A Day in the Park

Somewhere in between writing a paper on Brutalist architecture in London and writing a paper on Cary Grant's star persona and its impact on Notorious, I managed to find time to head out with my friends to visit Regent's Park and the London Zoo. The weather has been warming up over the last week, and we decided to take advantage of the more hospitable climate.

Regent's Park is quite lovely. I'm simply amazed at how much green space one can find within London. It often seems so cramped, and yet you can turn a corner and find an enormous lawn stretching into the distance. Here are some shots I took while we walked through the park. I was particularly enamored with the statue in the second picture, which has curious mythical beasts supporting the garden pot.



The London Zoo is fairly small, easily doable within a few hours, but full of a surprising variety of animals, from river otters to okapi.

This particular Reptile House had a special place in our hearts as it is the setting for an incident in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, where Harry accidentally magically sets loose a boa constrictor before he is informed of his wizarding origins. They have a small display card inside that marks the cage where they shot the scene for the movie (which sadly contains a snake that is not a boa constrictor).



Some of the monkey habitats are connected by these enclosed walkways so the monkeys can rotate around the different areas.

The penguins seem to know that it is almost feeding time, based on the way they're gathered together....


So do the river otters. And we did get to watch them eat. So cute!


If you think that's a kangaroo, you're wrong. It's actually a wallaby, complete with a baby in its pouch.



If you want to wade through three albums of photos of animals, you can do so below. Otherwise, until next time!

A Day in the Park
If I could talk to the animals....
Whaaat?? MORE animals?