Final

It's hard  to choose my favorite three walks. It would be much easier to choose my least favorite walks because I felt like with the exception of a few, most of them were really cool and really enjoyable. But because I have to pick a top three, I would say that the Central Parks walk, the Bankside and Southwark walk and the Westminster and St. James walk were my favorite. I liked these three the best because each one offered a different aspect of London and all three kind of come together to create a generalization of why I love London.

I really enjoyed the Central Parks walk because it was a really peaceful walk. I love London's parks and I liked going through a bunch of them all at once. It was interesting because I felt like each park was really unique, which is different from the parks I've experienced in America. The parks I've been to in America are pretty typical, general parks with some grass and a play set. Parks here in London are so varied. Some have a lot of trees, some have a pond, some have various monuments. I also just really like the atmosphere of all the parks. Though they are pretty social places sometimes, I also feel like they are someplace quite in the middle of the big city.

I like the Bankside and Southwark walk because I thought it had some absolutely gorgeous architecture along the way. That is another part of London that I really enjoy seeing. There is such a mix of different kinds of architecture all in one tiny area and I think it's really interesting to look at.  I loved the Southwark Cathedral; I think it was one of my favorite cathedrals I've seen here. I also loved the Tower Bridge. It's kind of a magical place in an inexplicable way. But those are just a few of the amazing places to see along the walk.

The Westminster and St. James walk was one of the more crowded walks so I didn't necessarily enjoy that aspect. But when I did that walk, that was when I started to realize how small London really is and how close together everything is. Riding the tube everywhere makes things seem so far away, when really its not far at all. The walk took us through some great places, and some touristy places I didn't even realize existed, so that was interesting. I also liked this walk because I thought that it kind of embodied the typical London that people think about when they think London. Even though we've been here for so long and I don't always consider myself a tourist, there really are some fabulous tourist places and this walk included some of my more favorite sites such as Westminster Abbey, which is a breathtaking building no matter how many times I've seen it.

Lambeth and the South Bank

Hannah, Tara and I went on this walk together and I led the walk. This was a really pretty walk I thought. Unfortunately there were a lot of things that I had wanted to see that were closed because we went later in the day. We didn't get to go inside the Florence Nightingale Museum, nor did we get to see the Roman Bath. We just had to look at the outside of it, but maybe we'll find some time to go back later. I think my favorite part of the walk was the second half, once we started walking along the Thames. Although the Thames is a pretty gross river, there are some amazing views from the both sides and from all of the bridges that cross the river. I love seeing the London skyline from so many different areas along the Thames. We took a little detour and went up on the Westminster Bridge to get some pictures, which was beautiful. Walking past the London Eye was pretty crazy. I hadn't been up that close to it yet because I'm absolutely terrified of heights and have no desire to get on it. Seeing how huge it is was incredible. I also thought it was interesting that the book said the London Eye was originally a temporary thing, put up to celebrate the millennium. So it hasn't even been in London that long, only 11 years, but it is such an iconic part of London. I also thought it was really interesting when I was reading about the footbridge that's connected to the Hungerford Bridge that England just seems to put up all of these new building projects as a way of celebration. For example, the London Eye and then the footbridge that was put there in celebration of the Queens golden jubilee. It is an interesting cultural thing. I liked crossing the Waterloo Bridge as well. It had some great views. Right before we went up onto the bridge, there was this giant living room set covered in fake grass stuff. It was so weird! But way cool at the same time. It was a great little walk overall.

London Eye

Crazy duck statue. Hannah must not like it very much...

Central Parks

I went on the Central Parks walk with Tara and Amy. We also brought along the Miller's cousin Jared. We decided it would be fun to go on a bike ride for this walk and that was one of the best decisions we've ever made. I was a little nervous at first because I hadn't ridden a bike in over 10 years so I was pretty sure I was going to fall flat on my face. Luckily for me it really is true when they say you never forget how to ride a bike. We hopped on and started biking through the parks. I really like how the walk was laid out because I felt like each park we went through got more and more beautiful and peaceful. I especially loved St. James park. It was the prettiest park I have ever been in. I've liked the parks in London since the very first day we got here and walked around Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, but this walk made me love them even more. I really feel like they add so much to the city and I wish we had great parks like that in Provo. It was also fun to go along with Jared and hear some of his life story, especially since they live in Lincoln.

On our bikes!