Today I went for a walk through four of London's Royal Parks: St James's park, Green park. Hyde park and Kensington Palace gardens. I am leading a walk for the U3A in a couple of weeks and I just needed to check out the route. Usually my walks are guided walks pointing out buildings and places of interest but this one will just be a walk to enjoy one another's company and the beautiful parks. I only took a couple of photos but I thought you might like to see that the rain has finally stopped and summer has arrived.
The Italian garden in Hyde Park.
Kensington Palace sunken garden.
Kensington Palace in the background.
Not all areas have formal flower beds. In a number of areas they have left the grass to grow so as to encourage insects and other wildlife. I ended up walking 7 miles so I'll need to rethink the route as we usually limit the walks to 5 miles.
My first visit to London involved a wait until hotel check in time and we spent a couple of hours wandering around Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, both very beautiful. During our last visit to London we walked through Green Park and along the edge of St James Park. So we have seen the four parks, just not on the same day. I hope the weather is kind for the day of your walk.
ReplyDeleteU3A students are usually not sprite 18 year olds, so the garden walks should be a pleasure, not a sweaty strain. Your photos show perfect gardens, especially the sunken garden at Kensington Palace. 5 miles is plenty :)
ReplyDeleteI'm sure it will be a lovely walk but if summer is still here 5 miles will be more than enough lol
ReplyDeleteThis garden is so lush green in its signature feel. So elegantly designed
ReplyDeleteI wish I could tag along. Looks like such a lovely walk. We are off to Switzerland on Tuesday for two weeks.
ReplyDeleteHooray for Summer and hooray for you leading the walk and I wish I were there to follow. I like the idea of the Third Age thing -- it sounds more fun than "Senior Center Activities" which we have (and which I've enjoyed -- I guess it doesn't really matter what they call us by this time in life.)
ReplyDeleteLondon's parks are a necessity in such a populous, busy city. I wonder if Londoners really appreciate what they have and how lucky they are.
ReplyDeleteOf course I know them all and they are beautiful, a green lung for a busy city ! In Brussels we are also spoiled it is one of the greenest capitals in Europe with more than 8,000 hectares of parks, gardens, woods and forests and probably "my" park is not included (lol)
ReplyDeleteIt looks a very nice walk, I enjoyed your photographs.
ReplyDeleteAll the best Jan
So good to have these parks in a hige city like London. Well done for being a walk leader for U3A. I used to walk with U3A in our forest but as I got older I couldn't keep up the pace for 2hrs.
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