London 🇬🇧 day 8

First stop this afternoon, the Shepherdess walk mosaics, opened in 2012 and made by a group of local volunteers.  The beautiful mosaics depict the history of the area as a previous route for animals and have been designed in a Roman style.

Then to Chinatown with a typical colourful market atmosphere and lots of people milling around.  

I tried a couple of snacks before heading to the Natural History museum.  A wait of 45 mins to enter the museum, but well worth it. 

The building alone is magnificent and well worth seeing, and the dinosaur artifact collection and displays are fabulous. 

Taxidermy at its best with Aussie mammal display too. 

The gemstone collection beautiful with the largest cut blue topaz in the world.

I walked out and the weather had rolled in and so home to leftovers and doggy for the evening.

London 🇬🇧 Day 7

This morning I headed to St James Palace to watch the start of the Changing of the Guard process and procession. 

They have had a break over Christmas and so the crowds were extra keen to see this historical routine.  Once they had passed and we were allowed to move from our spots, I joined the spectator chase down Pall Mall to Buckingham Palace for some more sightings. 

The crowds were too thick to get close enough at the Palace but I was satisfied, then a group on horseback in their red capes came down the Mall 😊

. I took the opportunity to grab a quick photo looking down to the Palace without people in the shot, as they released the barricades.

Then a walk up the Mall past the new statue of the Queen,

Trafalgar square, The Strand to Charing Cross train station and boarded a train to Camden Markets.

The street from the train station to the markets has many funky brightly decorated shops, a 3 storey shipping container shipping area. 

The street was packed and full of atmosphere. 

Then over the little bridge at Camden Lock where 3 waterways combine in the Regents canal. 

The Camden markets are packed full of eateries and boutique shops and are housed in the repurposed stables where the Shunting horses lived and worked till the late 60's.  If you love shopping and trying foods from around the world, you could spend days here. 

Then on to Hampstead Heath the largest green space in London and joined hundreds of people out walking and enjoying the grounds. 

Parliament Hill gives a panoramic view of the London skyline and I had waited for the right weather to visit.