Around Hyde Park

Yesterday, we explored Hyde Park on foot. The park is a massive green space bigger than the Principality of Monaco but slightly smaller than New York's Central Park. However, adding up the acreage of the other contiguous 'Royal Parks' in this part of London blows all of Manhattan's green spaces away. Hyde Park is massive with two large lakes and many different green spaces that are unique and beautiful. Here are some examples of what you can see in December, so you can imagine what it looks like in the summer:

This lake is shaped like a snake and so it is aptly named The Serpentine

This is a zoomed-in shot of the Eye and behind it the unfinished Shard (a future office building)

Nice pruning job

Flowers in December

Horses have the right-of-way

A typical pathway, bikes on the right

 It was our goal to see Kensington Palace and we made it there to the far end of the park but the palace itself was being remodelled so we couldn't go in for a tour. Many of you will know that this is where William and Harry were raised by their mother Diana who lived until there until her death and much of the grounds around the palace has now been dedicated to the memory of Diana.

Kensington Palace under renovation

Fountains at Kensington Palace

Playground dedicated in memory of Diana

As we made the turn back towards our hotel we came across the dedication to Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria. It is a very large monument.

And across the street from the monument which is on the edge of the park is the Royal Albert Concert Hall.

On the way back along Rotten Row which tracks the course of The Serpentine the Boss noticed people carrying shopping bags which happened to be from the famous Harrod's department store, so that was our next objective. The store is two blocks from the park and those two blocks were crowded with weekend shoppers. We got inside the store, so that we can say we were there but it was so crowded that we had to bail out so that we could breathe again. My advise is to stay away from this area just prior to Christmas.

Tonight we head for Heathrow and jump on a South African Airways jet to Cape Town. My next blog will come at you from there. I wanted to leave you with an article that was on page 44 of The Times here in London. I laughed so hard I almost died. It is titled, "Dog Shoots Man on Duck Hunt".


"Dog Shoots Man on Duck Hunt - from the December 2, 2011 Issue of The Times

It wasn't the dog's bark that got to a Utah man, nor was it the bite.  It was the animal's marksmanship that landed Robert Cottingham in hospital after his posterior was peppered with shotgun pellets.

The story of how Pipper, a golden labrador, shot Mr. Cottingham in the buttocks on a duck hunting trip last Sunday has brought a level of excitement unheard of to the quiet waters of the Great Salt Lake in Box Elder County, Utah.  Kevin Potter, a Sheriff's Deputy and Box Elder County man born and bred, said that he had never heard anything like it in 18 years of service.

Mr. Cottingham, 46, was duck hunting with his friend Chris Warren and Mr. Warren's dog Pipper when the incident happened.  The party were in a skiff in a shallow marsh area when Mr. Cottingham got out of the boat to retrieve a wounded mallard.

He laid his 12-bore shotgun across the bow of the boat.  Pipper jumped up and trod on the gun, firing pellets into Mr. Cottingham's behind from a distance of 10ft (3m).

Mr. Cottingham was pulling the boat off the bank at the time and only remembers hearing a commotion and a gunshot.  Only afterwards did he realize he had been shot, according to a police report.

The men dialled 911 and a helicopter was called, but Mr. Cottingham was taken by car to hospital, where staff removed 27 pellets."



That a British national newspaper would print this article tells you something about the British sense of humour.