A Stroll Thru One Of "The Lungs Of London"

I always think of the perfect quote about London's green spaces attributed to William Pitt the Elder.  "The parks be the lungs of London," Pitt the Elder said.

(Little known fact: When Pitt the Younger was a teenager, he liked to say a different phrase: "No, dude."  Then he became Prime Minister, where he was instrumental in a lot of reforms and changes, but also gave off an air of superiority, although he was probably superior to most.)

Anyhow, Rick and Sandy went north from Buckingham Palace, and we went south (and east) to stroll through historic and beautiful St. James's Park.  

We meandered through the park, seeing all sort of birds, including parrots and pelicans.  Parrots were feeding from people's hands.  It was a mostly peaceful scene, although we were entirely grossed out by the pigeon hanging out on a teenage girl's head.  (Ugh, just thinking about it two weeks later, I threw up in my mouth.)

As we headed up towards Marlborough and The Mall to the bathrooms (they were closed) we heard the band coming back to St. James palace, so we stopped and watched them go by.

There's many special things about Green Park:

• Its proximity to Whitehall, the Horse Guards, Downing Street, and the Churchill War Rooms;
• It first served as an enclosed deer park for King Henry VIII starting in the 1530s.  (By the way, the Herman's Hermits song, "I'm Henry the Eighth I am" is better than any and all songs from "Six," a completely pathetic musical which we found completely unappealing.
• It's the first of a string of nearly connected historic parks -- parts border on Green Park, then Hyde Park, and finally Kensington Park in a world class string of parks.

We stopped at the cafe overlooking the small lake, the creatively-named "St. James's Park Lake" which is named that because it is (checks notes) a lake in St. James's Park.

From there we strolled over to the Horse Guards, then to 10 Downing Street (not visible to the public anymore).  Our path took us to the House of Lords side of Parliament, where we reveled in the scene in the park by Victoria Tower.  Finally we headed off to lunch on a side street west of Parliament.  It was a small Italian restaurant which was relatively inexpensive (as London goes) and not bad.  We sat outside at one of the two tables and enjoyed the block.