St. James Park

One of the suggestions on the "Top 10 things to do in London" list that was posted in most of the travel forums I googled is visiting the city's many royal parks. Growing up on Peter Pan stories, I had Kensington Gardens in mind as the park was the setting of J.M. Barrie's book "Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens". Unfortunately, there were just too many places to go in the short time we had and we ended up in Saint James Park, the oldest of London's royal parks. It was just across the street from Buckingham Palace. I was so glad we did! The park was crawling with the cutest camera-friendly critters!





The squirrels in this park were super friendly. One actually climbed onto my lap, expecting to be fed! I was going to reach out for my camera, then changed my mind. The spell would have been broken.




And this pretty duck here just waddled up to me waiting to be photographed!


A plaque marking The Diana, Princess of Wales, Memorial Walk

Dedicated to the memory of the late princess, the walk is a 7-mile (11 km) long circular walking trail in London It goes between Kensington Gardens, Green Park, Hyde Park and St. James's Park in a figure-eight pattern, passing five sites that are associated with her life: Kensington Palace, Spencer House, Buckingham Palace, St. James's Palace, and Clarence House. It is marked with ninety individual plaques, each of which has a heraldic rose etched in the centre made of aluminium. It has been described as 'one of the most magnificent urban parkland walks in the world'.




We could see the Eye Of London from where we were standing.

If I lived in this country, I could see myself visiting the park daily, sitting on a bench all day, enjoying the invigorating cold air and watching the world go by!

"And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything."

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE