After eating my first ever dim sum on my first ever day in London, it was time to go for a stroll. Peter and I walked out the front door of the Royal Garden Hotel and hung a quick left. Thirty seconds later we were at the entrance to Kensington Gardens on our way to Hyde Park.
Hyde Park is 350 acres and home to over 4,000 trees, The Serpentine lake and Diana Memorial Fountain.
Though, technically, Kensington Gardens and Palace are not a part of Hyde Park, they seamlessly blend together. The Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park map demonstate:
We started our loop in the Gardens heading towards the Palace. The plan was to continue clockwise until we ended up where we started. That is quite a plan after a 10 hour flight, no sleep for 24 hours and a welcome-to-London cocktail at Min Jiang.
But, I was ready to get this travel vacation rolling and didn’t want to miss one minute of new adventures or exploration.
The gate at Kensington Palace was stunning and William III greeted us out front. What a nice guy.
The flowers were all in bloom in the gardens. Luckily, they were also fenced in or else I would have had a beautiful bouquet for my hotel room.
Their landscaper did an impressive job on these perfectly manicured hedges which lead to the resident cafe, The Orangery.
We continued our walk, through the thousands on trees, to Hyde Park.
We passed Serpentine Bridge, the boundary between Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park.
The Serpentine, a 28 acre recreational lake, tempted me with their blue paddle boats. But, that may have thrown my tired body right over the edge. No pun intended.
Approaching the Princess Diana Memorial fountain, I had to do a double take. This was not your typical fountain, instead it was one continuous circle of shallow streaming water.
The laughter of the children enjoying this memorial could be heard a dozen feet away.
Heading back towards our Kensington entrance, I was stopped in my tracks by the grandest statue I have ever witnessed.
The Prince Albert Memorial was commissioned by Queen Victoria in memory of her husband who died of typhoid. The statue is 176 feet tall and took over ten years to complete.
The sky is turning dark and it is time to put me and my first day in London to bed. Goodnight.
Have you ever taken a stroll through Hyde Park? What was the most striking statue you have ever seen?
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Wow everything about that place looks so VERY British!
That’s what was so great about it ;)
I work in LDN occasionally and there's nothing better than wandering through Hyde Park int he sunshine – I love how your photos have really captured the essence of it! Especially the one with the kids running through the water – makes me want to do the same!! xx
It was sunny that day so there were just tons of people out enjoying themselves, including me :)
I love walking through Kensington and Hyde Park. I recently moved to London and these parks are wonderful.
I love the parks and London itself! I can’t wait until I get to return :)
You have a inspirational life list. I'm writing mine.
I have always wanted to go to londons hyde park.
Thank you! Happy to hear you have started to write a life list. Mine has change my life & I hope yours does the same :)
London is pretty good place. You don't need to have a car. A long walk is okay to satisfy you with it's beauty.
Beautiful place! It feels so relaxing while walking through the Kensington Garden.. The flowers are all beautiful! Thanks for sharing some of your photos..
Love this post! London is one of my dreamed countries that i want to visit someday and how i wish i could visit this awesome park. Thanks for sharing these lovely photos with us!
I do hope you get the chance to visit Hyde Park. Next time I would love to see it when all the trees have their leaves.
What a beautiful park! I love the hedges. Every park needs a hedge maze that goes on forever and forever…..
– Jo
So agreed :)
I was fortunate to spend some time in London many years ago and really enjoyed walking its parks. The flowers are beautiful, as you showed in your photos, and Hyde Park is so nice.
The flowers were so pretty. I wish I would have made it to the other parks in London.
Wonderful photo essay! I love the diversity in your shot selection. It makes me feel like I am right there now :)
I wish I was still there right now :)
Very spectacular! Thanks for this contribution,
One thing I want to make clear is regarding the Memorial for Princess Diana, it is despicable that people walk through it, as it is a memorial this should not happen – although yes Diana ”loved children” it is disrespectful regardless of whom does it, PS: there is actually a ‘Diana Memorial playground’ too in Kensington Gardens where children obviously can have all the fun they want, it has a large pirate ship with beach sand and nice picnic areas etc. My grandson loved it there much more so than the water fountain memorial.
The reason for my rant is that if you ever visit there in Summer it is really bad how the general british / london population act there in the memorial, parents do not supervise their kids properly and let them make a huge mess & disturbance there, not to mention the middle eastern visitors who do not know what the purpose of a rubbish bin is!!!
London uses it as a free swimming pool and this is distgusting of them
I had a chat with one of the staff there and he said he works very hard to clean the fountain every day for about 2-3 hours before opening only to watch it get ruined within just a couple of hours on hot summer days, they also said the general public are extremely stroppy when the staff have to approach them to enforce the rules which are Clearly marked on the signage at the entrance.
Sorry for the ranting, I have watched London’s morales degrading over the last two decades
RIP Diana – Loved your pictures of the parks, thanks again
Thank you for the insight. You have definitely given me a different perspective to the Diana Memorial and how it should be respected.