Last weekend (we are getting a little behind) we ticked off one of our bucket list items (or would have if we had a bucket list....). On one delightfully rainy Saturday Claire and I joined Ben, Shannon and Sara on a trip into London city. I only mention the rain because this day it was unusually heavy. Normally it is a mist that you put up with and eventually forget about but this was the heaviest it has been yet! However once we got into London it had eased up a bit and we were able to meander through Hyde Park and enjoy the various statues, monuments and waterways. My favourite was the Peter Pan statue where a ‘offering’ of a quote from the book had been left, reading it brought my imagination alive, quite a moment J.
The end of our walk took us out at Notting Hill and Portobello Rd markets. This is when the rain was getting heavy, but we never said we were coming to England for the weather did we? The markets were pretty much what I expected, a plethora of antique shops (Uni vocab ftw), crafts, fresh food and of course flower stalls. It was a treasure trove for the two of us and we spent at least an hour making half way through the market at which point we found the items that were to part us with our money. I found a lovely bag, nothing too special, just nice. Claire however made the purchase of the day. A 1930’s fox stole, complete with head, eyes, tail, paws and claws. His name is fantastic Mr Fox and he lives in our cupboard, sometimes Claire talks to him.
After this we had to turn back and make our way to the bucket list ticking destination of the day. We went back to Hyde Park and to Kensington Palace where we had a high tea in the most appropriate of surroundings. The Orangery had high windows and a white interior with greek or roman busts scattered around. Our tea came with three tiers, sandwiches, scone and cakes. Our tea was the recommended orange tea (tasted like bubblegum) and the whole thing was rather delicious. As im sure you can guess, we took our time over this whole affair with much mulling over or each of the flavours and we walked out totally full. I highly recommend this experience and am already looking up more places to do high tea in the area!
After tea we required another stroll in the park where we discovered still more (it is a pretty big park). After a few transport mishaps we found our way to Watford for the evening’s entertainment. Shannon had previously won 6 tickets to a comedy night there and was taking us as a treat J Unfortunately the place itself was nothing to write home about (that’s my excuse for not sending postcards) but the comedians were good and it was good to laugh with friends. Our trip home again was eventful as we discovered the lack of transport available in Watford late at night, but all’s well that ends well and we got home in the end. It was a very full day, and our excursions just seem to top each other every time that we go out, so once again, it was one of the best days yet!
Gemma xxx
