Very Kensington

Got off to a bit of a late start on Thursday, but it turned out to be quite a day.

We took the guided tour of the "village" of Kensington in the afternoon with Adam, a very enthusiastic and articulate Scotsman.

Kensington is an upper class section of London that used to be the "country" home of King William of Orange and his hangers-on.  As Adam says, the area is "very Kensington", refined, well-preserved and artistic.
Here's Kensington Square, where the houses are just beautiful.  Adam says this square was founded at a time when it would have been surrounded by countryside, about 1688.

Many writers, like TS Elliot and William Thackeray lived in the area.  Here are their homes.  Elliot's first.

One of the most interesting aspects of Kensington is the roof top garden.  And we are not talking any ordinary rooftop garden...this is 1.5 acres with three distinct areas, six floors above the street on top of an old department store that is now offices and a restaurant owned by Sir Richard Branson, the fellow behind Virgin everything, including Virgin Atlantic Airlines.

Here's the English Garden, with its flamingos.

The walled garden....

And the Mediterranean garden, which was a bit over-the-top, so to speak.

 Adam pointed out that the gardens are accessible to the public at any time there is not a function being held in the gardens, and that Branson is nice enough to let people see his beautiful gardens.

So we are waiting for the elevators going down to the ground floor and the elevator opens and who should be in it but Branson himself, with his incredible tan and shock of white/yellow hair.  I step in and I think other people are behind me, but everyone else backs away and leaves me in the elevator alone with him.  Now I'm feeling like an idiot.  He says, so you're from the US?  Yes, I say.  I'm Alice, nice to meet you.  He shakes my hand.  Thanks, I say, for letting us see the lovely gardens.  No problem, he says.  Are you going to the Royal Wedding, I ask.  Haven't been invited, he says.  But my daughter is going.  Then we are on the ground floor and he leaves the lift and I have to wait for everyone else to make it down.  Very surrealistic.

I remember seeing an episode of Friends years ago where the guys are in London for Ross' wedding.  Joey and Chandler are touring London and happen to run into Richard Branson.  I thought, how contrived is that, what are the chances?  Apparently they are very good.

We continued the tour and came across this old church, St. Mary Abbotts, which was heavily damaged by the bombing during WW II.

Ans some "very Kensington" shops like this one that sells hats

And this one that has men's hats and second-hand, hand made clothing....

Our last stop was Kensington Palace, which has some gorgeous buildings nearby...

on a street that houses many embassies.

Kensington Palace itself is being renovated, and not just because it will be the new home of Prince William and his bride Catherine.  But the gardens are still open and they are spectacular.

We had tea at the Orangerie (for William of Orange),

The park surrounding the palace has a lot of playthings for kids, including this carousel.

From there, we took a quick trip to Leicester Square to see if there were any theater tickets available for that night and got two for Betty Blue Eyes, a new show based on the movie "A Private Function."  It's about post-war England, rationing and the Royal Wedding of Queen Elizabeth in 1947.  Very entertaining and lots of mindless fun.  We really enjoyed it.  Took the bus home and got to sleep about midnight.

Today, it's off to Brighton.

Mary is Here

Mary arrived safe and sound on Wednesday morning at the frightful hour of 6:20AM.  So, of course, the first thing we did was go home and take naps.  We were out and about by 12N.  To make it an easy day, we took a boat tour of the Thames to Greenwich and then to Westminster Abby, where there were few signs of the upcoming big day.  No pictures, I'm afraid, since these are scenes I have already posted here.  But today we are on our way to Kensington, so there should be some good opportunities for some lovely pictures.

It is very hot here.  Yesterday it was about 80 and in the subway, even hotter.  Today looks to be about the same. Everyone is talking about the heat wave--more so than the Royal Wedding!

My dizziness is almost gone!

The Canal

I mentioned in my last post that I was not feeling well.  I didn't say what was actually wrong with me.  I have been very dizzy.  The kind of dizzy that doesn't let you move from the couch to the table without holding on to something.  It's incredibly disorienting and tiring, I have to say.  Sometimes I get dizzy in the springtime when the pollen is high, so I figured it was allergies, perhaps exacerbated by our walk in Hampstead Heath on Thursday.

The dizziness was less on Sunday, after Ceci left, but was still lingering and getting better then worse on Monday, so I decided I actually had to go to the doctor.  I Googled every phrase I could think of to get the answer as to whether I could just walk into a National Health Service Office here, and where they might be, but I could not figure it out.  So I went to some place nearby my flat called Same Day Doctor.  There was no one in the waiting room except the receptionist and I got right in.  I have to say, the doctor looked very much like Colin Firth and had that same diffident manner that is so attractive on him.  He did some examining and decided I had an ear infection, probably left over from the bad cold I had some weeks ago.  He gave me a prescription for antibiotics and vertigo and I was on my way, 100 pounds poorer, but much happier that I was actually going to be over this strangeness soon.

I went back to my flat only to find the cleaning lady there, so I took off again, this time to take a trip on one of the canals that run through London.  The London Waterbus starts at Little Venice, which is near Paddington Station....

Now you might think that getting on a boat when you feel dizzy might be a bit daft, but actually, you are sitting below the water line, so it feels stabilizing.

There are a lot of people who live on the river in these flat bottomed boats.  I'd like to find out how you get these berths and how expensive they are.

There is plenty of wildlife along the canal, including this large bird that I could not identify.

It's quite a calming feeling, gliding along the canal, except for the talking and laughing from the back of the boat, but I can't really fault them.  It was fun.

One ambitious boat owner put a rather large restaurant in his berth.

And remember, this is all right in Central London, right by Regency Park, in fact. And some people get to live right by the canal.

As we got closer to the end of the line, Camden Lock, it got a bit more crowded on the side of the canal, with amusements like this "Pirate Castle"

and some cafes and bars.

I had not been to Camden Lock  before, so I was quite surprised by the huge market there, even on a Monday afternoon.  And I really can't explain the African (?) standing guard over the place.

Camden High Street was packed

with the usual junk stores, low priced clothing and vintage apparel stores, but this may be more vintage than most people are looking for....

but then you never know.  Londoners wear what they want, when they want.

Went home and took my medicine and waited for it to work.

Geffrye Museum and Brick Lane

Unfortunately, I have not been feeling very well for the last two days, so Ceci has been somewhat on her own.  But today I got out and we walked around my neighborhood of Shoreditch and Hoxton.  Hoxton has a Saturday market but it is not that impressive. Essentially, it was Hoxton Street with a few market stalls.

We went from there to the Geffrye Museum on Kingsland Rd.

With a statue of the man himself, Sir Rob. Geffryes, Knight, Alderman and Ironmonger...and founder of the precursor of the museum in these buildings, an almshouse for the elderly.

Now it houses a history of the living rooms of England, showing interiors from the 1600s, through the 1700s and 1800s

and the 20th Century.

And, of course, it has a nice garden, with a few graves....

And a time capsule that was just buried last month.

This is possibly the biggest peony I have ever seen.

From the museum, we took the overground ( as opposed to the underground)

back to Spitalfields Market and had a nice lunch.  Walking home, we went down Brick Lane, which is really hopping on Saturday, with antiques shops, bars, vintage clothing stores and great looking food.

This sign was a bit disconcerting......

But with this beer garden near by, I guess some people have to be reminded.

And have I mentioned the English's love of salty meat?

On the way back, we spotted this old house, which I think looks kind of lonely on the corner by itself.

Ceci leaves early tomorrow and I will be on my own for the next couple of days.

Stoke Newington and Hampstead

We had thought of going to Hampstead on Wednesday, but the weather forecast was better for Thursday so we went instead to Stoke Newington, a neighborhood north of Shoreditch.  Two of the women from the knitting club lived there and mentioned there was a nice yarn shop--owned by another member of the group.  We thought it would be cool to just visit a neighborhood in London, so we went.

It wasn't that impressive at first.  Stoke Newington High Street seemed a little the worse for wear and the shop itself was tiny--three of us in there and it was filled to capacity.  We saw an old cemetery where one of the women mentioned "famous people" were buried, though she could not remember who.  And what a cemetery it was, spooky, disheveled and strange.

 The graves were incredibly close to each other and often askew.

 A man walking a dog told us to watch our belongings so they wouldn't be snatched.  There was an abandoned church in the middle of the place...again very spooky.

And some very poignant markers for people who had been killed in the blitz during WW II-whole families had apparently been wiped out.

Once we exited the cemetery on Stoke Newington Church Street, the whole  aspect of the community changed.  There were lovely shops,

even one selling violins...

 A nice looking pub.

 And a tea room where we had some....tea.

The place was filled with young mothers and baby buggies, something we noticed for the next few days.  It seems like Britain is having a baby boom.

From Stoke Newington, we took the bus across town--and I mean across from the far northeast to the southwest--to Victoria Station, on our way to Chiswick House.  We have been trying to stay above ground as much as possible to get the real flavor of the city.  It was a bit weird on the bus, however.  We got on the 73 to Victoria and half way there, the driver announced he would not be going to Victoria and we should take the bus behind us that would.  So we all got off and made our way back to the bus behind, with many people grumbling.

Chiswick House is not really a house, it's more like an event space.  It has no kitchen or bedrooms.  Apparently it was built next to a large house that was eventually torn down and was actually used just for parties, etc.

Like a lot of properties here, it has beautiful gardens....

It also has some fine art works....

and some over-the-top decorations.

And its own lake.....

We took three buses to get home, but we really like looking at the city from eye level or even above.

So Thursday, it was on to Hampstead.

Turns out the weather on Thursday was about the same as Wednesday, cloudy and a bit chilly.  But no rain, so that was good.

Ceci had downloaded a audio walking tour that took us through many places I had not visited on the guided tour from the week before, including this alley, called Flask Walk.

And some really lovely cottages right by Hampstead Heath.  If someone wanted to leave me one of these, I would gladly move in.

Our first real stop was Fenton House, one of the oldest in the neighborhood and filled with art work and beautiful instruments, mainly harpsicords and other keyboards.

I was particularly enamored of this bedroom, which was actually decorated as it would have been in 1952, when the last resident, Lady Binning, lived here.

Our visit to the house was cut short when the fire alarm went off and we were evacuated--the second time that has happened since Ceci has been here.  I'm beginning to wonder....

The grounds were gorgeous, so it was no hardship to be shown out to them.

The English really love their gardens--all shapes, sizes and styles.

When our walk was finished we had a great lunch at the Wells Tavern, which I had been dying to visit.  Then we took a very short bus trip to Kenwood House.  Anyone who has seen the movie Notting Hill will remember this place.....

a mansion sitting up on a hill overlooking Hampstead Heath.  (No photography allowed)  The place is filled with paintings by Joshua Reynolds, Gainsborough, Van Dyke and even Rembrandt.  Really beautiful and impressive, though we arrived at 3:30 and the house closed at 4PM so we took a very fast tour.  We decided to walk back to Hampstead through the Heath and got a bit lost, though not as lost as we would have been if we went in the direction I thought was right.  

But the Heath has its own rewards, scenes like these.....

We asked a number of people how to get back to Hampstead and everyone gave us a different answer.  Finally, we got to a street next to the Heath and took a bus.  Turns out we were at the bus stop for the bus that goes almost by my flat, so the bad luck turned to good.  And it was another interesting bus ride through some parts of London we probably would not have visited.