London, England: The City Nooks

We have been spending most of our weekends staying put in London while we enjoy our down time away from the travel season. It's given us the perfect excuse to check off some of our must-sees or to wander around new parts. London experienced some unseasonably warm weather over the past weekend so we wanted to be sure to get ourselves out and about to enjoy it. Rico works just outside of the City of London—not to be mistaken with London which I know sounds totally confusing...it is—and has been wanting to show me around some. The weekend is the perfect time to be in this area of London because it's extremely quiet unlike it's busy streets during the week. So, on Sunday we made our way over there to wander around and well...spent way too much trying to find our way out of a maze of lock gates we some how got ourselves into.

The City of London is where London first began. You can even see remnants of the old city wall which it has far outgrown at this point. Most Londoners simply refer to this area as The City. I never thought much of it besides some key landmarks like St. Paul's Cathedral and picturing it more as a place where most people have to spend their weekdays. After this weekend, I realized I should have been paying more attention to it's wonderfully old streets. Spending time in this part of the city opened my eyes to some things I have been missing. It is a lot more quaint than I expected it to be having only seeing the more business oriented part of it. Also, if you dig into more about The City, you can find all sort of funny facts that make you question the sanity of it all.

While we found all sorts of side streets, old pubs, and hidden nooks, I really enjoyed wandering around Temple which funny enough is the same spot we frustratingly got stuck in. It has a series of archways leading to courtyards and gardens. What we didn't know was that if you want to walk from end to end in hopes of leaving from a different point than you entered, you probably can't...at least on a weekend. It made for a comical scurry around trying every path and gate. The bright-side was getting to spend some extra time enjoying it. Temple Church is what has given this surrounding area its name. Known as a center of law in England, it finds itself not far from the Royal Courts of Justice. History aside, the place is visually beautiful as you wind through all the different sections and paths to continously find new spots.

We ended the day strolling further along to one of our all time favorite spots in London, Somerset House. Though not techinically in The City, we were too close by not to enjoy it. On a warmer day, the tables and chairs are out to soak in the loveliness of the courtyeard even longer. We grabbed ourselves some freshly squeezed orange juice to refresh and just be with each other before we headed back to our neck of the woods.