Our third and final day in London. Another early start… 7am and we were out the door! A quick tube ride across to ‘Bank’, which is where all the major bank HQ’s are.
Another good hearty breakfast at a little place not far from the station. We decided to shop around this time, after a bad experience on our first day where we spend NZD$55 on two coffees and two slices of cake!
We forgot that nearly everyone here only accepts cash, so I had to briskly head to the closest cash machine (they don’t call them ATM’s).
After breakfast we headed in St Pauls Cathedral’s direction, and ended up walking past Jamie Oliver’s restaurant Barbecoa, which also has a butchery in it with amazing produce hanging up for purchase. Probably wasn’t the best sight for Emma (the vegetarian) but she was still impressed by the shop.
After circumnavigating St Pauls we decided to head inside, but just our luck the cathedral was closed for a service till 1pm.
Not wanting to waste any time, we crossed the Thames River via the Millennium Bridge to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.
Given our early worm performance, the Globe wasn’t yet opened. So after discovering that amazing food place yesterday not far away, we headed 15mins away to get some supplies to take with us to Tenderton (although not all four of the yummy cakes made it to the train ride we are currently on)
On our second visit we discovered it was called Absolutely Starving. While we weren’t, after our huge breakfast, we were foreseeing us being hungry tomorrow and even later this evening.
After stocking up, we headed back to The Globe Theatre as it was opening. The theatre is the closest replica they could make based on what little records exist about the original theatre. Globe to Globe is currently going on at the globe, which is all 37 Shakespeare plays in 37 different languages being performed by various theatre companies from all over the world. The good news was we got to see a rehearsal taking place of Richard II in Arabic, the bad news was that because it was taking place I wasn’t able to take any photos. But here’s one google gave me, so you know what we were looking at.
We then headed back over the Millennium bridge back toward St. Pauls Cathedral, and went down into the crypts where the cafe is. But unfortunately couldn’t see much, because of the service taking place.
After that we jumped back on the tube and head toward Kensington Palace.
We walked through the amazing Kensington Gardens and discovered a giant pond littered with ducks and swans. Those that know Emma, will already know we then spent 10 minutes sitting pondering life at the pond (Have been wanting to say that all day!)
We then went into Kensington Palace, which is a royal residence which the British Royal Family has been residence in since the 17th century. It was Princess Dianes home from 1981 until her death in 1997. The Palace has just finished a major overhaul and there are now four exhibitions on display. Discover stories from Queen Victoria’s life told in her own words in the new Victoria Revealed exhibition; master the games of royal court in the magnificent King’s State Apartments; get a glimpse of a modern Princess in a small but special exhibition of some of Diana’s dresses and uncover the secrets of a fragile dynasty in the beautiful Queen’s State Apartments.
Again dressing up was in order, no time to hold Emma back.
After leaving the palace we strolled through the other side of Kensington Gardens, discovering Emma’s new favourite animal, squirrels. Before I knew it our lovely cakes were being fed to the little critter. Who was pretty excited to have some yummy food.
The Royal Albert Hall is just over the road, we popped in there to see how long the tour would take. Unfortunately it was an hour long, and we were running short on hours by this stage in the day. We were umm’ing and ahh’ing, but then when I heard photography wasn’t permitted inside that was the nail in the coffin. Telling a photographer they can’t take photos inside, is like telling a food lover that they can’t eat anything bar rice.
The National History Museum is just around the block, so we headed round there. The line into the museum was a mile long, so weren’t able to venture inside. A shame really as I wanted to see the Animal Inside Out exhibition, although I’m still not sure if I could have talked Emma into that, I wasn’t given the chance.
Next up was Harrods Department store. If you’re not familiar with Harrods, think every designer label you can think of, double it, and spread them over 6 floors filling an entire block.
There’s even a Veuve Champagne Bar, a standard yellow label bottle would only set you back NZD$150! (Rip off when compared to the bottle we bought in Dubai for NZD$55)
We left Harrods and quickly jumped on the Tube back to Elephant & Castle. We packed up out gear, and then hailed the first london cab we could find. Another thing ticked off our list.
We’re now on the train headed for a tiny village (literally one B&B, a golf course, and not much else). My first wedding is here tomorrow, so once we arrive I’ll be doing my usual night-before routine of preparing everything, catching up with Richard & Laura, and having a look around the ceremony & reception areas to get some ideas and inspiration for tomorrows big day.
Now I think about it, I’m probably not going to be able to upload this blog till we’re in Paris. My iPhone wont tether to my MacBook (Good one Vodafone UK!) and I’m very doubtful that our B&B will have wifi.
Cancel that, there is limited internet at the B&B so have been able to upload this after all.