We didn't do anything on the day she arrived, since Greg and I both still had to work. Thursday, May 1, 2008, was our first day out. We began the day at Harrod's for a bit of shopping. Once we were done shopping we went across the street for some conveyor belt sushi and then took a bus to Hyde Park Corner and proceeded to walk all the way through Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. We walked for a couple of hours and took in a lot of the hot spots, like Diana's Memorial fountain, the Prince Albert Memorial, The Serpentine River, The pond, and lots of trees and flowers. We met Greg at Whole Foods, since he was still working, before heading to Kensington Palace Orangery for some afternoon Tea. Tea was excellent, but we were wiped, so we just decided to call it a day and headed back home.
Mom at Harrod's:
Mom at Diana's Memorial Fountain in Hyde Park:
The Prince Albert Memorial in Hyde Park:
The Orangery centerpiece:
Friday, Greg and I had to work again, but we went out for breakfast at our French Patisserie before beginning work. Saturday was much more active. We first went to Portobello Market for some antiques and then headed to Borough Market for some food. We bought an eclectic mix of food and had a picnic outside of the Cathedral. We ate way too much food and walked over to Bramah Tea & Coffee Museum. It was rather small, but very interesting. We got to learn a lot about the different teas from around the world, including Brick tea, which was designed because it was for the horses to carry during travels, as opposed to bag teas. They also had a very wide collection of tea pots and old coffee makers.
Brick Tea at Bramah Tea & Coffee Museum:
Greg at the old coffee machines:
When we were done at the Tea & Coffee museum we were going to go across the street to the Chocolate Museum, but it is just named that, it is actually an art gallery, so we did not end up going. Instead we went to Fulham Broadway to Warr's Harley-Davidson and another bike shop. We wandered around Fulham, which is very nice and rich, and went into a Pet Store before heading to Piccadilly Circus and having dinner at La Tasca at Leicester Square. Then it was back home for some sleep.
Sunday we got up for a day of marketing in Camden. We began with a walk up Primrose Hill for the spectacular view of London. We then walked back down to Camden and had Sunday Roast at the Lock Tavern, where our neighbor Jennifer works. Once we got done eating we hit the Markets. We had a blast going through all of the vendors and seeing all of the people. We had been walking around the market for several hours and decided to go to Marine Ices for some Ice Cream. It was beautiful weather but I was getting a sore back and it was quite warm after walking that long, so ice cream sounded great. At 6 we hit Fifty-Five, the bar that has 2-for-1 happy hour for some mojitos and margaritas. We ended up grabbing some sushi from Bento for dinner and just heading home to relax and unwind.
Me & Mom at Primrose Hill:
One of the very unique walls at Camden Market:
Monday was another extremely busy day, this is the day that I figured my mom would be ready to go home due to us wearing her out. We went to Waterloo Train station to go to Hampton Court Palace, but took a detour first. We had gone by Waterloo earlier during our journey and saw a humongous line outside. We had done some research and found out that the Cans Festival (stencil graffitti art) was going on. Banksy is a very popular graffitti/stencil artist, he even has a work in Camden that we go by, and so we decided to peek in since it was FREE. We stood in line for nearly 30 minutes before getting into the very long tunnel that was just lined and covered in art. We walked thorugh for about 30 minutes and took as much in as we could. You could even do some spray painting with the stencils yourself but we decided not to do that, it was too busy and we were hungry.
Here are a collection of our favorite artworks at the Cans Festival:
This is artwork, not a wall and stairwell.....
This is Banksy....
This is also Banksy....
Perfect?????
When we got done seeing the graffitti we grabbed a bagel before getting on the train to Hampton Court Palace. Greg and I had never been and we were excited to see it. The Palace was great, it was like a mini-Versailles. I really did enjoy it, more than Kensington but not nearly as much as Versailles. However, it was absolutely beautiful there and the weather could not have been better. We walked around the rooms for a bit and then decided to take a break from the inside and go visit the outside. We walked around several of the gardens, including the largest grape vine ever. We walked through the mushroom shaped trees and to the long lake, where we decided to take a short horse-drawn carriage ride around the acreage of deer park at the Palace. We also walked through the maze. We then decided to go back inside, have a bite to eat and finish the rooms inside before getting the train back to London.
Hampton Court Palace:
Me & Mom at the gardens of Hampton Court:
The three of us in the gardens of Hampton Court Palace:
The three of us on our horse-carriage ride:
When we arrived in London we went to Covent Garden and had dinner at Wahaca, it was after all Cinco de Mayo, and we had to celebrate with chips & salsa and a margarita. We then took a stroll through Chinatown and into some chinese super markets for some purchases.
Mom in Chinatown:
Tuesday was a day around London. We took a train ride out to Metropolis motorcycles, which ended up being a bust, much smaller than we had expected it to be. But, no big deal, we took the train back into town and went to the Cartoon Museum. We were expecting more like comics, but it was comic strips instead, more political ones than anything, but we still enjoyed it.
Mom enjoying some strips at the Cartoon Museum:
We walked back to Covent Garden for lunch at Wagamama's before heading off for some mysteries of Sherlock Holmes. We went to Baker Street and then to the Sherlock Holmes Museum, which was kind of gimmicky but still cute. It would have been much less annoying if we hadn't arrived with about 60 students. We went through all of the rooms, taking in all of Sherlock and Dr. Watson's collections and belongings before catching a bus to Abbey Road. And yes, we walked the infamous Zebra Stripes. While trying to dart in between traffic we did get a couple of okay pictures, then we wrote on the wall, we will see if our names are still there in September when we go back.
A wax model of one of the stories of Sherlock Holmes:
Sherlock Holmes forensic case:
Me & Mom at Abbey Road:
At this point we tried yet again another motorcycle shop, but still no luck for any souveneirs. We then went back to Camden Markets to purchase some things we had liked on Sunday. We sure were ready for some sitting time. We ended up eating at Harry's Pizzeria, which was excellent. Harry's was very close to where a ghost walk that we were going to take was starting, which is why we ate there.
The ghost walk was great. We got to see parts of London that we had never seen before and got to hear many great stories of ghosts around London. We even got to see a remaining steeple of a church that is now someone's personal 4 story apartment. We headed home afterwards and had to take my mom to the airport the next morning. It was a great trip, but flew by way too quickly.
Mom with our ghost tour guide, Richard:
1 comment:
Awesome pictures!! Ya'll are great to share so much of what you see
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