Horses in London

I saw people riding horses several times while I was in London.

I stayed near Hyde Park, near Bayswater Rd and walked along there every day.  I often saw groups of riders coming out of the park, across heavy traffic.  The leader just put up her hand and all the morning peak hour traffic stopped while the group rode across the road.

One day it was a solitary rider and she disappeared into one of the many mews in the area.  It was incredible to think that there were stables in some of the mews.  The whole area was being spruced up, presumably for the Olympic Games next year.

I also saw some soldiers (or police) riding through Sloan Square.  It was very different from here in Melbourne, I don't think I would ever see horses in the midst of normal traffic, except for the horse-drawn tourist carriages.

London

Who says it doesn't get sunny in London? Here are some pictures to prove that it can be summery. It started with a wander through Hyde Park, the sun comes up quite early but nothing much opens before 9.30 or 10.00. So I wandered through Hyde Park to Marble Arch. You would not have known that you were in one of the busiest cities in the world, it was peaceful and quiet.

I was within metres of busy traffic but could barely hear it, just birdsong and the occasional person walking by, often with a dog.

Apparently a lot of parks in Britain are letting the grass go to seed, something to do with preserving grass species, I think.  Someone explained it to me but I didn't quite get it - but we saw a lot of parks with the verge of the grass mowed but the main grass growing freely.

looking through my pictures

I'm still going over my photos from my trip - I have over 800 so it could take a while.  I have some of Hyde Park, the first few days I was there.  I arrived in London at about 5.30am and couldn't get my room till about 12.30pm, after a 24 hour trip (approximately).  I had managed to sleep a little on the plane but was keen to get out and about, be in the sunshine as much as possible and then get into my room and sleep.
As I got to my hotel at about 7 am and nothing seemed to be open till 10, I decided to go for a walk in Hyde Park, which was very near my bed and breakfast hotel.
I have never seen Hyde Park in summer, it was beautiful.  I walked around it on several days, all of them sunny and summery.  I couldn't get over the size of the trees, so many of them were huge.  Another lovely sight was the workers setting off through such a lovely space - what a great way to start your working day.

On another day I was filling in some time (I hadn't adjusted to the time difference and things aren't open early) and just happened to be passing when this publicity shot was being set up.  Magic.

I then turned around to walk on and came across a rider training his horse in some sort of dressage stepping - I can't remember what it is called, it is like the Lipizanner horses.