Tulips outside Buckingham Palace

What a great day. I had to go up to London for a meeting with one of the companies involved in the Prison contract so suggested to Susan that we made a day of it and did a walk around the city.

So at 12.00 noon after an hour and a half of work looking at an IT system we were free for the rest of the day. A coffee was the first requirement then we hopped on the underground to Leicester Square.

I'd found details of the Jubilee Walks around London - 16 or so miles in all. We completed the Western Loop and a bit more which turned out to be over 7 miles. Starting at Leicester Square we made our way to Trafalgar Square and St James's Park where we had lunch. Circumnavigated the Park and along The Mall to Buckingham Palace where these tulips were at their height.

From the Park we went along Bird Cage Walk into Parliament Square and Victoria Tower Embankment crossing the Thames at Lambeth Bridge and walked the whole length of the Thames to the Millennium Bridge past the Eye and South Bank.

Crossing the river to St Paul's we made our way along Ludgate Hill, Fleet Street and wound our way through Lincoln Inn Fields, the Theatre District and Covent Garden back to Leicester Square.

I enjoyed a very welcome pint of Greene King's George and the Flagon ale at Knights Templar pub while Susan had a cup of tea but I think she wished she'd had a beer - it was one of the nicest brews I've had for a while. Light, refreshing with a citrus, tropical taste and a hoppy finish.

Was intrigued by the statue of a big blue cockerel on the 4th plinth in Trafalgar Square. Quite out of contrast with everything around it, which I suppose some might like but I thought it quite out of character. Mind you, having Nelson gaze down on the cockerel from his lofty perch could be seen as one in the eye for the French. The cockerel being a well known emblem of the French. Just a shame the statue was not by someone from the UK, but a German. What has happened to our national pride?