Pics top to bottom: Kensington Palace (Di's old place). Buckingham Palace (Liz's place). View of Liz's garden and rear of palace. Churchill Arms at Notting Hill. View from our London apartment in Bayswater (pretty much mirror image of building we stayed in).
It was only two degrees cooler than KL. London was hot, and while the locals were relishing in it, we were frustrated by our suitcase full of spencers, woolies, coats and scarves. I'd even packed leather gloves. It was 29 degrees, the hottest September 29 since the Victorian era the newspaper said. Bloody hell, we had to find a washing machine to remove all that deer, elephant and monkey grot from my cotton clothes as I had nothing to wear in this Indian summer. Visited a few charity shops too add some hot weather gear to the wardrobe.
Then it was off to see the Queen, although she was out of town, but her house was open for a special tour of the state rooms, a rare opportunity we discovered as plenty of the other curious folk doing the tour were locals.
We are staying in Bayswater, near Notting Hill on the northern corner of Hyde Park. Great spot. Has it's own buzz and is a walk in the park to get to Liz's place. Well the park is a couple of kms long so you do need to get those walking shoes on.
Buckingham Palace is as grand as you would expect. Full of over the top interiors, antiques, artworks and history. We stood where the wedding photos of Liz and Phil, and Kate and Will were taken. We were also in rooms where presidents, prime minsters, dignatories and celebrities from around the world had walked and dined. There was also a display of the latest royal wedding highlights including Kate's bridal dress, a feat of engineering we discovered, by Alexander McQueen's chief designer Sarah Burton. The cake, the shoes, the flowers and jewellery were also there to see. Monarchists and fashionistas were in their element.
The gardens are vast and have their own lake, and are the setting for thousands of lucky guests of the queen at the many functions held there throughout the year. The Royal shop at the end of the tour indicates how open the Royal family are to generating an income from their popularity to save taxpayers footing the bill for everything.
Met up with couple of Grafton friends the Leavers and headed to Notting Hill for a pint or two at the Churchill Arms a pub covered with flowers and the place where the late great PM made his famous wartime speeches. Can't escape the history here.
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