London, day 3 - July 3, 2016

What better way to start off another beautiful day in greater London than to run a 10K race in the Regent's Park?  We took the tube to the Baker Street station, where we were met by Sherlock Holmes and strolled right past 221b Baker Street.  The Regent's park was gorgeous, with a lake with waterfowl, many athletic fields for cricket and soccer, and room for cycling and running on the paths.  We did a group warm-up of calisthenics and jumping jacks before starting off on 3 laps around the park.  The volunteers guiding the way cheered everyone on, calling out "Well done!" as we passed.  At the finish, we had bananas and flapjacks, which are not pancakes.  Instead, they are more like oaty granola-type cookies or bars - quite good!

From there we headed toward Hyde Park, the largest park in London.  On the way we stopped at a pub called The Three Tuns for lunch - Margo had a lovely lamb shank shepherd's pie and I had a steak and ale pie, both delicious.  From there, we passed the American Embassy, decked out with all kinds of flags, including the gay pride flag for June as gay pride month - London Pride was just last weekend.  At Hyde Park, we first saw a memorial to Animals in Wartime, honoring all of the horses, dogs, and other creatures used by us in the war efforts because, as the memorial said, "They didn't have a choice."  We made our way across the park, past a summer concert series venue where Carole King and Don Henley were playing that day.  We walked along the Serpentine, a tributary of the Thames, with lots of different types of water birds - Egyptian geese, coots, Canada geese, ducks, and swans.  Apparently the Queen's royal charter protests all of the swans in Britain, so they are tagged and there is a royal swankeeper who counts them every year.  That brought us to the Princess Diana Memorial fountain, a circular waterway of marble where children and adults can dip their toes and remember the lost royal.  From there we went in search of the 7-7-2005 memorial to the victims of the London underground and bus bombings by Al Quaeda, but we overshot it and ended up at the Albert Memorial, right across the street from Royal Albert Hall - lucky us!  By then we were getting close to the time to head home, so we grabbed a quick custard ice cream cone and hopped onto the tube to get back home in time to go to a Stand-Up 4 Women comedy show to benefit victims of domestic violence.  We got to see 7-8 different female comediennes perform, one American, one French, one from the Netherlands, and the rest from Great Britain.  Very fun!