We headed first to the Victoria train station. This place is huge! It has a shopping mall and everything. We queued to buy our tickets and when we got to the front, the cashier suggested we should buy 7 day passes which need a passport sized photo. Luckily there were photo booths nearby. With our tickets sorted, and some more free breakfast - bircher muesli - we headed to Kensington Palace.
Kensington palace has both exhibitions about Britain's past royalty, and is a home to some of the royal family (incl. Wills and Kate!). They would not let us in the house section :( The exhibition section was great though (Stef didn't agree). There were four sections, Diana, Queens gallery, Kings gallery and Victoria. The Diana section just had 5 of the dresses she had worn. The Kings and Queens galleries were set up as the rooms were in the past and Victoria had tonnes of displays and information about my favorite monarch (we share our birthdate).
We then walked through the Kensington gardens and had a chance to stop and watch the ducks, swans and pigeons at a circular pond. We also saw a new bird - the swuck - which we determined must have come about by a swan and a duck mating! Unfortunately we did not get a photo of this curious animal on the iPhone. We continued to Hyde park and passed some preparations for the Olympics.
Our lunch stop was Dinner by Heston at the Mandarin Oriental (it has Michelin stars). If you don't know about Heston Bloemental google him. He is famous for making food that is different to how it tastes. This was one of our splurges on our trip and it was 110% worth it! All of the meals are based on old old recipes Heston has uncovered.
We had:
Starters - Meat fruit circa 13th - 15th century. This is pâté that looks like a mandarin. Tomato Salamugundy. A tomato salad where some, but not all, of the tomatoes tasted like bacon!
Mains - Cured Salmon. This was in broth with fresh peas. So good I even ate the peas. Fresh peas are totally different to frozen ones! Hereford ribeye with mushroom ketchup
c1830.
Dessert - Orange Loaf. Like bread pudding that has been flambéed, with a citrus sorbet that tasted like we were eating a grapefruit. Tarte of Strawberries c1591. Macerated strawberries served with strawberry sorbet that tasted just like eating a strawberry.
Unfortunately we had to turn down the hand made ice cream because we were so full by the time we had finished our three courses! Luckily a table nearby had it so we were able to watch the cream being poured into the hand mixer and being frozen with liquid nitrogen as the waiter cranked the handle.
This was the best meal I have ever had (Stef says my cooking is better lol) and even though we felt quite out of place at first, in our tourist clothes taking pictures, we thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience.
The next attraction - Madame Tussauds - was what Stef has been looking forward to the whole trip, and she was not disappointed. It was quite busy but we were able to get in quickly because we had already bought tickets online. We have had heaps of practice taking pictures of famous peeps at league games in big crowds, so were able to get photos with all the famous people we wanted to (which was about 90% of them)!
My highlight was HM the Queen, with hubby, Wills and Kate. I was constantly surprised walking into the wax figures because they were amongst the crowd and I mistook them for actual people! Stef is too indecisive to tell me her favourite. Also at Madame Tussauds was a ride through the history of London and a short 4D avengers movie. Both were interesting and unexpected bonuses.
Although Lords (the cricket ground) is closed to visitors because of the Olympics, we decided to go for a visit because we were already so close. It was pretty exciting, we took lots of photos of the gates.
By this time it was getting pretty late so we headed home. We grabbed nearby takeaway Indian and put a load of washing on. The butter chicken was interesting and very different to butter chicken back home. One thing we have noticed is that in London everything costs in £ what you would expect it to cost in $ back home, but then you have to double it to get the actual cost - expensive!
We are tired, and I'm still sick, so we are heading to bed and looking forward to exploring London's southbank tomorrow, starting with St Paul's Cathedral and ending with the Tower of London. We can't wait!
Photos:
Kensington gardens pond
Oval office and Obama
Dessert
Mains
Kensington palace and Queen Victoria
Us with HM
Starters
Stef and Diana
Lords
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