The last time I visited London was the mid-winter, just before the New Year. It was cold, and grey, and colorless, punctuated only by their signature red telephone booths and double decker buses. It even snowed the last few days I was there.
I don’t mind visiting big cities and doing urban trips in less than perfect weather. You can still see so much beauty in cities in inclement weather. Adventurous outdoors, hiking and beach trips get first preference for optimal weather.
Daffodils in Green Park
Nevertheless, I was excited to visit London in the spring. One of my favorite things to do is visit big cities with a strong dedication to protecting and maintaining public space. And London is one of the most exciting. The city is blanketed with open space, monuments, and beautifully landscaped parks and public squares. These places are busy all year, but they are at their best when the sun finally peeks through the clouds. As a local friend told us, “the city wakes up and people are nicer to each other” in the springtime.
We had one morning that was quite overcast, but it cleared up in early afternoon. The rest of the time was vibrant, sunny, and wonderful week to explore the city’s beautiful parks and public spaces, without the crowds you get later in the summer. We found that late April/ springtime in London is a great time to visit the city.
Here are some photos of the stunning parks and public places spaces we visited in London:
Kensington Palace on an overcast morning
Kensington Gardens bike and pedestrian path, with a view of the London Eye and the Shard.
Horseback riding in Kensington Gardens
Dogs (and kids!) love the ducks in this Hyde Park pond
A bike tour passes the Wellington Arch
Westminster Abbey
Trafalgar Square. This was the only time there was not a kid climbing on the lion!
Brightly colored flowers in St. James Park
A couple on a park bench in St. James Park
Green Park in the late afternoon
More Green Park shadows!
The path along the Thames River stretches for miles across the city.
Golden Jubilee Bridge
A steady stream of people checking out Big Ben at night. With this view, can you blame ’em?
Love Green Park! How about a post about London’s food? 🙂
Great idea, thanks, Vee! I actually really loved London’s food. I’m on it 🙂
Great pictures. I’d love to visit London again, I’ve been there once on a school trip 10 years ago. I’m curious to see how much my opinion of the place, and the place itself has changed.
I’m sure it will be more fun on your own than it was under the watchful eye of your teachers 🙂 London is big and diverse, I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite city, but I can’t imagine that anyone who likes cities could not enjoy London. Did you grow up in the UK? If not, that’s a quite an exciting school trip!
I’m from the Netherlands actually. Our school always organized trips to European cities, to get their students acquainted with differences in culture and what not. They put us in homestays usually, which could be fun, or terrible depending on your host (and the fact we’re talking about 16 y/o kids here).
I visited London and Cologne, my sister visited Paris, Berlin and Prague (same school), and some time before they took a class to Rome as well. We always got at least an afternoon and evening off to explore the cities on our own which was great.
Also, drunk teachers are quite hilarious.
Ahh yes, that’s a wonderful program! I know a French guy who did a similar homestay in London when he was young and remember he said he had terrible time. But like you said, he admits it was partly because he didn’t get along with the host family’s kids, and partly because he was just a generally introverted teenager. But what a great way to inspire you to see the world! And show you that your teachers are, in fact, real human beings 🙂
Love all the parks!
Thanks, Ayngelina! We were lucky to get (mostly) good weather!