London - From the Queen's Roses to Kensington Palace!
From the Queen's Roses to Kensington Palace!
And so the continuing story, after our ridiculous excursion to the next suburb (which we could have reached on foot), the sun was still shining. On Sunday (the 3rd June) we decided to get on the tube again (this time to a valuable destination) and explore Regent's Park. When we arrived there, we were greeted with a very busy area. Strewn out all over the lawn were people relaxing on blankets, reading books, listening to music, big groups of people having HUGE picnics with HEAPS of food and even people sun baking in these sun chairs you can hire for about £1 each. It definitely seemed the place to be on the weekend!
The park definitely serves as a place for social gatherings for the young and the old. It is also a centre for recreational activities such as tennis, netball, Aussie rules footy, cricket and Frisbee just to name a few. The boating lake allows people (for a small fee) to get on a paddle boat and take a spin around the lake. However, you wish to spend your lazy weekend afternoons is entirely up to you because in this park, the imagination has no limits! It will also be integrated into a part of the ROAD RACE for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London.
From that part of the park, we moved onto the inner circle, where we found Queen Mary's Garden. The garden was GORGEOUS, all a matter of opinion. If you love flowers (roses especially) and well groomed garden beds that are creatively arranged in artistic patterns that is is the place for you! I went a bit crazy with the camera in there and I figured it was a good time to have a play and see whether this camera was worth anything! *chuckles* Turns out it was, because the pictures came out superbly! Since, the sun was still poking through the clouds, we conveniently passed an ice cream pavilion for some deliciously toffee fudge and strawberries & cream double cone. ;o) and since it was melting in a hurry it disappeared into our bellies at warp speed!
For the magnificent photography: http://picasaweb.google.com/hillsj/RegentSPark
and http://picasaweb.google.com/hillsj/QueenMarySGarden
A hop, skip and a jump and we'd wandered to HYDE PARK. It was possibly the biggest thing we have ever seen, HUGE! Not particularly interesting in places, seemed like acres and acres of grass. Like Regent's park, it was very busy with people doing a multitude of activities, some picnicking, some playing sports etc. It did have a grand entrance though, called Marble Arch. Once we made our way to the lake, called the Serpentine the scenery got more exciting. There were beautiful walkways and many creatures to admire. We looked at our map of Hyde park and took ourselves to the Albert Memorial which officially is found in Kensington Gardens. This man must have been important, because it wasn't a memorial to be sneezed at and they certainly made no mistake of making this thing obvious! It was GIGANTIC! The memorial was commissioned by Queen Victoria in memory of her husband, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. He apparently died of Typhoid in 1861. The memorial on each far corner has separate sculptures representing all corners of the world, Europe, Asia, Africa and The America's . On the closer corners to the memorial, the allegorical sculptures representing Victorian industrial arts and sciences - agriculture, commerce, engineering and manufacturing. Directly opposite is the Royal Albert Hall of Arts & Sciences. This has been the site of many significant musical concerts in its time like Jimmy Hendrix, The Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
Of course, within Kensington Gardens we marched our way up to Kensington Palace. Today the palace, is the official residence of The Duke and Duchess of Glouchester, The Duke and Duchess of Kent & Prince and Princess Michael of Kent. Alongside the palace are STATE APARTMENTS, which have had Prince and Princess of Wales Charles and Diana residing in them from their marriage in 1981. Diana actually still lived in one of these apartments right up to her death on Aug 31st, 1997... and this ended our tour for the day...
The great thing about living here is that the sun rises ridiculously early and sets quite late. Even if you get out late in the day you still have stacks of daylight left to make most of the day. Still, after several conversations with a few of the local residents, they don't seem to favour this idea of daylight savings as much as we do! I say, Steve and I need to make the most of it, because rumour has it that during the Winter it is the complete opposite... and we'll be living in miserable darkness... So bring on the sunshine!
For more exciting photography : http://picasaweb.google.com/hillsj/HydeParkKensingtonGardens
And so the continuing story, after our ridiculous excursion to the next suburb (which we could have reached on foot), the sun was still shining. On Sunday (the 3rd June) we decided to get on the tube again (this time to a valuable destination) and explore Regent's Park. When we arrived there, we were greeted with a very busy area. Strewn out all over the lawn were people relaxing on blankets, reading books, listening to music, big groups of people having HUGE picnics with HEAPS of food and even people sun baking in these sun chairs you can hire for about £1 each. It definitely seemed the place to be on the weekend!
The park definitely serves as a place for social gatherings for the young and the old. It is also a centre for recreational activities such as tennis, netball, Aussie rules footy, cricket and Frisbee just to name a few. The boating lake allows people (for a small fee) to get on a paddle boat and take a spin around the lake. However, you wish to spend your lazy weekend afternoons is entirely up to you because in this park, the imagination has no limits! It will also be integrated into a part of the ROAD RACE for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London.
From that part of the park, we moved onto the inner circle, where we found Queen Mary's Garden. The garden was GORGEOUS, all a matter of opinion. If you love flowers (roses especially) and well groomed garden beds that are creatively arranged in artistic patterns that is is the place for you! I went a bit crazy with the camera in there and I figured it was a good time to have a play and see whether this camera was worth anything! *chuckles* Turns out it was, because the pictures came out superbly! Since, the sun was still poking through the clouds, we conveniently passed an ice cream pavilion for some deliciously toffee fudge and strawberries & cream double cone. ;o) and since it was melting in a hurry it disappeared into our bellies at warp speed!
For the magnificent photography: http://picasaweb.google.com/hillsj/RegentSPark
and http://picasaweb.google.com/hillsj/QueenMarySGarden
A hop, skip and a jump and we'd wandered to HYDE PARK. It was possibly the biggest thing we have ever seen, HUGE! Not particularly interesting in places, seemed like acres and acres of grass. Like Regent's park, it was very busy with people doing a multitude of activities, some picnicking, some playing sports etc. It did have a grand entrance though, called Marble Arch. Once we made our way to the lake, called the Serpentine the scenery got more exciting. There were beautiful walkways and many creatures to admire. We looked at our map of Hyde park and took ourselves to the Albert Memorial which officially is found in Kensington Gardens. This man must have been important, because it wasn't a memorial to be sneezed at and they certainly made no mistake of making this thing obvious! It was GIGANTIC! The memorial was commissioned by Queen Victoria in memory of her husband, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. He apparently died of Typhoid in 1861. The memorial on each far corner has separate sculptures representing all corners of the world, Europe, Asia, Africa and The America's . On the closer corners to the memorial, the allegorical sculptures representing Victorian industrial arts and sciences - agriculture, commerce, engineering and manufacturing. Directly opposite is the Royal Albert Hall of Arts & Sciences. This has been the site of many significant musical concerts in its time like Jimmy Hendrix, The Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
Of course, within Kensington Gardens we marched our way up to Kensington Palace. Today the palace, is the official residence of The Duke and Duchess of Glouchester, The Duke and Duchess of Kent & Prince and Princess Michael of Kent. Alongside the palace are STATE APARTMENTS, which have had Prince and Princess of Wales Charles and Diana residing in them from their marriage in 1981. Diana actually still lived in one of these apartments right up to her death on Aug 31st, 1997... and this ended our tour for the day...
The great thing about living here is that the sun rises ridiculously early and sets quite late. Even if you get out late in the day you still have stacks of daylight left to make most of the day. Still, after several conversations with a few of the local residents, they don't seem to favour this idea of daylight savings as much as we do! I say, Steve and I need to make the most of it, because rumour has it that during the Winter it is the complete opposite... and we'll be living in miserable darkness... So bring on the sunshine!
For more exciting photography : http://picasaweb.google.com/hillsj/HydeParkKensingtonGardens
