3 Favorite London Walks Summary

My 3 favorite London Walks were: Central Parks, SoHo and Regents Parks. I really enjoyed each of these for different reasons and they each resonated with me and left an impact on me throughout my journey here in London.

First, the Central Parks walk was one of my favorites as it was my first walk here and it started things off right. I remember we did it right after the changing of the guards that Saturday in a fairly large group, but it was a great chance to get to know one another while walking and talking. And I remember it really set a good tone for the program and got me excited for the semester ahead. I really enjoyed walking through St James Park overlooking Buckingham and then onward to Green Park and Hyde Park. I loved this walk seeing how everything was inter-related and how connected we were at Palace Court to these other parks and places. I'm glad I did this walk as my first one, as now I run frequently in Hyde Park and over to St James and Buckingham, due to and because of this walk making me see how close we really were to it.

Second, my next favorite walk was the SoHo walk. I remember Ashley Jorgensen and I led this one together and it was just a really fun "hip" one. There were a lot of fun shops and restaurants to walk by. I remember loving and getting so excited for all the fun entertainment that existed on this posh walk. There were cool pubs, shows close by at Covent Gardens, Chinatown, as well as American brand name shops and unique restaurants. This walk opened my eyes to all the fun cool things London had to offer.

And last but certainly not least, my favorite walk was Regents Park. We did this walk on such a beautiful day out and the view up on Primrose Hill was amazing. It was such a great look-out point that I have since run up to by myself and I felt such a peace at top. I also loved the ponds, flowers and gardens on this walk. This walk was just left me with a great feeling inside afterwards. I think I saved the best for last by doing this walk at the end!

Regents Park

I led my last (but certainly not least) walk around regents park on this sunny day with liz bevan, Elise, carly & mike. I think this was probably one of my favorite walks and a place i definitely want to go back running at. I think one of the reasons I've loved these walks so much is because they have given me great ideas for places to run and helped me explore many different sites I maybe wouldn't have otherwise seen.

This regents park was so beautiful and we went on a great day for it. On primrose hill there was a beautiful view overlooking the city which I really enjoyed. And then walking along the outkskirts of the football playing fields, by the pond and seeing the gardens & flowers in full bloom were all just gorgeous! I really loved it and it got me excited for spring in london, just right around the corner. I am so glad we had this London walks class and for the opportunity it gave me to explore and discover important landmarks in London, as well as getting to know other people on this program better. It was a great experience! Thanks London walks..

Kew to Hammersmith

For my 2nd to last walk I did the nice long walk from Kew Gardens Station all the way to Hammersmith Station with Liz Bevan, Elise and Carly. Liz and Carly took turns being our leaders for our journey. At first I must admit I wasn't really looking forward to this walk as much just because I knew it was going to be a long one that took a good portion of time, but it turned out to be better than I had expected. It was actually kind of nice to get away from the central London city and into the suburbs where families really live, children go to school, play in parks, etc. The walk along the Thames River pathway was also refreshing to see teams out rowing and boating. The pic of us above is at the Chiswick House was built in the 1720s by the architect Lord Burlington as a place where he could display his art collection and entertain friends. The gardens (although not in full bloom yet) were also really nice and had a more natural classical antiquity approach from the 18th century. The little cottages and houses on this walk were really cute to walk by (would be such a fun place to live). I ended up enjoying this walk overall-even though it was quite a bit longer than the others, I had good company and we had a good time exploring and seeing the history together!

Westminster & St James

Liz bevan, carly Flamm & I led each other on a beautiful night walk taking us by big ben, house of parliament & right by buckingham palace. It was a great way to see the city all lit up at night with spectacular views. It kept hitting us on the walk just how lucky we are to be living in this city with all the history and culture present in buildings and monuments every where you look. The pic below is of us right in front of buckingham where the queen resides. The queen wasn't there when we walked by because the union flag wasn't flying. I really enjoyed this walk and seeing how everything was all connected. I have gone on some great runs thru st James park & by big ben but this was a nice opportunity for me to just walk around and actually learn about all the history that was present around those areas. Definitely a great walk to be done-night or day!

Fleet Street and St. Paul's

This city west walk was much different than the city east walk I went on earlier. This walk was known for London's printing, publishing and newspaper industries also including monasteries, cathedrals & churches. The picture below is of Elise (our group leader) & I outside St. Sepulchre. It was said to acquire this name from the Middle Ages when crusading knights headed off to the Holy Land to fight for the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. St. Sepulchre is the largest city church after St. Paul's Cathedral.

This second pic below was taken outside of Johnson's Court. In here was the house of Dr. Johnson where he worked on the great dictionary. I love the quote below by him that says, "when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life" as I feel this to be true here in London with so much to see and explore. These walks make me realize this to be especially the case as you can't get tired of London when there are so many little & big places to discover!

Inns of Court

We went on a circular walk this afternoon from Temple station. It is called the Inns of Court because it has 4 ancient inns of courts where barristers first train and then practice. I was glad we got to do this walk on a weekday because we walked right through the London School of Economics and it was neat to see college students passing through between classes or studying at the library. After passing the school, we walked right by the Old Curiosity Shop, which is said to be the oldest shop in all of London and the original shop in Dicken's novel. Kaylee was the fabulous leader to me, Elise, Liz Bevans, Carly, Ramzi and Sharon and the picture below shows all of us outside The Curiosity Shop on the walk.



The other points that stood out for me were seeing the point where the city of London meets the city of Westminster. It said that there used to be a Temple Bar that stood here but was obstructed because of traffic. And last it was neat to see where Shakespeare's 12th Night was first performed at Middle Temple Hall in 1601. I enjoyed this walk and Kaylee was a great leader & efficient leader for our group.

Bankside & Southwark

We went on a nice historic and monumental walk covering the Tate Modern, the reconstructed Shakespeare's Globe, a medieval palace and the Tower Bridge. We got lucky and did this walk on a nice sunny clear day right along the riverside. This made for great views of the city throughout the walk. I really enjoyed seeing Shakespeare's Globe, a modern reconstruction of the early 17th century theatre where Shakespeare plays once took place. I wish we were to see one of them but they only take place from May to September. The picture below is of Shelbi and I at the Southwark Cathedral. It was created in 1220 and has a very medieval look to it. It is full of historic monuments and tombs.

The other highlight of the walk for me was getting to see and walk across the London Bridge. In the book it said that the Tower Bridge was built to provide a central section that could be opened to let tall ships through and the overhead walkway was created to allow pedestrians to use even when the bridge was closed to road traffic. I really enjoyed getting to walk across the bridge and just the beautiful architecture to behold when walking across.I recommend all visiting London to do it.