Buckingham Palace

Leaving Hyde Park behind, I walked through Wellington Arch, past the Commonwealth Memorial Gates, and followed Constitution Hill towards the heart of ceremonial London.

The approach alone is spectacular.

Monuments.

Statues.

Tree-lined avenues.

Everything seems designed to gradually build anticipation until, finally, Buckingham Palace comes into view.

Of course, this called for the obligatory tourist moment.

Selfie time.

Some clichés simply have to be embraced.

Standing in front of the palace and the magnificent Victoria Memorial, surrounded by visitors from every corner of the world, I couldn't help but smile. Sometimes it's perfectly okay to be a tourist.

Before turning back, I made one final stop at the nearby Canada Memorial, honouring the more than one million Canadians who served alongside Britain during the First and Second World Wars.

As someone who now calls Canada home, it felt like a particularly meaningful place to pause for a few moments.

From there, I wandered back towards Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, where my afternoon walk through Royal London continued.Read more