I take the morning bus from Kingston upon Thames to Teddington Lock and try a new juice drink (new to me, but I don’t remember what it was). The Shambles (meaning meat stall in Old English) restaurant was once Stapleton Butchers for almost 250 years. Some hooks and scales can still be found around the building, including chalkboards under the floorboards.

I walk along the River Thames back to Kingston. I pass a cyclist as his tube blows, sounding like a gunshot as it splits. It’s good that he has a spare because I haven’t seen a tire patch that big. I’m going back to the room, where guys are painting in the hall, so I can put on a second pair of socks. I grab some mini-donuts and a halloumi pesto waffle to eat in the company of a common starling.

I take the train to Kensington (Olympia) station and walk to Holland Park. There are beautiful buildings, attractive art pieces, and a couple that cycled to the park – the woman doing yoga poses on a set of stairs while the man photographs her. This is a popular place for using Canons and Kodaks – black coats and blue masks, glasses on and smiles wide, rolled up pants sat by a waterfall, and traipsing through the trees for a spot on a rock.

The Kyoto Garden incorporates many traditional types of Japanese gardens – dry rock, hill and pond, and strolling style, some being meant for meditation. The six fundamental elements of these are water, rocks, trees and flowers, bridges and fences, stone lanterns and water basins, and fish. These gardens are meant to instill peace and focus on the natural landscape.

A man is feeding lemon and salt peanuts to a squirrel, and another has found an apple. I’ll take advantage of this opportunity to capture them being still before moving on to Kensington Palace. The south side has a statue of William III, and the east side has a statue of Queen Victoria. Radu will join me at the Round Pond, and we will watch the swans, geese, pigeons, and other birds go about their avian activities.

There is a bronze cast, ‘Physical Energy,’ that was placed in Kensington Gardens in 1907. The other two casts are in South Africa and Zimbabwe. The cast seems life-size to me, and the full-size model is on display in the Watts Gallery. G.F. Watts describes his masterpiece as the impulse to seek the still unachieved in the domain of material things. Riding a horse in only your shorts is one way to attain that.

The Albert Memorial is across the street from the Royal Albert Hall. The first was commissioned by Queen Victoria for her husband, who died in 1861. The second was opened in 1871 with a seating capacity of 5,272 as a concert hall. It underwent an eight-year renovation at the turn of the 21st century. A woman feeds the pigeons, parrots, and squirrels as we make our way towards Hyde Park.

The sun is starting to set, which for me is a good time to leave the park, but also a great time to stay and watch the pipistrelle bats consume a staggering 3,000 insects in a night. I’m not sure where we had dinner, and though I wrote (in my notes) that we got lost, we left the park and went towards St. Christopher’s Place. We walked north to St. Marylebone Church Gardens, west to Cosway St., and then southwest to Lancaster Gate station.

This station was opened in 1900 as part of the Central London Railway. In 1911, the line offered a package delivery service, and the tunnels were used in 1942 as a wartime factory for aircraft parts. New trains were introduced in 1992 that can carry 892 passengers on more than 288 million journeys (as of 2017) on this line alone. We are both tired, me from walking all day and Radu from working.

We parted ways at Waterloo station, and I would have another half hour to an hour before I could get off my feet for the evening. I missed Caleb’s call, so I will have to go to bed tonight without hearing his voice again today. We had talked earlier while I was exploring one of the many parks that London has within its city limits. Every place is worth exploring, some more than others.