We made our way to the Castle Conference for the fourth time. This time Hannah did not come with us. Brian's parents came to Kansas and stayed with her. We scheduled a flight Friday evening from Kansas City that landed in Minneapolis-St. Paul. When we arrived at the airport they told us that they had changed our flight to go to LaGuardia in New York and we would fly there and leave in the morning. We asked to be restored to our original flight. After a round of permission asking and giving by numerous Delta employees, we got on that plane to Minnesota. Then we ran through the terminal to catch a flight to Heathrow. The flight was 7.5 hours. The customs line took about an hour, but by the time we finished, our bag was in the Reclaim (that's what they call it in Britain).
Whenever we go to London we try to stay in a different part. This time I wanted to stay across from Hyde Park near Kensington Palace right in central London. Hyde Park was Henry VIII's hunting ground, but now it is a massive royal park to which the public is invited. There is an impressive number of attractions in this park, in addition to jogging trails, bike paths, and footpaths. Hyde Park adjoins to Kensington Gardens, although they were officially separated by Queen Caroline several hundred years ago.
The second day we were in London, we took pictures in Hyde Park and then had lunch across the street at the Swan Cafe. The terms "one for the road" and "on the wagon" were reportedly coined there. It was a place where jailers bought prisoners their last beers before hanging them. I had a chicken sandwich and Brian had nachos. Hopefully it wasn't the last for either of us. After lunch, we visited Kensington Palace and looked through the apartments available to the public. Then, we headed to the castle, arriving just in time for dinner and to see old friends.
Queen Victoria's monument to Prince Albert. We waited and waited for those other tourists to get out of the way so we could have an uncluttered shot (except for me) but they would not budge.
The Queen's gate, down the street from Prince Albert's memorial.
Me at the Queen's gate.
Water fowl in one of the many fountains in Hyde Park. Our best guess it that it's a crane.
This is Princess Diana's memorial fountain. This is the place that was the most crowded.
Here is Royal Albert Hall where they have many of the shows that people go to when they go to London. It is across the street from the Albert memorial.
At Kensington Palace they let you sit in a chair in the throne room where subjects could seek an audience with the king. Brian looks like he is about to take away some poor plebeian's farm.
Peter Pan statue in Hyde Park. J.M. Barrie is lived by Hyde Park. When he wrote Peter Pan, he had a white bird fly out of the nursery window across the long water and land on this exact spot. He commissioned this statue in 1902.
Here is the gate outside Kensington Palace where everyone in London brought flowers when Princess Diana was killed. She and her boys (maybe Charles too occasionally) lived there--so did William and Mary II (of Orange), most of the Hanovarian kings, Queen Victoria (she was born there), Princess Margaret, Queen Elizabeth II, and now the Cambridges use it as one of their residences.
Here's the sign from the Swan Cafe where we had hopefully not our last drink ... of water.
Whenever we go to London we try to stay in a different part. This time I wanted to stay across from Hyde Park near Kensington Palace right in central London. Hyde Park was Henry VIII's hunting ground, but now it is a massive royal park to which the public is invited. There is an impressive number of attractions in this park, in addition to jogging trails, bike paths, and footpaths. Hyde Park adjoins to Kensington Gardens, although they were officially separated by Queen Caroline several hundred years ago.
The second day we were in London, we took pictures in Hyde Park and then had lunch across the street at the Swan Cafe. The terms "one for the road" and "on the wagon" were reportedly coined there. It was a place where jailers bought prisoners their last beers before hanging them. I had a chicken sandwich and Brian had nachos. Hopefully it wasn't the last for either of us. After lunch, we visited Kensington Palace and looked through the apartments available to the public. Then, we headed to the castle, arriving just in time for dinner and to see old friends.
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