London Report 5 – Kensington Palace & Covent Garden

Hey all,  back at the internet cafe to check my map for a few things. Yesterday we took the tube out a bit off the beaten path to the Hammersmith region. The reason? I wanted to see the street that was used at the start of this Monty Python sketch sketch (and another that that I couldn't find on YouTube).   Pretty fun to see, and Kelly noted that it looked a lot smaller in real-life than it does in the sketch. It did get us out of the normal part of London though, even if only for an hour or so. We walked past the BBC Television Centre on the way to the White City stop to catch the tube over towards Kensington Gardens and Kensington Palace.

The palace was very interesting to tour through, with loads of period costumes and history of the palace. Queen Victoria was was born there, and Princess Diana lived there right up until her death in 1997. Only recently has portions of the palace been opened to the public. It was a fun tour. The palace sits at the far west end of Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, and the weather was again beautiful, so we were able to relax a bit and stroll around on our way to and from the palace.

We'd decided to take the tube to Covent Garden, a popular destination for shopping and theatre. We spent some time wandering around (doing a bit of pub-hopping) and found the cheese shop that Kelly wanted to find. It was a very worthwhile visit too, the gentleman who worked there was more than happy to give us samples of cheeses, making many suggestions along the way. Some of it was fantastic too, some was a bit out of my taste range (such as the blue).

There was another football match tonight, Manchester United versus Milan, so any pub with a TV was packed full. Once we got back to our neighborhood (after a nighttime stop at Piccadilly for some photos), we ended up at the Prince Regent for a pint or two, then walked back to The Globe at the end of the match, Manchester had lost and the place was fairly dead. Except for one table, there were 7 or so people sitting around loudly singing along with the showtunes that were playing on the pub's stereo. It was pretty funny to watch.

Anyway, today we're going to try and take a river transport service to Hampton Court Palace. Gotta run.