I arrived in London on a rainy morning after a red-eye flight. My hotel wasn’t ready yet, so I dropped my bags off with the concierge and took a walk. That was the theme of my stay in London as after work each evening I would drop my bag off at the room and go for another walk, usually in a different direction to check out a different neighborhood.
When you’re walking solo, it’s easy to cover a lot of ground. On the first day, I headed towards Parliament, Big Ben, and The Victoria Tower Gardens.
When I crossed the river, I was immediately greeted with the most British of signs.
And of course, no trip to London would be complete without a photo of a red double-decker bus.
Around the corner from my hotel, I saw something new to me; a rack of bicycles available for rent. Every morning, the rack was nearly empty and in the evenings it would fill up again.
I couldn’t resist a photograph of this guy — his hair matches his shoes.
After a rainy start to the week, I was presented with two perfect evenings of warm temperatures, sunshine, and blue skies. I took advantage and strolled around Southbank enjoying the street performers and musicians.
This shot makes me think “Mark Twain.” OK – wrong country & all, but the mood just fits.
While walking along the south bank, watching the skateboarders, a little girl came up to me and asked to have her photo taken. I obliged and showed her the result. Her mother was calling for her to return but she gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek before she ran off.
On the second sunny evening, I walked toward Trafalgar Square and then over to Covent Garden to enjoy more street performers like Tom.
This guy was impressive; he had an audience member hold his arms out in a circle for a long time. During this time, he was sizing up position, height, etc. acting like he was going to jump through it. Two of the other performers I had watched earlier had a part of their act where they said they were going to run around the circle and jump up onto something, but both ended up with a humorous execution of some sort. I figured this guy was going to do the same thing, but no, he up and jumped through the guy’s arms without so much as brushing them.
Stylistically, I had some fun with HDR photography and wide angle lenses – two things I don’t use that often.
I don’t do a lot of traveling, but I’d go back to London in a heartbeat; it’s a great city.
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