Visiting London Hyde Park

One of the most popular parks in London is Hyde park. It is one of eight Royal Parks of London.


There are also other things one can do besides walking around and relaxing in the green environment of Hyde park. Many frequent joggers use it as their training grounds. Spread on 142 hectares (350 acres) it offers plenty of space even for the fittest.
There are many organized running events organized within the park with participants coming from all over the world. For instance there was a triathlon (with no entrance fee) held there on 6th and 7th August.

If you are not a sports type of person, you can also use the park to simply enjoy the sun. Whether you do it on a deck chair or on a chosen patch of well kept green grass, is up to you.

For those who enjoy great views there is a chance to do it from a 60 metre Giant Observation Wheel at the Bandstand in Serpentine Road. It offers great views of Hyde park and nearby city areas.

If you feel like debating with strangers about topics that interest you or just want to scream at the whole wide world, you should probably stop at the Speakers Corner (located in the north-east corner of the park - on the corner of Park Lane and Cumberland Gate, opposite Marble Arch tube).


If you walk north of the park there is a popular area of Notting Hill worth checking out. It was made even more popular by the 1999 film starring Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts.
An upcoming event definitely worth visiting in this area is also an annual event called the Notting Hill Carnival, this year taking place on August 28th and 29th.

For those looking for different kinds of challenges, there is also a chance to take part in some casino games nearby. The Grosvenor Victoria Casino (also known as Vic Casino) is located on Edgware Road just north of Hyde Park.
This casino is literary a historical landmark for poker players. Almost every top poker professional in the UK has found their way there.

To us the park served as a meeting point with some old friends living nearby. We entered the park on the exact opposite side of our meeting point on purpose. This allowed us to enjoy a walk through the entire park, relax, take some photos and watch people walk by. It was fun and would strongly recommend it as a convenient getaway from the city's hustle and bustle.
We will definitely visit it again - if possible we will try to adjust our visit to one of the frequent sports events held there. Can hardly wait to do it.

I just hope these recent horrible events in London do not last much longer. It is frightening to watch the devastation on the news every day.

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London Parks

According to Wikipedia The Greater London Urban Area is the second largest in the EU with a population of over 8 million, while London's metropolitan area is the largest in the EU with an estimated total population of between 12 and 14 million.
For a city of this size, London has a surprisingly large amount of green areas. Most of them belong to many parks.


The largest group of London parks is The Royal Parks, this year celebrating 160 years of existence.
There are 8 parks included in this largest group, together covering almost 2,000 hectares of ground. The Royal Parks of London are lands originally owned by the UK monarchy. They used them for recreation (mostly hunting) of the royal family. There are public rights of way across the land but public access still depends on the grace and favour of the Crown. A typical British concept, if you ask me.

Royal Parks of London include the following 8 parks:

• Bushy Park,


• Green Park,


• Greenwich Park,


• Hyde Park,


• Kensington Gardens,


• Regent's Park,


• Richmond Park,


• St. James's Park.

Each one of the listed parks has something special to offer. Let me mention just a few highlights:

• Hyde Park seems to be the most popular due to its location and many events taking place there,


• Green Park can also get pretty crowded due to the vicinity of Buckingham Palace,


• the north side of Regent's Park is where the London Zoo is located,


• Richmond Park is so huge there are deer roaming around free.

Apart from those mentioned above there are also many other parks and green spaces located in the London area. Many are well worth visiting, so I suggest you do your research while planning your trip to London.

During a recent visit to London I had time to visit a few of the mentioned parks. Additional information regarding the most prominent and famous of London parks - London Hyde Park and its surroundings will be introduced in one of my upcoming posts.

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Google+ invites available

I have recently tried out a new communication channel provided by Google. It also provides support for mobile devices, allowing you to stay in touch with your social circles at all times. It is quite a useful tool for travellers like me, being on the road a lot.
You have probably heard at least something about it - everybody is talking about this new social network. Google+ is Google's latest attempt to face-off Facebook. Company's other recent tries in this field have been only partially successful.
gTalk was widely accepted as a part of Gmail, but has never grown into a serious competition for Skype.
Google Buzz (and Google Wave before it) was also announced as a revolutionary communication platform, but has never really picked up.

With Google+ Google is trying to finally make a breakthrough in the field of social networks. It is still too early to predict their success but the introduction phase of the product was done brilliantly. In just under 3 weeks Google+ adopted over 10 million users - at the moment there are already more then 20 million. That definitely is something worth bragging about, but it is still not all that much compared to Facebook's 750 million current users.

However stunning this might be, it is still just the first battle won in a long war against Facebook.
Will this prove to be the Facebook killer Google is looking for? I think it is still early in the game to say something like that... in my opinion Facebook is not leaving anytime soon.

If you haven't tried it out yet, all this hype should be a reason for at least some curiosity. If you are looking for an invite for Google+ it is your lucky day!

Invites are reserved for my readers only. If you haven't done it already, you should join other followers of Travel Photo Blogging through Google Friend Connect (slide to the bottom of page) or follow us using your favourite social network (top right).
After you have done that, you simply leave a comment to this post and I will send you an invite as soon as possible.

A free bonus after receiving an invite from me is that you can also add me to one of your social circles and we can test this thing together.

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