Off to London!

The flight was fine. Got off a bit late waiting for 2 passengers from a connecting flight. Free drinks, nice meal with a (half) bottle of wine and an after dinner brandy. I slept! Kathy didn't.

Annie met us at Heathrow and we took the "tube" to South Kensington. Kathy said the tube was exactly like the Toronto underground. Coming out of the South Kensington station I got the luggage stuck in the ticket gate! Quite embarrassing.

  Annie (finally) got us to our hotel ("just a couple blocks this way,... I think").

London Underground Map

Well, the brochure said-

Should business or pleasure take you to London you'll find no better base than The Gallery Hotel. This beautiful Victorian house attains the very highest standards of comfort and those amenities essential to modern living. With its mahogany-paneled reception, bar and lounge area, the atmosphere is one of quiet refinement. And, true to its name, The Gallery Hotel displays original, framed art on every floor, in every room."

When we got to the hotel we found they were still in the midst of refurbishing it. Actually just the lobby. Very small bed rooms (just a bedroom and a bath) but it's very nice and just a half block from the Natural History museum and Victoria & Albert Museum. And about 3 blocks from Annie's flat.

Our room looked just like the picture in the brochure! K

Hotel room

 "our street", that's the natural history museum straight ahead, just across Cromwell.

We walked over to see Annie's flat (we'll be doing a lot of walking this trip!). Her flat is on a very quaint street (the whole dang town is quaint), it's a block off of Cromwell (or Brompton). It actually looks out onto Brompton but the entrance is from the street behind. She's on the second floor and shares the flat with 4 or 5 other girls. After a quick look we set out to see the local area.

Annie's Flat, the one in the middle

Sadly British Telecom is getting rid of all these old phone booths.

  Lots of cool cars!

Mini Cooper!

Harrod's is just 2 blocks down Brompton from Annie's so we stopped in but didn't spend much time (it looks huge), and expensive. This area has quite a few expensive shops. We walked over to Hyde park and Kensington palace.

We're nuts it's freezing. No, really it is freezing - it's snowing!

Hyde Park is just a couple of blocks up from Annie's flat. It borders Kensington Palace. The gardens are now merge with Hyde Park, they were, in the early eighteenth century, laid out in a distinct formal Dutch style; they now have a considerably more natural appearance. The two most famous features of Hyde Park are the Serpentine, a lake used for swimming, boating and fishing; and Rotten Row, the world famous horse-riding track. Rotten Row celebrated its tercentenary in 1990 and it was the first public road to be lit at night in this country. There is also a large round pond used for sailing model boats and the Peter Pan statue.

We saw an interesting dog while in the park- a Lurcher, half Wolfhound, half Greyhound. His owner (or as they say in Berkeley- owner/guardian) said his dog was the king of the park, the fastest dog in the park. He ran like a greyhound and was about the same size only husky. He had the scruffy coat of a Wolfhound.

In front of Kensington Sunken Gardens

Being tourists at Kensington Palace

We continued our walk, and had dinner at a nice Italian place.

We were exhausted when we got back to the hotel. Slept for about 12 hours, (Kathy maybe 14), missed breakfast. Finally woke up when Annie knocked on our door!