A Day in Hyde Park

     If there's one thing that dominates conversations among Londoners, it would be the weather. I've found it very interesting therefore, that in newscasts, weather may only be given 30 seconds to a minute over the course of an hour. The morning news does devote a little more time to it. Back in the states they normally get at least 3 minutes per half hour and often much more. I think the reason is that the weather is so often the same, and by the same I mean, not good. Cloudy, cool with a chance of rain...every day, more or less.

     This past March was the worst on record...so that's nice for our first one here. A couple weeks ago things started to improve. On a particularly nice day, I decided to take a stroll around Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. It was particularly warm, around 70, which is balmy here, so I thought there may be a lot of Londoners with the same idea. Yep.

Flowers in bloom

This reminds me of that one time I rode a horse...not.

There is a large lake called the Serpentine, and you can rent rowboats and paddle boats. Just don't hit a swan. Seriously, there are so many swans in the British Isles. We saw them in Ireland too.

Feeding time

On the edge of Hyde Park is the Royal Albert Hall and the Albert Memorial. The hall is a famous concert venue, and the memorial is famously over-the-top.

Some renovation going on

Two big attractions are the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain, which really looks like circular a river with small rapids. There were many kids playing in the fountain, including one small naked boy. He may have been only about 2, but this seemed very strange in such a public place. Also, the Italian Fountains were very nice, maybe my favorite place in the park.

Princess Diana Fountain

Italian Fountains

There are numerous sculptures throughout the parks, and London in general. I think there may be more here than in Athens or anywhere else we've been. Some better than others, of course.

Genghis Khan

Queen Victoria in front of Kensington Palace

There are many, many more but that would be a blog post unto itself. Not one I'll likely do, this is enough. I've realized these pictures don't show the crowds so much, but it was quite crowded. Many people having picnics and feeding ducks/swans/other birds. Actually, there were quite a few birds of all kinds.

Not today!! This is Round Pond in Kensington Gardens

Cute ducklings

Parakeets

Mandarin Duck, one of the prettiest birds I've ever seen

Hungry? Thirsty? Not a problem as there are restaurants and plenty of food booths/trucks.

Free Range Sausages?

There are buildings all around London that are called Mews. These are former horse stables that have usually been turned into trendy, but small flats. I believe there is only one in Central London still used for horses, and its just north of Hyde Park. People will ride horses through the city to the park.

It would be such a nice area to live around, not least because you'd have to be wealthy to do it.

British Telecom tower looming over the park (BT: gimme a job @ your sports network)

London Marathon

Six days after the tragic events of the Boston Marathon, I joined over half a million people along the route of the London Marathon. It may have been the event's largest ever turnout and was a brilliant defiance to any  threat of terrorism. Many of the competitors wore black ribbons and a moment of silence was held at the start for the victims in Boston. It was a beautiful, sunny day in London...that alone was reason to cheer. Now, if the trees would only get some leaves.

Race route looking east toward St. Paul's Cathedral

Looking west: the London Eye, Big Ben, and a double-decker bus crossing the Thames.

There were all ages in the crowd, many of whom were there with groups supporting various causes and charities. Every single runner that passed by was accompanied by cheers, whistles, and various noisemakers from the spectators. There were bands playing and a real family atmosphere. I could've done without the little boy whose mother allowed him to pee on the tree I was standing next to. Still...

Doggie wants some lunch

One of my favorite local charities

I don't understand the fake butts, and is that supposed to be bruising?

One of the nicer things to see from the spectators, on a day when there was already a great response, was the reception given to all of the disabled competitors. The wheelchair race is a very big deal, and many of the runners who had various disabilities, ran with a guide. You see the guides in some of these pictures wearing orange. Some of them had a leash, for lack of a better word, to help the runners who had some degree of blindness.

Several runners were missing all or portions of arms...

...or legs. This was really inspiring. There were several vets with war injuries.

I was standing somewhere between the 24 and 25 mile mark, right on the border of the City of London and London (see earlier post http://pongo-in-the-uk.blogspot.com/2013/01/so-what-country-am-i-in.html ). By the time they got to where I was, most were looking pretty tired. Surely the cheering of the fans was a big help to the competitors. This community really does support these type of events.

Water station

 

St. Paul's behind, the Thames to the right

 

I did see the winner go through, and all the top finishers in the men's elite race passed by while I was watching. The winner was Ethiopian Tsegaye Kebede, though he wasn't leading when he passed me. The leader at that time was 2011 champion Emmanuel Mutai. In the women's race, Kenya's Priscah Jeptoo won. Kebede won in 2:06:04, about 2 and a half minutes off world record pace of 2:03:38. To put that in perspective, its just slightly under 13 miles per hour. Crank up your treadmill to 13 mph and see how long you can hang on to that pace. Pretty impressive.

Mutai after he passed me; I was slow with my camera

Kebede, the winner

Ayele Abshero, third place

I must admit that in the 18+ years that I lived in Charlotte, I never went to watch their marathon. I feel a little bad about that, but this is one of those events that I feel like I need to see here in London. Yesterday we went to the Feast of St. George (the guy who slew the dragon). And I would've gone to Margaret Thatcher's funeral (no political agenda regarding this), but I had to take Pongo to the vet. Hopefully there will be many more events to come.

Feast of St. George, Trafalgar Square

Scotch eggs: hard-boiled egg wrapped in sausage, coated in breadcrumbs and baked

Umm, OK but they won't be a regular menu item

National Gallery

The dragon