17th September - Hyde Park/London Eye

17th September - Hyde Park/London Eye

We awoke to a beautiful sunny day. Today we caught a taxi to Hyde Park a huge park in the middle of London. We walked along the paths to reach Princess Diana’s memorial, which is a large circular man made stream, made out of granite (very unusual). It is supposed to resemble Princess Diana’s life.... I don’t really know what it resembled. Then we walked along the Serpentine path to the Peter Pan statue that A.M Barrie installed. He wrote Peter Pan and had it installed in the gardens at night. He got the inspiration to write his book from meeting a young boy named Peter in Hyde Park. Amazing to be standing in the same spot. There were lots of swans, ducks and geese, and we walked around to the round pond right in front of Kensington Palace, the last home of Princess Diana before she died  We walked through the Park, and saw lots of squirrels and nice gardens.  As we were walking, the Queens guards on horseback were trotting along the street so dad ran across to get a photo of them.  The roads were all blocked off as the Pope was in town, so we could walk in the middle of the road (a strange feeling)!  

We walked along to Buckingham Palace, which was surrounded by black and gold iron gates, and beautiful purple and red flowers.  There were 2 Queens guards standing guard at the front of the palace, they are on shifts and guard the palace 24 hours a day, every day of the year.  We took lots of photos and then walked down to the Queens guards stables, where the changing of the guards takes place every day at 11.30am.  There were two guards at the front on huge horses, their clothing and helmets etc where in perfect condition and very shiny.  We walked on to Trafalgar Square and climbed up onto the black lion statues for some photos.  In the middle of Trafalgar Square is  Nelsons Column. Lord Nelson had the Column built after his successful battles against Napoleon.  We had lunch at a Pub, then walked down to The London Eye.  There were people everywhere, and we had to line up for about half an hour for the tickets.  We went into a 4D show about the London Eye before we lined up to get on it.  (Check out the photos).  We had a great view of London.  After the London Eye, we caught a taxi back home.  Dad cooked up some pasta for dinner and we sat down and watched Lion King on DVD, and ate popcorn and chocolate.  Mum and Dad went to the West End to see the Live show Chicago!  They said it was great. We were asleep when they got home.