horses out of the riding school to stretch their legs. They seemed to be giving their riders a bit of a run for their money, but if you spent most of the time in a barn doing laps wouldn't you be chomping at the bit (pardon the pun, or not) to enjoy the sunshine?
Ah the good old Boris bikers! Nothing makes you look quite so cool as cycling around on a plastic bike with a Barclays logo on the front right?
Beautiful, perfect place to sit and read a book while dodging the tourists, cyclists and joggers. Still get to see all the weird and wonderful though!
Hyde Park Screen, often apparently called Hyde Park Gate in error. Also known as the worst possible place to try and drive in London during rush hour. The stream of walkers and cyclists is pretty much never ending and right here is a double pedestrian crossing - I don't even want to think how long it'd take a car to make it past!
The Wellington Arch is up next, through which you can see Green Park and Constitution Hill. Apparently Constitution Hill is so named from King Charles II taking his daily constitutional walks there. See, this blog is educational as much as anything else! :-D
I still think it would be hugely amusing to actually have the Quadriga atop the arch mounted on a turntable which turns over a period of twenty four hours. Would confuse the hell out of the tourists!!!
After crossing over onto Constitution Hill the next landmark is the Memorial Gates, comemorating Commonwealth soldiers. There's a constant supply of memorial wreaths kept here, a fitting tribute to bravery in my opinion.
If you now look to your left you will see Green Park, where the great unwashed of London go to exercise. You'll usually see footballers, runners and often British Military Fitness instructors here. I'm glad at this point I'm walking, otherwise all that exercise might make me feel guilty!
Oh and there's always dogwalkers, and for some reason Green Park seems to attract the cutest dogs. Maybe it's because I'm picturing them chasing the footballers...
Buckingham Palace. Need I say more? I figured I couldn't do this route without including it. It only ever impacts us when they've had a party on and you get a fabulous juxtaposition of exercising commuters and smartly dressed palace visitors. On the day in question nothing was occuring so I'm afraid no picture of the strange sight, I will however keep my eyes peeled!
Once halfway down the Mall we pitch a right turn and head into St James' Park, with of course the typically British deckchairs... But with an open area sun trap like this, why not?!
And ahead of us we have the Household Cavalry Museum. Never actually realised that's what it was, but it does make for a far prettier walk than across Trafalgar Square and through Charing Cross Station!
There's usually the guards out when we walk through the archway to Whitehall and naturally this means the usual contingent of camera happy tourists all taking pictures and trying to get a reaction from the long suffering guardsmen! I wonder just how many people's holiday snaps I'm in...?
And now we have reached Whitehall, turning left you can see Nelson's Column rising above Trafalgar Square. This is where we encountered the grumpy tranny arguing with the police. Like I said, the weird and wonderful...
I love this building, but I have no idea what it is! There's something about stunning architecture in sunlight though. If anyone can tell me, please post a comment and let me know! It's on Horse Guards Avenue.
And directly opposite the beautiful architecture we have the Ministry of Defence, which of course wouldn't be complete without the two naked sculptures framing the doorway... How much time do you think the occupants spend checking them out through the window?
At Embankment it's a right turn over Hungerford Bridge, and past one of my favourite views in London. Straight down the Thames past Southbank and the Oxo Tower. Shame about the Buttplug, sorry I mean Gherkin, ruining the skyline now though...
And finally we reach Waterloo, around an hour and ten after leaving Paddington. Nice crowd of people that day hey? And it's usually so quiet...! At this point we generally just want to get to our train and sit down, but feeling good about the four and a half miles we've just done.
So there you have it, my walk from work to Waterloo. Not so much on the twisted sense of humour today but I thought the pictures were worth sharing! What a beautiful day in the neighbourhood!
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