October 11 - Kensington Palace

I didn't start today intenting to see Kensington Palace.  The first problem was that the Tube line I usually use (Picadilly Line from Russell Square) was down for the weekend with 'engineering work.'  Trot to the next station (Holborn) which had a Central Line connection.

One transfer and a bit later I was downtown near Westminster Cathedral with the thought it might not be too busy on the weekend.  WRONG!  It was plugged.

So off I went and ended up at Kensington Palace.  A very pleasant surprise as it was not too crowded.  In fact I could take most photos without other tourists in the picture.

Some of the recent highlights of Kensington:

-Queen Victoria was born and raised here

-Diana and Charles spent time here and raised William & Harry here

-William and Kate spent time here and stilluse one of the apartments

Two views of Kensinton:  

I believe the decoration on this one (south side) is part of the Princess Diana memorial

The main entrance

This is called the 'Wiggly Walk,' one way down to the main entrance.

I took a ton of photos inside but will only include a few here.  In general the palace resembles a really stately home, as opposed to the "movie" idea of a palace.

I often took a picture of the Room Description sign so, if you are really keen, I can get you more pictures when I am back

The Cupola Room - used by George II for entertaining.

The King's Drawing Room.  The two 'headless' statues are for tourists to stand behind for photos.

The King's gallery.

The Queen's gallery is not much smaller.

One end of the Queen's closet.  The photo shows about 1/4 of the room.

This might have been the room that was set on fire by an incendiary bomb in WW2

The Queen's bedroom.  I think this referred to Victoria's mother as Victoria moved to /buckingham Palace when she became queen.

Dinner time and I'm hungry,  I'll add more to this later.  Off to Mabel's Tavern for dinner.

Back now.  Where were we ???

Victoria's Doll House

This was actually a dining room but was converted for Victoria's birth as it was more suitable for the doctor's and closer tom the kitchen and hot water.  

That's it for some of my photos of inside the palace.  After exiting I walked through the gardens and ponds heading roughly east.

Queen Victopria's statue looking toward the Round Pond.

And here's the end of the Round Pond just in front of the statue.  Lot's of ducks, geese and swans.  It looks nice in the photo but close inspection at the edge it looks a bit dodgy.

I walked on the south side of this pond and the next called the Serpentine Water.

I thought I'd throw in this Google Maps shot to give an idea of the area.  You can see Kensington Palacce on the left under the red pointer.  Then the Round Pond and the Serpentine water.  Click on the photo to enlarge it and you can see the Buckingham Palace symbol on the lower right corner. I walked to the  tube station (small red, white  & black circle at the top point of the Buckingham Palace grounds (about 3.5 km).

About 3/4 the way along the Serpentine Water. Looking carefully, you can see blue rental paddle boats, and a line of white floats marking the swimming area.  

You can book a swim on weekends and holidays from may to September or become a member of the swim club and awim any daybetween 06:00 and 09:30.  Takers?

Last shot today is one of the many statues and memorials at Hyde Park Corner - thw western tip of the Buckingham Palace lands.

I'm not sure I'll try to see a 'tourist' site tomorrow, given the crowds today.  If the weather holds it woild be a good day for a stroll around Little Venice.

I also have to do a little food shopping.  I'm trying to cook every second dinner.  Mabel's Haddock & Chips were OK (the pureed pea accompanyment were so-so) but a constant diet of restaurant food would be tough on my fugure.

Speaking of which - today's money saving hint:  I needed a dishcloth as there wasn't one in the flat. Instead of buying one I just used one of those cheap sox they give you on the plane flight.  And NO, I didn't wear it first!