Hello dear readers, what a wonderful day to be alive, not? After all, today the Photo of the Month becomes 3 years old. The journey so far has been gratifying, creative and fun.

To celebrate, nothing like a special post. The reason? Our travel to London in August 2022, for our honeymoon. Here is also a warning: you are about to see pictures from my vacation, for good or bad.

This is the first from a series of three posts:

  • City landscapes without ourselves in the pictures
  • Couple’s essay with a professional photographer
  • Various photos from us to capture the good times we’ve had

On today’s post, there are only a few clicks because I selected only the ones where me and Natalia are not in pictures - at least directly. Due to that, it is worth noting that nice landscapes and occasions were left out of this clipping. Stay tuned in the next months for more!

Big Ben, Westminster Palace and Abbey, Victoria Tower and Tower Bridge

The area around the Big Ben is very nice for taking a walk, watch the passersby and enjoy the sunset. The Westminster Bridge, that connects both sides of the Thames, is always very busy:

Though the Big Ben is the most famous in name, the Westminster Palace, also known as Houses of Parliament, is big and majestic. The Victoria Tower, almost at the other end of the palace, is also imposing:

It is very beautiful to enjoy by sunset, watching also the boats that cruise the adjacent river:

By nightfall, the region gets a distinctive charm. Mice make noise in the square bushes:

The view from far is also nice because the Westminster Bridge adds its own touch to the scenery:

The Westminster Abbey is full of history:

And one can’t miss an iconic Tower Bridge photograph:

Pubs and Ale

As to not make it very repetitive, I selected three photos for this section. Nevertheless, it must be said that we joined a pub tour and I visited another handful. My favorite one, The Hole in the Wall located in Waterloo, is not in the pictures.

Starting with a nice pint of Fuller’s London Pride at The Hercules, in Lambeth. It was the first pub we visited and also where I had my first fish and chips:

Nice banner from The George, one of the older pubs and inns of London, located near the London Bridge. The banner dates from 1676 when it was rebuilt after a fire, but the origin dates back to 1542:

And here’s a Samuel Smith’s Imperial Stout, sipped at the Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, my second favorite pub amongst the visited:

Urban Lanscapes and Gardens

In this section, a quick collection of urban landscapes and gardens. The first one is a view from the Lambeth Bridge by sunset, shot from the east margin where the Lambeth Palace is:

A strongly urban landscape is the Graffiti Tunnel, on Leake Street, that runs below the Waterloo station and ends up in the charming Lower Marsh, for which we’ve fallen in love with:

A litter in the small park Victoria Tower Gardens South:

Landscape of the City of London from the south margin of the Thames, next to the Tower Bridge. Highlight for the warship HMS Belfast, that was commisioned in the second world war and today is a museum permanently anchored in the Thames:

A different view from the London Eye, that looks very much like a bycicle wheel rather than a ferris wheel in this shot:

Still talking about the London Eye, a panoramic view of the city taken from the top of the wheel. Closest are the two bridges Hungerford Bridge and Golden Jubilee Bridge - for trains and pedestrians - that look like one. Farther, there is the Waterloo Bridge:

One photo from the giant The Shard, one among various possible angles to see it from:

Two windows from the Windsor Castle. These windows are not a fair sample of the castle’s imponence, but in this post there are only landscapes, so there was none picture without myself or Natalia to do justice to the whole:

A small sample of the memorable Queen Mary’s Rose Gardens:

To wrap it up and for lack of a dedicated section, here is a token of the London Sea Life aquarium:

World War II Airplanes

To end the post, here are two iconic World War II airplanes: the British Spitfire and the Japanese Zero - or what is left of it.

The Spitfire preserved in the Imperial War Museum, hanging in the middle of the atrium:

Finally, we saw the end of a Zero. Nothing more adequate to close the post. We are so bright and yet so dumb sometimes:

This is it. From these three years of posts came out many nice things and there are already several plans for the future. Stay tuned and see you next month. Bye!