No. 2: Let's go to the park (UK edition)

After the customs line and after the train ride and the emergence from Paddington Station, my first real hour in London was spent in a park. I arrived too early to get into my flat and needed somewhere to wait. While it's incredibly common to see people walking their suitcases in the city the way other people walk their dogs, I'm pretty sure mine was the only one that went off pavement that day. One human did look at me with a little concern (and, oddly enough, I may have known her), but I was perfectly content to chill with the flock for a while.

Parks here tend to be orderly and tranquil.

 There are formal memorials to royalty and smaller tributes to more famous Brits.

So happy to have to pass this way on my way to the museum each morning.

  

Peter

This dove is hidden in the base of Peter's statue

Of course, as big as the park is, you can never escape the fact that you are still in a giant city with cars circling the perimeter and planes crisscrossing the sky overhead. Fortunately, there are other places to ramble, just a few tube stops north of town. You can still see the egg and the Shard, and even the Eye, from Hampstead, but it seems like a different world.

Oh, look. They have a brown cloud, too. Didn't notice that before.

The trees here are close friends with moss. North is obvious. Kind of.

I appreciate a good tree. Hampstead is about the same size as Central Park but twice as wild, and, like Central Park, I feel like I only saw a tiny part of it. All the more reason to visit again some day.