Sight-Seeing in London 2015

Throughout my first term of grad school I didn't do tons of sight-seeing because school got a bit hectic but I did try to see a little bit. Let's take a look at some of what I've experienced in London so far (that weren't part of some other trip)!!

Horse Guards Parade:

The Queen's Life Guard is the mounted guard on the right.

The Queen's Life Guard is the mounted guard at the entrance to Horse Guards. The Horse Guards is the official main entrance to St. James' Palace and Buckingham Palace but now isn't used as the main entrance.

As you go through the gates there are other guards and then you walk through a tunnel. At the end of the tunnel is a large dirt area. This is where the Horse Guards Parade takes place as well as other ceremonies for the Royal Family.

This is me at the opposite end of the dirt field.
You can see the entrance behind me.

After you've walked through the tunnel, you see other royal houses and palaces all around the court yard. The picture to the right is an example.

The guard is on horseback for most of daylight and they change sentries every hour. You can click on the video below to see one of the guard changes. It was interesting to watch because it was very militant, even with the horses. You'll see what I mean as you watch. Every step is very precise.

Changing of the Guard

St. James Park

After you walk through the court yard mentioned above, you can come to St. James Park. It was one of my favourite parks (along with Regent's Park-see below). There is a big fountain and river that runs through it. All of it was built for different royalty throughout the years. There isn't tons to say about it except that it is beyond beautiful!! I think it is a must see, even just a quick walk through while you are near the Parliamentary areas of London.

That main whitish building you see in the background is
the Horse Guard's Parade

Big Ben..again

This area is so close to me that I am sure this is not my last time coming here either. This time instead of walking around and seeing, I sat on the grass across from Ben Ben and Westminster Abbey. I listened to this bag pipe player and thought of my Uncle Gregg. It was a tender moment for me. Those who were close to him, will understand. I also posted this video on my Facebook page back in October in his memory but I wanted to post it here again. Also while listening to the bagpipe, Westminster Abbey had her bells going at one point. And I just sat and observed people, one of my favourite pass-times. I admired the amazing architecture surrounding me. And I just took it in. It was wonderful.


























Camden Market

The Camden Market was a fun place to go shopping. There are massive amounts of booths with people selling all types of clothes, jewelry, knick-knacks, everything really!! You can haggle a little bit and get decent prices. I ended up buying a cute owl sweater and a turquoise ring at the first area. I was starting to get hungry....there was a chineese booth right outside of the area I was in. They handed out some free samples and what I tasted was good but not was I was in the mood for, so I ordered two different things to fill my bowl...I started walking away and was sadly disappointed. That food was sooooo gross!! I went and found some pizza and was a happy girl. That was the first piece of pizza I had while in Europe.

I kept walking and there were tons of sections just like the one I had been through with tons of booths selling everything. I made it to an area where there were a lot more food options...it looked like a lot better quality and it was way cheaper. I bought myself some fresh squeezed lemonade and wandered to some stores. **I'd recommend not eating right at the "front" of Camden market. Walk down the street further and there will be lots more options on the left side of the road. I ended up finding a very fabulous hat (which I was actually searching for) for about 6 pounds.

Overall, it was a fun place to walk around. I did find that after a while a lot of places tend to have the same type of things though. So I'd walk around a bit first and see what the prices are and then go back to the cheapest and talk them down a few more pounds.

Lunch: Take 1: FAIL

Lunch: Take 2: Success

Regent's Park

My first view of the park!

After walking around Camden Town/Market for the morning, I went over to Regent's Park. This park was a) Massive and b) Beautiful!! The leaves were turning fall colours and it wasn't very busy-it had been raining so there weren't masses of people crowding the park.

I got some great pictures of the falling leaves and the changing colours.

I found this little area with a bunch of wooden beams, I'm sure it is used for some type of fitness routine. So I walked over and started playing with some of the leaves and enjoyed the crisp fall air. Nobody was around me so I just hung out. That is one of my favourite things: finding somewhere quite in London and just enjoying it. There aren't too many quite, uninhabited places in London. Everywhere is usually very busy and chaotic.

My new hat bought at Camden Market with the fall leaves.

After I enjoyed the quiet and took in the colours for a bit, I decided to keep exploring the park. I did not realise how massive, massive was.

I came to an area and it was a "fountain" park within the park. There were tons of fountains and beautiful flowers everywhere. I walked through part of it and found that it lead to a sculpture/statue park...I really wanted to walk through it but I was getting pretty worn out by that point. My body can only handle so much in a day. So I finished enjoying the fountains as I made my way to the Tube station. I have made a resolve to go back and see the other areas of the park. There is still so much more to see, including Queen Mary's Gardens. I am sure that is just gorgeous. I'll probably go in spring time when more is growing.

Fountain in Regent's Park

Oxford Street/Primark

Oxford Street has fabulous shopping. One of my favourite stores would be Primark at this point. I will share more about this trip in a different post because it leads to my first ride in an ambulance and my first time in a London hospital!! Wahoo! :) My life is always exciting. So stay tuned for more on this later.

Trafalgar Square

I have actually been to Trafalgar Square a few times BUT it was on a Saturday each time and there were always some huge event going on and there were way too many people. I was able to come during the week and it was much less crowded.

Piccadilly Circus

When my friend Amanda was here visiting, we had some spare time and explored a bit of Piccadilly Circus I have heard it compared to Times Square in New York, I haven't been there, so I can't confirm that. There were lots of lights and shops! And it was in November, so things were starting to get decorated for Christmas. 

We hit the M&M Store and there was Abbey Road! How
could I not "walk" with the M&M's especially since
my shirt was the same color as one of them!

We got a little bit bored....and we ended up walking right into the Mocking Jay Pt 2 London Premier. I saw "President Snow" being interviewed and explained to Amanda was was going on...then on the screen was Katniss! I realised that these people were really close to us...I tried to figure out if we could get close but realised it probably wasn't going to happen. We decided to continue walking around the area but found that another section was closed off and I heard tons of screaming...I told Amanda that where there is screaming, there is someone famous. So we decided to become maniac fans and try to see who was being fussed about. At first it was Natalie Dormer who plays Cressida, the film director. We couldn't really get a good photo but I didn't really care. It was kind of fun though to see someone famous so close...then all of a sudden...there he was Liam Hemsworth!! I became one of those screaming little school girls with a crazy crush. I was literally 5 feet away from him!! I sat and stared for a few seconds, not believing my eyes. Then I realised I wanted a picture of this amazing moment but I couldn't get a good photo, luckily Amanda did. Thanks girl!!

Once we got that photo, we didn't care what happened the rest of the night. We were star-struck! haha It was fabulous.

Those are most of my main "sight-seeing" events of last term. There are some others that were part of trips that I will do a specific post on.

Future Posts Coming:
   -Schooling in London
   -Windsor Castle, Bath, and Stonehenge
   -My Stories about Men of Europe
   -Sweden
   -Italy
   -Christmas in London
   -Bringing in 2016


I can't wait to share all of them with you  :) Have a great weekend!!