Ceres, a good friend from college, is in town this week, and Friday afternoon, we had some time to hang out and go for a walk through the parks and to Horse Guards Parade, Parliament and Westminster Abbey. We took some fabulously campy, touristy photos, too. Yes, we were those people taking pictures with the Horse Guards. And Ceres garnered some hearty guffaws while taking a photo in a phone booth. I don’t know why the people were laughing so hard, though — the phone booths in Westminster are always full of tourists.
Though the royal guards in front of Buckingham Palace can be interesting to watch — all their pacing and stomping and saluting can be quite dramatic — you never get all that close to the action. There are large gates, big crowds and a lot of distance between you. It’s not like in the movies where you can go up and mess with the guards next to their stations. Horse Guards Parade is more like the movies, but with horses and much stranger uniforms.
We came to Horse Guards Parade through the archway from St. James Park. The building and guards originally served as the entrance to Buckingham Palace, but since the park and other streets near it are now open, it only serves a ceremonial purpose.
On Wednesday, I went running in St. James Park and Green Park again. To switch things up from Monday’s run, I tried running around the lake in a counterclockwise direction. Clockwise definitely has better views, though this proved to be a much more interesting people-watching and wildlife-viewing run. What did I run across?
Today, I went for another run — this time in the other nearby parks, St. James Park and Green Park, which are adjacent to Buckingham Palace. I thought Hyde Park was great on my Saturday run, but St. James Park turned out to be a real treat.I entered Green Park off Piccadilly Street and jogged pretty close to straight through until I saw something interesting. There were fancy gates, a giant statue with the top figure in gold and lo and behold, Buckingham Palace itself, a rather unassuming and monochrome building, though it has a commanding presence. I almost forgot it was so close! I took a moment to gape, but jogged on, entering St. James Park at the top of its lake.
I stopped to check out the view from of the palace from the bridge over the lake, though once again I felt that the Horse Guards view was nicer, and jogged up to the palace and took a weaving way back through Green Park’s small, rolling hills, which make the park feel very private and quiet, despite its proximity to busy Piccadilly.
