Sunday 1 March 2009

A Trip To London - Part Two

Continuing our travels, we admired the magnificent facade of Westminster Abbey, where Princess Diana's funeral was held.

Then we headed to St James's Park.. this glorious Royal park covers 58 acres so we didn't explore too much of it! because as you can see the sky was quite leaden..
I thought the views of the building tops and the London Eye to be quite stunning... this lake is currently being dredged of silt and weeds etc, ready for the Summer visitors.

I love the majesty of London!

The Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Walk takes visitors through four of the most beautiful parks in London, and within sight of famous buildings and locations associated with the Princess during her life. The seven-mile-long walk, which crosses St James's Park, Green Park, Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, is charted by 90 plaques set in the ground, and along the way. What a lovely way to spend a sunny afternoon...

It was delightful to see signs of Spring approaching, including tightly-closed daffodils and snowdrops peeking through the grass.

As we walked, we noticed a large Metropolitan Police presence, and heard a band playing further up The Mall, which lines one side of the park.. as we approached Buckingham Palace, above, my husband asked a policeman what was going on, and he said that today the Queen was due to unveil a statue of the Queen Mother to commemorate her, outside Clarence House which was her former residence, and now where Prince Charles, Camilla and the Princes live...
We were lucky enough to be able to hang around for a while, and spotted the Queen and Prince Phillip leaving in their car to much applause.. it was a lovely moment to catch on our visit.

We stopped to admire the Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace,

and this cheeky cherub adorning a post,

and the splendid gates of the Palace itself,

and of course the Royal Guards.. this is where the famous Changing of the Guards takes place on altenate days, or daily during the Summer.. a real historic sight, and a guaranteed tourist-puller as well!

The skies were getting increasingly dark by now, so we headed onwards... catch my blog tomorrow to see where we went next!! xx

1 comment:

  1. Simply lovely photos again, loved the signs of spring in the park, gorgeousxx

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