Skip to main content

Palaces, Parks and Churches

Commuting to work by foot has to be my favorite way to start the day. The roads and parks are pretty much empty, the air isn't quite so polluted and I get my blood flowing for the rest of the day.

It's getting lighter out pretty quickly. Sunrise was at 6:37am, which means most of my run I could actually see where I was going. Today's 7 mile route took me from Hammersmith to St. Paul's via Hyde Park.


Just a couple weeks ago when I would run this same route, Hyde Park would be pitch black. There are very few lights in the park, which made it very tough to see where I was going...go figure! But now that the sun is up, I get to appreciate it for all of its beauty.

I entered Hyde Park at Kensington Palace, where Princess Diana lived until her death in 1997 and where Princes William and Harry were raised. Many Royals still live here today. Definitely a place to visit if you come to London.

A statue of Queen Victoria sits out front of Kensington Palace

From there, I headed to the north side of the park then headed east, going past the stunning Italian Water Gardens.

Italian Water Gardens

Following the north side of the park until I got to Marble Arch, I then heading south towards Wellington Arch.

Achilles Statue

Wellington Arch
My route from Wellington Arch to work makes me pass Buckingham Palace. Oh darn!

Buckingham Palace

I like to dissect St. James Park to get to the river. On the opposite end of the park from Buckingham Palace is the Horse Guards Parade, literally where they have parades by the Horse Guard.

Horse Guards Parade

If you go through one of the arches in the middle of the white building on the right and continue straight, you eventually hit The Thames and the London Eye.

London Eye

Then it's the home stretch for about a mile or so to work, which is right next to St. Paul's Cathedral.

St. Paul's Cathedral

By the time I get to work, I've already gotten my training done, I haven't disrupted any family time, and I'm ready to take on the day. If you haven't tried a run commute, do it. You'll love it.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

No more trips to Vietnam

Well, last week was a big week for me. I decided to leave FCG and return to work for Coca-Cola Enterprises. I had been talking with the people I know at CCE since late last year about working with them and they finally had a position open up a couple of weeks ago. I'm excited to go back there and work on the business side of the company versus the IT side. I start on Apri l16. I will be working in the Revenue Management Department as the Forecasting & Planning Manager. Essentially I will be the business process owner, facilitator, and coordinator of all forecasting and planning activities within the company. That involves working with all of the regional and corporate business units to ensure that the tools and related processes are thoroughly integrated across finance, revenue management, supply chain, logistics and sales. I will also be responsible for managing all of the support tools and solutions, so I still get to be a Project Manager. This is a big job with lo
6 comments
Read more

Dublin & Beyond

I arrived in Dublin Wednesday evening. Somehow the 1-hour flight from Heathrow made it in 30 minutes. How is that even possible? I'm staying at The Marker Hotel again. I stayed at The Marker when I first came to Dublin two years ago. Back then, it was their grand opening. This is one of the nicest hotels I've ever stayed in. Incredible service (more on that in a bit). Thursday and Friday I was teaching a 2-day Tableau class at the Facebook office. Since I was last here, Facebook has moved into a new office right next to The Marker. Facebook Dublin's new home From the 5th floor looking down at the cafeteria The rooftop has spectacular views of the entire city Thursday evening, my good friend Ivan took me to a local eatery called Lolly & Cooks. We kind of had to go here since nothing else was open. All of the pubs stop serving food at like 5:30pm. It's strange! We enjoyed a light meal of fish before taking on these amazing desserts. I went for the r
2 comments
Read more

Double Chocolate Chip Dream Cookies

If you love chocolate, these are the cookies for you. The name says it all...Double Chocolate Chip Dream Cookies. Indeed, they are a dream! It takes about 10 minutes to make the batter, then eight minutes to cook. You can be eating these in less time than it takes to watch an episode of The Office. To make them vegan:  Use 1/4 cup of applesauce (from Whole Foods in the UK) for each egg Replace the butter with margarine (make sure it's stick margarine) Use dark chocolate chips (you can get a 2KG bag of chocolate chips at Costco).  Unlike last time, when I used tub margarine and melted it too much, use stick margarine and let it come to room temperature to soften. This made a HUGE difference.  They're super delicious! Enjoy!
Post a Comment
Read more