Monday 25th August LONDON - BANK
HOLIDAY
Well, the summer is certainly here in London! We got to a very
warm 27 degrees today under dazzling blue skies, and all of London was out to
celebrate. We’ve had a lovely, very busy day.
We slept well in our Chelsea flat, and were up and had had
breakfast by the time Glen came down a bit before 9. He left his bag in our
flat as he had to check out by 10. We’d decided to head to the Kensington area –
he and Lex to go to the Design Museum, and for me to go to Kensington Palace.
We walked to South Kensington Station, and only had to go two stops along the Tube
to High Street Kensington. We stopped in the arcade there at a little French café
for a quick morning tea. Lex and Glen both had coffees, and I just had to try
their mysterious (unlabelled) ‘cakes’. I chose a coffee one – it turned out to
be like a little, tall coffee flavoured pavlova! More coffee cream than
meringue, it was absolutely delicious.
From here, it was only about a ten-minute walk to Kensington Gardens and through them to Kensington Palace. When we arrived, it was just after 10, and the first admissions of the day were still lining up. There was a nice little troupe of actors in period costume putting on a show for us all, which was very entertaining! I said goodbye to Lex and Glen then, and headed in.
I paid my 24 pounds and set out to explore. Kensington Palace was built in 1605 and originally called Nottingham House. When William and Mary were invited to take the joint crown of England in 1689, they bought it and commissioned Sir Christopher Wren to expand it. They moved in, renamed it and made it a royal palace. Later royals also added extensions, and it’s still a royal residence today – it’s the London base for William and Kate, for example. I collected my audio guide, which was great for telling me about the different areas of the palace.
My first stop was the gallery where they have their current exhibition: Dress Codes, which is about the expectations of royal and court clothing. It had examples of clothes worn by various royals and members of the court over the centuries, from Queen Victoria’s mourning clothes, to the Duke of Windsor’s flashy suits and the Queen and Princess Margaret’s dresses when they were little princesses (my favourites).
The last two suites I went through were those of William and
Mary. I hadn’t realised that she died of smallpox in only her early 30s, poor
thing. He was twice her age, and had never expected to outlive her. They were
both great promoters of the scientists and thinkers of the day. There’s an
amazing ‘clock’ in the King’s Gallery that actually shows the direction the
wind is blowing from. William was a keen soldier and sailor, and always wanted
to know if the winds were favourable for his ships! (We had a nice breeze
coming from the south east today.)
I spent several hours exploring the palace, then headed into the café there. I bought some quiche and salad, and sat outside on the shady terrace.
From here, I walked across to the Round Pond and looked at all the various water birds there. Kensington Gardens is, like everywhere else, getting very dry and brown. However, the Princess Diana sunken garden I went to next is obviously being watered, as it was just beautiful. Then I walked south across the gardens towards South Kensington. There were people everywhere enjoying the summer heat. It’s a huge area, and for a good deal of it you couldn’t see any buildings or hear the London traffic.
I came out near the Albert Memorial – that monument to overstatement. The gold is really a bit much. It’s right across the road from the Royal Albert Hall, which is next to Albert Hall Mansions and there’s a big statue (black marble this time) of, you guessed it, Prince Albert!
Having soaked up all the Albert vibes, I bought an ice-cream and walked along Exhibition Road to the Natural History Museum. Four trips to London, and I had never yet been here. Unfortunately, five minutes after entering today, it occurred to me that a Bank Holiday Monday probably wasn’t the best time to visit – there were so many people that it was actually hard to move through some of the galleries. I visited the Earth zone, and got to experience the Kobe earthquake, which was cool but quite scary. Then I just had to go and see the dinosaurs, of course, and had just decided to head home when Lex texted me. Glen had left to get his train, and he was out in front of the museum, so we met up and walked our tired feet back to the flat. Then we both had a nap!
Lex and Glen had gone to the Design Museum, which wasn’t
quite what they expected – it seemed to have more art elements. Lex was
impressed by a modern glass bowl made by Lulu Harrison out of crushed mussel
shells, biomass ash, wine lees and sand. They looked around for a couple of
hours before having lunch there.
After our naps and a cuppa, Lex decided to head out for a walk towards the river, while I wrote the blog and popped out to Sainsbury’s for tea. The dreaded chore of the big final pack looms over us, and we have a growing pile of clothes which are going to be given to an op shop tomorrow, as there simply won’t be the room or weight to take them home. (And having worn then non stop for 3 months or more, some are quite trashed by now!)
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