And the winner is!

Okay. Finished with the walks and, after contemplating all my different experiences, I've come up with my top three!!

First would definitely have to be Regent's Park. As I remember it, this day was one of the first warmer days and was the perfect situation to walk through such a pretty park. This was also one of the more fun walks because I was tired and kept complaining and they forever tease me about it to this day. It was a peaceful atmosphere walking through the parks and away from the city life. Definitely worth a trip if I ever come back to London.

After Regent's Park I'd have to say Soho to Trafalgar Square. I would recommend this walk to anyone that was planning on coming to London. It's a great way to see many London sites including Chinatown and, my favourite, Trafalar Square. I remember having such a good time on this walk and there's tons of cute restaurants and shopping places that I want to go back there! Definitely a good way to experience London.

For my third favourite, it's only appropriate that I picked Westboune Park to Notting Hill. I really loved this walk even for being one of my last ones. We went kind of quickly but I still loved getting a feel for where I was living. I have loved my time here at Palace Court and Notting Hill and this just made me love it more. It made me even more sad to leave, seeing Portabello Market and then eventually winding up on familiar streets. It's such a cool feeling knowing your way around a city that you've never been to before.

Living here has opened my eyes to life and I've loved every minute of it. And of these walks. I probably wouldn't know London half as well as I do if I hadn't done these walks. It helped me see London the way a true Londoner might and helped me see all different sides of this wonderful city! I'll miss it with all my heart :)

2. Westminster to St. James

30 March 2011: My last walk. I was so excited and ready to be done that nothing could bring me down! Except for the weather. The stupid weather suddenly decided to be dreadful on the one day that I had to do my last walk. Grrr. It was wet and windy and not what I wanted. But, I forged through. We were determined. Me, Emily, Brittani, Liz, and Michelle all headed out to complete it. Luckily, I had already seen most of the sites that are along the walk on good, sunny, warm days so I wasn't too upset. This time around, it was interesting to have the book as commentary on the statues and what everything really was. It was also an experience to see all the tourists crowding everywhere! It's like they're taking over the city!! I think the one thing I liked was seeing the Horse Guards Parade (because we turned on an earlier street) because as soon as we walked up to it, all the guards on their horses were getting ready to march out and head over to Buckingham Palace, so that was a neat thing.

So, I guess, for my last walk, it wasn't awful and it was a completely satisfying feeling. I can't believe how quickly everything has happened and that we're going home so soon. I'm going to miss wandering the city (and sometimes getting lost) and experiencing the London life everyday.

4. The City (East)

28 March 2011: Did this walk with Sharon! Because we were the only ones who still had to do it haha! But it was a nice change of pace, again. We did the walk super fast and I figured out that the trick to these walks is to have two people have a Walks Book and one people read the directions and extra stories and one person look just at the map! It's brilliant! Too bad I'm finding this out now, when I only have one walk left.. But, all went well on the walk. We didn't get lost at all, and like I said, we did it in no time at all! I loved being in the part of the city where all the businessmen are because it just felt like a different world. Everything was higher class and just a nice atmosphere. There were moments I felt a little out of place but I still enjoyed it. I also loved all the cool architecture there was and what contrasts we noticed. There would be really cool, old looking church buildings right next to an O2 store - very modern in comparison. So that was neat to see how London maintains their history! Overall, a really cool walk.




1. Westbourne Park Station to Notting Hill

26 March 2011: Me and Emily ventured out today to complete a walk. This one seemed to be the only one we had in common. So, we went to Westbourne Park Station and began our walk. I was leading because I had the book and, suprisingly, didn't get us lost AT ALL! And we did it super fast. In less than two hours even though it's supposed to take like two and a half hours. We even stopped and shopped in Portabello Market and got some super cute stuff!! Overall, it was a great walk. Super easy and fun to be with just Emily. We had a blast and I love that it ended right at our house pretty much. I also love that it's almost spring and the flowers are blooming and everything's gorgeous! It was a great day :)

The prettiest houses :)

11. Kew to Hammersmith

As you can see, Emily is awesome a talking pictures!

19 March 2011: Emily Layton, Brittani Coats, and I did this walk together and had a fun but interesting time. We started off the walk pretty on track and even found a cute bookshop at the beginning of the walk! Then, somehow, somewhere, I think we began to lose interest an didn't seem to think to look at the map and just kept walking along the Thames Path. Then, we had a bathroom emergency and finding a bathroom became our first priority. Unfortunately we were way of track and there wasn't a bathroom for miles. So, tired, hungry, and desperate for a bathroom, the situation just started getting more and more ridiculous with every wrong turn. Finally we found the sign to Hammersmith Bridge and realized we were close to the end! So we found a bathroom in the tube station and all was well again. Consequently, I can't remember much of what I saw on the walk except the river Thames and all the boats for the rowing races coming up! That was a neat experience because there were so many prepping to race. The walk was also a beautiful walk and I enjoyed being more in the country where people live and not so much in the city. Even if that may not be where we were supposed to go :)

8. Lambeth and South Bank

19 February 2011: Did this walk with Natalie and Amanda and, unfortunately, I think we were lost and/or backwards the whole time. We finally found our way once we got onto Lanbeth Street but before that, it was looking a little worrisome. It was rainy this day and cold but I enjoyed walking along the Thames and seeing how busy it was by the London Eye. There were street performers and facepainting like some sort of carnival was going on. Then, at the end of the walk, we ended up on The Strand and decided to find the Twinings original tea shop. We asked some people for directions and they sent us the wrong way! But Amanda was determined so we asked like 3 more people and finally ended up in the right place. The shop was smaller than I expected but it smelled DIVINE! Such a cool place :) So, this walk ended up pretty great and I had a fun time with a different crowd. It was a nice change of pace.

12. Regent's Park

Such a beautiful day!

8 February 2011: this walk I did with Emily Layton, Brittani, Shelbi, and Jaynann. This was by far the prettiest walk I've been on! Regent's Park and the zoo is such a gorgeous area! Everything was so green and it was a cloudless day so it was perfect! We were a little rushed in order to get back in time for class but still thoroughly enjoyed it! I love when we walked up that hill in Primrose park and it was warm and sunny and you could see London for miles and everything was beautiful! I can't imagine what it's going to be like once spring rolls around! I also loved going by all the ponds and fountains. Everything was so peaceful; I could sit and read there for hours. I also got excited about the London Zoo. I still haven't gone but it's on my list and I need to do that soon! Overall, I really loved this walk, I just wish we could have had more time on it and not been so rushed.

5. Fleet Street and St. Paul's

2 February 2011: this walk I did with Emily Young, Emily Layton, Megan Bruner, and Brittney Radman. We Started off on the wall okay, finding St. Paul's easily enough but after that, we had a little bit more difficulty making our way around. This wasn't a hugely exciting walk with the main sight at the very start, but as with all the others, if you're with the right people, the walk turns into a good time. We saw the house of Dr. Samuel Johnson and that was neat because I love his quote about "When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life" because it is turning out to be all too true!! Everything, even some of the not-so-exciting stuff is turning out to be a terrific experience! Take this walk for example; not the most exciting but still, you get to see London and get out in the city. I am really enjoying these walks and am thankful for them because they get us out and about :)

yes, we really enjoyed pretending to be sheep in the middle of a crowded square.

Loved seeing St. Paul's - it was bigger than I thought!

3. Soho to Trafalgar Square

31 January 2011: I did this walk with Emily Layton, Liz Ammons, Shelbi Bluemel, Megan Bruner, and Brittney Radman. A very fun group! This was also a very fun walk and one of my favourites. We didn't get lost on this one like everyone warned us we would.

At the very beginning, we stopped in this adorable little vintage looking toy shop and just sort of looked around and the cool knick-knacks. Then we continued walking. We kept making a mental note to come back there on a Saturday for a our meals because there were a ton of cute restaurants that also looked delicious! Then we stopped in a shoe store and then this store called "Vintage Magazines" and we looked around for a little bit but some of the other girls wanted to keep going. So as we were walking out I just happened to look at this little tee shirt rack and I found the tee shirt that I've been looking for! So I bought it and am very happy with my decision.

We then found ourselves in Chinatown! We took pictures and goofed around a little and are going to go back on Saturday for a real Chinese food dinner to celebrate Chinese New Year on Sunday. 

Since we made our way to Trafalgar Square, we went into the National Gallery for one of our classes and then had a blast playing around in the square on the Lions around Nelson's Column :)

So I really enjoyed this walk. I love that it was warmer out this day and we got to enjoy every moment. Looking forward to more like this :)

9. Inns of Court

24 January 2011: This walk, the Inns of Court, was an interesting one. It was pretty cold this day and a lot of the things on the walk seemed repetitious and, frankly, kind of boring. It started at Temple Tube stop which we all got a laugh about because it was where we had to run around to try and find The Woman In Black play and we all looked silly. So the walk was interesting as far as some of the sites we saw. We stopped on Fleet Street (Sweeney Todd) and got to see The Old Curiosity Shop immortalized by Charles Dickens, which I thought was pretty neat. We got a little bit lost at one point because we couldn't find the City of York Pub anywhere and we eventually had to ask for directions. We still never found the pub but still got on the right track. Then, towards the end of the walk, I felt like we were walking around the same place 5 times every time we would go into a "square". They all looked the same and there wasn't anything really exiting about them. Plus, I think we were all cold and just ready to be done that we had lost interest. So, overall it was a good walk but not the most interesting. I think it would have been nicer to do in the springtime when everything would be in bloom, and, not to mention, warm.

10. Bankside and Southwark

19 January 2011: This walk was an interesting one and probably my favourite so far. It was a beautiful day and the sun was out for the first time in a while. The walk took us along the Thames river and down by the Tower Bridge and Tower of London. This was my favourite because of all the cool sites. It was such a different part of London and all the buildings were so old and beautiful, made from brick. The walk itself had some interesting stops along the way like Millennium Bridge, The Clink Prison Museum (which I will be going back to), The Globe Theatre, Tower Bridge, and The Borough Market, which we stopped and got some bread and chocolate at. It was delicious! We had a very fun group of girls and just had a wonderful time seeing the sites and hearing about everything. Like I said, this was probably my favourite one so far!!

6. Bloomsbury Walk

14 January 2011. This walk, I led with Emily Layton and, unfortunately we got a little bit lost. We went to the British Museum first and then just started the walk from the back of that and after we crossed Russell Square Gardens and found what we thought was Russell Square Station and made sure it was "on our right". But we couldn't find street names so we just started walking. But instead of being on Bernard Street, we were on Woburn Place. So we kept walking and following the map and got totally turned around. But, eventually we found our way and continued. The rest of the walk was interesting. I really liked Cosmo Place because it was so different from the rest of the area. We walked through this alley way that was quiet and old looking and then out onto a busy street and back into daily life. Pretty fun walk and very glad we eventually found our way:)

7. Central Parks Walk

January 8th, 2011. This walk was a beautiful path through London's biggest parks. It was freezing this day, so it was difficult to really enjoy this walk. After seeing Buckingham Palace, we walked through St. James' Park and saw the pond with all the swans and pelicans and other birds. The thing I thought was cool was how comfortable the animals were with humans. Ducks just walked right up to us, looking for a handout, and the squirrels, too. I absolutely love how green it is here because, coming from Arizona, you don't see that too often.

I loved when we eventually got to Kensington Gardens and it was so beautiful , like nothing I'd ever seen. It felt like how I imagine Central Park in New York City to be. There were people and their dogs playing and having a good time and rollerskating and bike riding on this not rainy day. I can imagine people learn to appreciate the parks on days like this because they have somewhere so pretty to go to. Overall, it was a very neat experience!