I guess it is a case of what floats your boat. In Mile End, London, near the tube station, there is a footbridge that is also a park with trees right over the road system. Also, in Battersea, is the new American Embassy. It has been designed to be unapproachable and bombable even by a truck. Antiterrorist kit has now to be included in may buildings and this seems to be a way forward in LA world with gardens in what effectively are tank traps. Something similar is also set out as benches and smaller planting tubs. Google London ring of steel and the embassy example for more info. The ring of steel effectively left just a few routes in and out of the commercial quarter or city of London (square mile) and there are bollards galore that may or may not go up and down as needed. Whole rows of trees, even buildings, now block off routes from side roads now cul-de-sacs behind them. It is a study in itself.
If you get a bike, favourite for learning taxi drivers “knowledge” you can go most places and certainly the royal parks are worth a look. Try cycling the route the carriages took at the royal wedding from Westminster Abbey to Buckingham Palace then to Notting Hill (as in film of same name) via Kensington Gardens. What you will see is how the centre of London, the West End as it is called, splits from military to royal to leisure use. You may even be able to drop in to New Scotland Yard (police HQ) and ask how traffic is calmed, speeded or whatever. Further, for the Olympics, fast access for flk out to the stadia north of east london is planned and I think plans can be seen. The olympic site itself must be worth a visit, take a bike on the train!
Have fun and good luck.
.
Arab Institute in Paris is awesome. Entire facade is like camera aperture opening and closing with the quantity of light; clouds, sun, etc.
