The Accidental Tourists

Today we spent a day being tourists in our own city. Mostly if the weather is good we head out of town to get some fresh air and exercise but today we were feeling a bit lazy and decided to stay in London.

First we went to Covent Garden and after meandering around the shops, we had a coffee at The Crusting Pipe pub. They have a pleasant outside area in the main market. I was actually quite surprised how reasonable the prices were. It was certainly a lot cheaper than doing the same kind of thing in Paris.

Then we walked over to St. James Park, picked up some sandwiches from the park cafe and ate them sitting on a sunny bench by the pond. I have still not found a city that has parks as good as London’s.

From there, we walked over to Horse Guards where by chance the hourly changing of the sentries was just starting and we ended up at the front of the small crowd that had gathered. It was quite exciting with all the shouting and sword presenting going on. In all the years I’ve lived in London I’ve never seen that before!

After that we went to Charing Cross station and got a train home. I spent the journey thinking that most of the time living in London it’s all so familiar, and often you are in a hurry going somewhere or other that you stop noticing things around you. But today I was reminded what a colourful, exciting city it is, and how enjoyable it must be to visit as a tourist and experience everything for the first time.