Alfie’s first visit to Central London – where should we go? The Royal Parks http://www.royalparks.gov.uk/ are dog friendly so off we went. The tubes were messed up as usual (yet more weekend engineering works) so we took the train. For most of the journey, Alfie was adored by a group of six young girls – all dressed in red – who were on their way to the Family Jam at the Renaissance Roller Disco in Vauxhall (http://www.rollerdisco.com/) – did you have fun girls?
Anyway, we switched to the tube and emerged blinking into the sunlight at Green Park. Whilst this is a great park we walked along Piccadilly to Hyde Park Corner and went through those gates bearing the Lion and Unicorn, managed to cross the roads without incident and looked for a map. Perplexed, we stopped for a cup of coffee at the kiosk. Dodging in between the multitude of Boris Bikes we watched numerous folk (adults, teens and kids) roller skating around the cones they had set out to some excellent music – both old school and modern.
We walked along the big avenue and past the band stand and Alfie looked nervously at the numerous squirrels (how long will it be til he chases them I wonder?). We reached the Serpentine Bar and Kitchen and stood for a while on the beach before consulting the map here and setting off to walk along the South shore.
Here Alfie met his first swans, geese and ducks and numerous people who were photographing them took his photo. He posed beautifully! No one was out in the boats and there were no swimmers at The Lido – perhaps a bit too cold? We admired the huge Isis sculpture and took in the view of the bridge before checking out the Diana Memorial Fountain. I wasn’t sure if dogs were allowed here so Alfie didn’t take a dip.
Once we crossed the road we were in Kensington Gardens and there were loads and loads of dogs here. Coco the Maltese, Ginger the Jack Russell and Snoopy the Toy Poodle were amongst those that we chatted to but there were a fair few big guys around too. We watched a lady feed bread to tiny Blue Tits who bravely took bits from her fingers.
We reached the famous statue of Peter Pan and stopped for a while to chat to some tourists. Then on we went to see the spectacular Italian gardens with the four fountains. They were dazzling in the afternoon sunshine. There are some loos here but the signs said that dogs weren’t allowed. As there was no attendant and no hooks outside for a lead I am afraid that I took Alfie in with me. We weren’t arrested.
And then we took the long walk towards the corner where the Diana Children’s Playground is situated. We rested for a while on a bench and were surrounded by squirrels who were incredibly tame. Most of them were bigger than Alfie so he didn’t investigate further. We also spied another long haired Chihuahua - a rather gorgeous fawn coloured poppet who was bouncing along prettily – but she didn’t spare a second glance at poor Alfie. Ahh.
Finally – and it had taken us about an hour and a half to get this far – we reached the playground. Dogs of course are not allowed in but there’s a lovely café at the entrance where all manner of dogs were waiting patiently for their family’s children to emerge.
Here we admired the 900 year old Elfin Oak – a tree stump that is carved and painted to look as though elves, gnomes and small animals are climbing on it. It was originally in Richmond Park and was moved here in 1928 and has since attracted the attentions of Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour and comedian Spike Milligan. Exhausted from our walking exertions, we skipped our planned visit to Knightsbridge and made our way home.
