London: Part Four

Over the last week, for the first time since qualifying as a TEFL teacher in 2019, I actually spent some time teaching my online classes somewhere outside of the four walls of my family home in Wiltshire! Although I wasn't that far away from home, it was still nice to have a change of scenery and finally experience a bit of that "digital nomad" lifestyle that teaching English as a foreign language offers (or at least did, prior to Covid).

I actually spent the week in Oxfordshire, housesitting and catsitting for my sister and her husband while they were away on holiday. It was really lovely to get to live with a cat for a little while - I love cats, and their one is especially sweet and friendly! In addition, being based in a town, rather than a small, isolated village, meant I could lead a more independent life, which is something I haven't really been able to do since graduating university, due to the pandemic. 

One thing I appreciated a lot was that the house was within walking distance of a train station, so I was able to go off on a couple of trips during my time there! The first trip I took was to Oxford last Saturday, where I spent a lot of time shopping in the Westgate Centre, before having a little walk around the city to see some of my favourite sights, like the Radcliffe Camera, the Bridge of Sighs, and the Sheldonian Theatre. On Sunday I'd planned to go to Windsor to see the castle, but strangely, there weren't any trains returning from Windsor between 9 am and 9 pm, so that's a trip that'll have to wait for another time.

My second trip was to London on Friday, and as the title of this post suggests, that's what I'll be writing about today! It was kind of hard to know what to call this post, as I've already done a London: Part One and a London: Part Two and then a few posts about my trip to London with my boyfriend in October last year. But I've decided to count last year's trip as a sort of Part Three, making this one London: Part Four!

At the start of the year, I began creating a list of outdoor places to visit in the capital, in preparation for the times when I would be up there to organise my visa for my job in Chile. Sadly, I still haven't been able to do this, and have no idea when I'll finally be able to. But it had been months since I'd last been to London, and I fancied a trip there just because I love the city, and so I decided to get the train there after my 9 am lesson, and spend some time seeing a few of the sights on my list.

After I arrived at Paddington station, I took the tube to South Kensington in order to see the Royal Albert Hall. But firstly, I ended up seeing the Victoria and Albert Museum when I exited from the underground. It's a huge and very grand building, and perhaps somewhere I will visit in the future (there's a lot of museums in London that I haven't been to yet).

A short walk later, I arrived at the Royal Albert Hall. It's a really impressive building, designed in an Italianate architectural style, and I'm very glad I finally got to see it in real life.

I crossed over the road and entered Kensington Gardens, where I saw the Albert Memorial. Although I do not agree with monarchy, and I don't believe that so-called "royal" people deserve to be treated as better than the rest of us, I must admit it's a very striking memorial to look at.

I found a very nice outdoor café called Colicci, where I had a vegan toastie and an oat milk latte while enjoying the view of the Royal Albert Hall and the memorial, before going off exploring again!

The next stop on my tour was Kensington Palace. To be honest, I'm not quite sure why it's classified as a palace, whereas places like Dyrham Park and Wollaton Hall (which are much bigger and more elaborate) are only classed as houses. However, it was still quite nice to see, especially as there were lots of ducks, geese and swans on and around the lake (called the Round Pond) in front of the palace.

Then I walked to the other side of the park to visit the Italian Garden, on the edge of the Long Water/Serpentine lake. Inspired by renaissance Italy, this was a really beautiful and tranquil place to walk around. I was lucky enough to spot a heron in one of the ponds!

Next, I got on the tube at Lancaster Gate and travelled down to Holland Park, the next stop on my tour. I entered the park and found the Sun Trap, a little space filled with palm trees and exotic plants, which reminded me a bit of the Tropical Garden in Bournemouth.

I walked through a woodland area until I found the place I'd come to see: the Kyoto Garden. Regular readers here will know that I love visiting Japanese Gardens, and this one didn't disappoint! The highlight for me was the beautiful waterfall, and also the fact that I saw a peacock and a friendly squirrel there!

I completed my little tour of global gardens by passing through the Dutch Garden (I suppose it was inevitable that there would be a Dutch garden in Holland Park!).

On my way out of the park, I also walked through the orangery (a very picturesque area where a wedding was taking place) and the rose garden.

I finished off my trip by doing some shopping I needed to do on Kensington High Street, before getting the train back to Oxfordshire.

I really enjoyed my day seeing some of the places in London that I hadn't seen before. But there's still plenty more that I want to discover. Hopefully, I'll be going back soon to sort out my visa, and will have the opportunity to do a bit more sightseeing!

Read about London: Part One here!

Read about London: Part Two here!

Read about me and Claudio's trip to London here!

Read about London: Part Five here!

Read about London: Part Six here!

Read about London: Part Seven here!

Read about London: Part Eight here!