Sunday, we got up early and headed off to Kensington Palace Gardens. It was beautiful. It was very quiet and peaceful. Kensington was where Queen Victoria grew up, and where Princess Diana lived from shortly after her marriage to when she died. We didn't tour Kensington Palace, but we did walk around the entire gardens and some of Hyde park next to it.
St Augustine's Church
Kensington Palace Gardens
Kensington Palace
Queen Victoria statue
Orangery, which has been converted to a cafe
Broad Walk. The building in the background is, sadly, a Hilton.
Round pond.
There were tons of ducks and swans around. We watched two ducks get into a huge fight. I'm surprised that one didn't get killed.
In case there's an ambiguity about what this is:
The Diana Memorial Fountain. Apparently they don't memorialize her in winter because it was off.
Isis statue
The Prince Albert Memorial
This was ENORMOUS. There some really awesome aspects of it. The base was carved with reliefs of philosophers and scientists. The outside fence corners had statues of "worlds": Asia, Africa, Europe, and America. The base had difference sciences: Agriculture, commerce, engineering, and manufacturing.
Royal Albert Hall
Queen's Gate
The gate was wrought iron, not cast.
Memorial of Robert Napier. London was full of random memorials and statues.
We discovered on a bus station map the Baden-Powell House was close to us. Justin, the Eagle Scout, had to take a picture.
We came back to the flat and had brunch at a restaurant across the street called Bumpkins. We both ordered the full English. I scarfed mine down so fast before I thought to get a picture. I discovered that I like grilled tomatoes and baked beans on toast.
I took this picture of the chimneys across the street. I half expected Dick Van Dyke to pop out and start singing and dance, bad Cockney accent and all.
We planned on during a museum crawl since we were right next to museum row. We started with the Victoria and Albert, which was AMAZING. I sadly got really tired after a few hours that we had to go back to the flat so I could sleep, but I totally wish we could have had time to go back. Just a note, all the main museums are generally free but usually open at 10 and sometimes close really early, especially in winter. Also, all of them have cloak rooms, which I highly suggest using. The V&A's cloak room was only a pound donation and it was nice not to have to carry around my coat and bag.
Victoria and Albert Museum
After I woke back up, we headed off to a pub called the Drayton Arms for Sunday roast and Yorkshire pudding. I don't know if my pudding was burned, but I wasn't all that fond of it. I did like the greens and carrots, but the cubed stuff on the right was either parsnips or turnips, neither of which I like.
Lunch, Sunday roast and Yorkshire pudding
After lunch we went to the Natural History Museum. The building was actually cooler than any of the exhibits.
Natural History Museum
I got a picture of this guy, Alfred Wallace. He was actually this really cool collector who spent most of his time in Malaysia and Indonesia, and originally came up with the idea of evolution through natural selection. I knew about him from this documentary hosted by one of my favourite comedians, Bill Bailey. Bailey unveiled the restored portrait in the museum last year.
After the Natural History museum (which we really only spent about an hour in because there's only so much time you can spend looking at bad taxidermy and rocks) we walked down the road to Harrods. We didn't go in because I'd heard you couldn't go into Harrods with jeans on, but I saw plenty of people walking out with jeans. Later I found out that "browsing only" is only permitted from 11:30-noon on Sundays; I kid you not.
Harrods
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