London in the Sunshine... Plus: Bunnies!

My goodness the weather in July was amazing. So much sunshine! So many bright blue skies!

This is what the sky looked like when I headed into London for a Nice Day Out and the 4th Crafty Cuppa. Nice, huh?

 

No-one had let me know they were coming along to that particular Crafty Cuppa so I wasn't really expecting anyone to, but I would have felt terrible if someone had shown up and I'd not been there!

Normally I go and visit something like a museum or a gallery before the Crafty Cuppas, but I got up so late that day that my Nice Day Out ended up being a Nice Afternoon Out instead. Oops. So, I headed straight to the Museum of London and read my book for a bit until I was sure no-one was gonna show up. Then I went into the museum's lovely cafe, drank tea and read my book some more (it was a pretty good book).

 

 

 

I then had a look round some of my favourite galleries in the museum (it's a great place, and free to visit! I really recommend it if you've not been before) then decided to take advantage of the nice weather and go for a walk.

Just round the corner from the museum is Postman's Park (so called because it was a popular lunch spot for the workers of the nearby General Post Office headquarters) which is a surprisingly quiet little space for busy central London.

The park contains the fascinating Watts Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice - a wall of ceramic tablets, commemorating men, women and children who lost their lives while attempting to save others. This is, as you might expect, a touching and at times heartbreaking memorial. If you're interested in reading some of the tablets you can find photos here.

 

Next I walked to nearby shopping centre One New Change, where they have a roof terrace with a great view over London (many thanks to the lovely person who left a comment on my blog telling me about this!). Typically, this was the moment the weather chose to cloud over but the views were still pretty good - especially the view of St Pauls!

 

After admiring the views I headed back down to street level and walked round St Pauls...

... and through Christopher Wren's Temple Bar gateway, which once stood where the Strand meets Fleet Street.

Then I walked to the Tube and headed to the National Portrait Gallery to visit this year's BP Portrait Award exhibition. Such an interesting variety of different portraits!

 

If things had gone to plan, this is where this blog post would have ended: with me heading homewards. Unfortunately, the hot summer weather made the Tube unbearably hot and I felt a little like I might faint (not good!) so I got off several stops early, at South Kensington.

The thought of getting back on the horribly hot Tube was not something I relished, so I decided to walk back to Paddington instead - taking a leisurely stroll through Kensington Gardens.

 

The park was looking lovely in the sunshine, and I stopped to have an icecream along the way (yum).

 

Then when walking along the Hyde Park side of the Long Water (right by the Henry Moore arch)  I stumbled upon something quite delightful: a patch of grass filled with bunnies! I counted a couple of dozen, nibbling the grass and leaping about, it was quite magical.

 

 

 
Watching them was incredibly relaxing (watch this little video I found of one of the Hyde Park bunnies and you'll see what I mean!), and a really lovely end to my day. A field full of bunnies beats an overheated Tube carriage full of sweaty armpits hands down :)