Piccadilly and another Park

Finishing up the afternoon and evening in London, we hopped on the tube to Piccadilly Circus. This was the most tourist- filled site we had been to yet, and London souvenir shops lined the nearby streets. The large video screens were playing Coca-Cola ads, and it looked just like it did in pictures. We sat on the fountain in the square to rest our feet for a while. Not long after checking out our list of things to do and consulting our map, on the tube again we went, this time to Hyde Park.

We passed by the Wellington Arch as we arrived at Hyde Park; a lion and a unicorn met us at the gate. The Rose Garden was magical, there were beautiful exotic birds flitting around. Little benches in romantic corners welcomed us to take a break. Diana’s memorial walk covered the length of the park and included her memorial fountain. We rested our aching feet there for a while, observing all the ducks playing in the water.

There were trees we could walk under that towered high above us, willows with low hanging branches, and trees with roots that seemed to come out the top before they hit the ground. There were squirrels playing under them, bigger than I had ever seen. We hopped on our first double decker red London bus in Kensington because we were exhausted of walking.

Finally arriving back at Piccadilly Circus, we decided to dine at the Angus Steakhouse. I had lamb and mashed potatoes, soaked in gravy. I savored it as it melted in my mouth. After dinner, we stopped at a tourist shop across the street where we picked up key chains, a few gifts for others back home, a “Mind the Gap” hoodie for my sister, and an Oxford sweatshirt for myself.

We didn’t arrive back to our hotel until 9:30 at night, and we went to sleep right away so we could be up for our early morning flight out of Stansted airport.