An Afternoon in the Royal Parks

Hello dear readers, it's been a while since I posted but at last I have some truly worthwhile pictures to show you, so here goes. Last weekend was uneventful aside from a trip to Brick Lane to buy books for school and for pleasure, so no pictures there. However, this weekend is the beginning of my "reading week," during which I don't have any classes, so I have begun my (relatively - I do have essays to write) free time with some exploring. Yesterday I walked to Oxford Street for some retail therapy at Primark, got some great boots for only £5, and waited in line for the fitting room for probably longer than I was actually picking out clothes... in any case, a nice afternoon but nothing worth photographing. But this morning the sun was shining aggressively through my window and I decided to take a proper walk. Of course I took an umbrella, as one must do in this city, but thankfully I did not need it. It stayed quite sunny all afternoon, with the exception of some ever-present clouds. I set my sights on the royal parks - St. James' Park, Green Park, Hyde Park, and Kensington Gardens - and wandered out into the wind and the sun. Here I will begin the photo-tour portion of this blog post.

I crossed Blackfriar's Bridge:

And walked along the Thames on Victoria Embankment:

And reached St. James' Park just past Westminster Bridge:

They really have some spectacular birds there:

And it is so much lovelier in the sun:

I then went on to Green Park, passing by Buckingham Palace, which I only took one more picture of:

And then I reached Hyde Park, which was by far my favorite:

I stopped for tea and a scone at The Lido Cafe by the banks of the Serpentine (where Percy Shelley's first wife committed suicide, just for your information - in the Serpentine, not at The Lido Cafe):

At some point, I ended up in Kensington Gardens, which was also lovely - it was green enough to fool me into thinking it could be spring:

I stopped to sit in this little gazebo-type thing, because I have an odd attraction to gazebos:

And I took the most artsy-fartsy hipster photo I have ever taken to date:

I actually quite like it.

So there you have it, a Saturday afternoon in the royal parks. I will have to go back when the weather is warmer, but I still think they are lovely in February. I may go to the Tate Modern in the near future (though more likely a weekday than a weekend - I've heard it can get awfully busy) for a proper visit that is not interrupted by a fire alarm, so perhaps I will be putting up a post about that soon. Until then, or until whatever else it is I get into here, cheerio!

Note: You may observe that about half of the pictures I meant to post are missing from this entry. This is because I have apparently reached the limit for free photo posting on this blog... not exactly sure if that's per entry or per whole blog, but if it's per whole blog I expect to be switching to wordpress or something. Ridiculous. I'll see if I can get it sorted out.