EU trip - Day 7 - London - A jog at the parks

Note: More pictures at Picasaweb ;-)

After a couple of days of watching and bumping into Londoners who run everywhere and at any time of the day, the feeling of "cannot tahan"-ness (unbearableness) has gotten the most of me. It's the norm here, so you clearly won't get any disbelieve looks in the faces of onlookers when you run the streets.

On this day, I decided to disregard my zero-week, put on my running gears and go for a jog. My recovery run, if you will. Central London has lots of parks to choose from. But I wasn't satisfied with one. I jogged through Holland Park, Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park and Green Park, all the way to Buckingham Palace.

Kensington Palace

Kensington Gardens

A pond at Kensington Gardens that has swans and ducks

The Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park map - Awesome place for running, biking, horse riding, picnics, et all

Green Park

Since it wasn't summer yet, the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace wouldn't take place today. Something else was brewing today tho', as I could see lines forming alongside opened gates, as well as several guys, probably from the media, were ready with their video cameras.

Lines forming outside the gates

I would think they're media people

At Buckingham Palace

I continued jogging through St James's Park, where one will find the Horse Guards at the other end of the park. Though the Changing of the (Horse) Guards isn't quite same to that of the Buckingham Place, it would have to do. At least I didn't have to jostle with the crowd for position.

St James's Park - one of my favourite spots

Another area of the St James's Park

Lari, lari... kita lari

Off the beaten track - tourists don't come to this part of the park

One of the bird species found at the park

Lots of other birds and a couple of squirrels

Oh, they have pelicans too

The sign says "Please do not feed the Pelicans"

Horse Guards place

Watch out for the horse... and the guard too. lol!

It was pretty decent. Nothing spectacular. I left while both leaders of the horse guards were talking to each other in the middle of the courtyard. They've been at it for awhile now. I wonder what could they possibly be discussing? What they had for breakfast? Yesterday's cricket scores? Their butts hurt so much that they can't wait to get off the horse? I should have gotten one of those listening devices to eavesdrop. ROFL!

Waiting for the other cavalry to arrive

The guy with the trumpet (on the far left) should practice more. hehehe

Is that okay luv? Do you need more light?

Here comes the replacement

Err, nice asses?  But they're horses

Chit-chatting in the middle

"Would you like to have some tea later?" says one of them

"Mr. Z" - hey, that's me :)

They could use a hailer/bullhorn

They're still at it!  So I decided to leave

I jogged back to Azizul's passing through all of the parks that I mentioned earlier.  I had to resort to walking as I was approaching Kensington Palace to give my knee and calf some breather.  Perhaps it wasn't a good idea to ignore the zero-week, but it just had to be done :)  Tho' I couldn't join the London Marathon, I still had my fair share of jogging here.  Terubat la sikit :)

One area at Holland Park

Kyoto Garden at Holland Park - a nice and quiet place to relax and read

I'm done with my jog

Once I showered and changed, I left the house to check out Leicester Square as recommended by Firouz. Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square are just down the road.

The old fashion way. Or did she bring the wrong bag with her? lol!

A quick check at the map, I realized that the British Museum is also in the vicinity.  On the way, I came across Forbidden Planet (a comic-book store) and it was just too appealing not to go in.  Although I haven't read real comic books since the days when my brother had brought back tons of collections home (especially Spawn) after graduation, I could have stayed there for hours.

I finally managed to haul my butt out of the store and made my way towards the British Museum.  I took a couple of photos at the entrance, used the toilet, only to be turned away by a security guard.  They were closing at 5:30pm.  Shoot.  Well, at least I got to see the toilet.  Hahaha.

The British Museum

The Welcome banner

Dinner was at Westfield again. Azizul treated me to a Greek restaurant for some mezzes and souvlakis.  The below picture gave proof that the food was delish. Thanks Zul!

No leftovers. We did great