A London Walking Tour From The Locals

Hi Thursday, lovely to see you! Friday will be even better but Thursday I will take, especially as my best friend has been in town from London since Sunday!  But let’s back track for a second – the last time I was with my Mom in the car we got talking about weddings and one day I will get married and I am lucky enough that I will likely, baring some unforeseen circumstance, have some pretty great girls will stand up next to me. One of those girls has been my best friend since third grade and the last time I was in London I stayed at her “flat” with her “housemates”. Why do I put those words in quotes?  Because they are the British-isms for apartment and roommates and make me smile every time I type them.  

While I was in London working for the week once the weekend hit she had a dozen friends over to the flat for brunch and after we decided to take advantage of the rare sunshine filled afternoon. (You make recall I wrote about how it had snowed earlier in the week.) We walked through Kensington Gardens, then through Hyde Park, then through Green Park (so basically all of the parks) to Buckingham Palace. The group, which started with 10 people in the early afternoon and ended  with four, was kind enough to stop and let me take all sorts of photos, here a ton of my favorites from my my private London walking tour: 

After the Palace we walked the long way around St. James’ Park and the lake out to the Horse Guard Palace, then past 10 Downing Street, the Imperial War Museum, and the Churchill War Rooms until we got to the Palace of Westminster with Big Ben and Westminster Abbey.  I was basically fan girling over all of the typical British sites – from red phone booths and black cabs to armed guards on horseback.  But what really set it over the edge was people in morning dress coming out of the Abbey who got on double decker red buses for the ceremony. 

After Parliament we headed across Westminster Bridge to the other side of the bank with the London Aquarium and the London Eye.  We tried to get a bite to eat but all of the places at 6pm on a Saturday were packed so we headed back to the other side of the city via the Waterloo Bridge past the Somerset House and then ended up having dinner just off Leicester Square.  It was quite a walking tour with a big number of the very touristy spots. 

Have you ever been to London?