If you asked me to say what I miss most about London, the theatre, pubs, the river and the royal parks would be up there at the top. Having caught up on pubs and beer yesterday evening, this morning I got up at dawn and ran to the Regent’s Park and then all the way around it and Primrose Hill before heading back to our Euston hotel. The Park, especially at that hour, is such a beautiful place and I felt elated to be there. Running past the zoo (on the morning air you can smell the seals and sea lion enclosures a mile off!) brought back childhood memories of seeing Guy the Gorilla and the chimpanzees’ tea party but there are plenty of animals – especially birds – to be seen outside the zoo. Moreover, they are so used to unthreatening human beings that you can get really close to them. On my circuit I saw plenty of herons, tufted ducks, pochards, coots, moorhens, ruddy ducks, mallards, Canada and greylag geese and whooper and mute swans – and that was just the acquatic birdlife. The park was all-but deserted and, it being early on a Saturday, the city’s traffic was relatively quiet. It was just a great start to the day.
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