Even though we were still on the ground in Knoxville, Ben was happy to finally be on the way to London! We were a bit worried that there was only 1.5 hours between our arrival and departure in Chicago, but it turned out that everything went smoothly and we took off for London on time.We had a bit of trouble locating the hotel. For some reason, the numbers on the street went from 86-90, with no building in between, when our hotel was numbered 88. After much walking and circling around, we finally found it. I'm not sure what the problem was, but at least we were able to finally unload those gigantic suitcases and go and explore London!
The first order of business was to sort out our travel cards so we could get around. Since Ben is under 18, I was glad to see that he could get a student travel card for a reduced rate. However, as with most things, it wasn't smooth sailing. The address I had printed from the Internet from London Transport said the office to collect his photo travel card would be "across from Platform 8." The only thing even in the vicinity of Platform 8 was the lost luggage department. Unfortunately, in order to sort out where the card was actually located, I had to stand in two different long, slow-moving lines to finally find the correct office.
Once that was done, I thought the best way to get us oriented with the city would be to go on one of the excellent "London Walks" tours. One that sounded interesting today was "Old Kensington." I knew that the professional guides who conduct the walks would be able to show us many interesting things that I would never have found otherwise.
For instance, I was interested to have some literary "blue plaques" (although they're not always blue, apparently) pointed out to me. These note where famous people in all fields lived and worked in London. Today's examples included T.S. Eliot, W.M. Thackeray and Ezra Pound.
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The guide was very interesting pointing out interesting architectural features that I might not have noticed, such as the "mews" (former stables) that were converted into flats. Here are some windows that had a former life as stable doors:
Or these windows that were bricked up in protest as a result of a tax on windows:
There were also some interesting stories about things which no longer exist in modern London. Even though they are no longer used, many houses contain coal cellars. In order for the deliveries of coal to be made to the houses, small covers were set into the street.
These manhole covers were much smaller than the ones we know today in order to keep potential thieves from prying up the covers and stealing the coal.We also had a tour of the beautiful St. Mary Abbots church in Kensington. There have been four churches on this site, starting with the first one in 1102. As the population grew, larger churches had to be constructed to accommodate the new parishioners. I was most interested to see the designation "ancient lights", which indicates that the panes of glass in the church are protected and cannot be disturbed.
As usual, as we walked around, there were beautiful gardens everywhere. The flowers were huge, colorful
and largely unidentifiable (by me, anyway!)
Our final stop on the Kensington tour was the beautiful Kensington Palace, home of the late Princess Diana. I tried to get Ben to strike the same pose as King William III, but this was the best he could do:
Our final order of business for the day was to take afternoon tea at The Orangery, the restaurant at Kensington Palace. For some reason, I thought that cameras weren't allowed, so I didn't take any photos of our beautifully presented scones, sandwiches and cakes. I did see other people taking pictures, though, so I took a few before I left of the room and some of the goodies on display:
Well, it's been a long day! We'll have to see if we wake up in time for more adventures tomorrow!
