I had a slow start to the day, because of the libations I mentioned in my previous post. We ended up walking out the door at around 11, to go to a coffee shop nearby. It turned out to be closed (Sundays!) but holy moly the area was both the cutest and trendiest place I've ever seen. I could go broke shopping there. We ate a little snack at an Italian shop, before making our way to Buckingham. We didn't want to have a big breakfast because we were due to have tea at 2:00, but I did get the best orange juice of my life. Mmm tasty and refreshing!
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| a hair out of focus, but one of my favorites from today, with the one above it as well |
Before I go on, I MUST tell you what made me so happy today. So, about 2 months ago I got a new camera. My other one was wonderful, but was about 6 years old, and I outgrown the functionality a bit. I moved from a Pentax to a Nikon, and THE BEST thing about this new camera is that it works with old lenses. My dad just so happens to have 10 top of the line lenses for a variety of functions, back from when he was really into photography. I brought his macro lens with me, which is great for close up shots of flowers of food (!), but can also act as a bit of a zoom, and the combination of the great lens and the new camera is making a world of difference. I'm in love! So shoutout to my daddy - thanks for letting me borrow your lens!
We walked to Buckingham, did the tourist thing with pictures in front of the big gold gate (on Mother's camera) etc, before going to the Royal Mews. I've been there before, but I mean, horses. I was happy to go back. It really is pretty neat because its a functional part of the ceremonies and such for the royals. It was essential for the trip, since the whole reason we are here is for an equestrian event.
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| Bits from the Obamas to the Queen - notice Presidential seal |
From the Mews, we went the entire other side of London for tea at Orange Pekoe. Totally different from tea at Kensington Palace, Orange Pekoe was not pretentious or ostentatious, simply delicious. Tea, prosecco, sanwiches, scones, and pastries were the stars of the show, in a little garden solarium as a setting. It was a lovely midday snack, and by snack I mean they rolled me out of there because I was about to birth a food baby.
We set off from tea to Kew Gardens, which were enormous and perfect for walking off all the food from tea. And walk we did, for two and a half straight hours. It is 300 acres and I think we walked about 200 of them. But it was so neat! There were so many different areas and species of plants that everything was different wherever you walked. My favorite part of Kew wasn't even the gardens themselves - Heathrow airport is not far from Kew and so every few minutes, there was a gigantic airplane flying over. It was fun to see all the different planes come by, and we both really enjoyed them as company as we walked around.
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| buzz buzz |
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| Mother's favorite flower |
We walked through a beautiful neighborhood on the way to the Tube - it would be so nice to live there! We quickly changed and went to dinner at this place Rules, which is supposedly the oldest restaurant in London at 216 years old. I had an amazing watercress soup, and also got steak & kidney pie. The pie was pretty good, just a little heavy. I think I would've liked it better if it was snowing outside or something, but we just had to get some traditional English food while in London, and neither of us particularly care for English breakfast (baked beans for breakfast - gross gross gross).
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| favorite photo of the day |
Now it's late and we have an early AM to take the Chunnel to Paris, and then another train from Paris to Caen, so bedtime it is!
(I really hope our Airbnb apartment in Caen has good wifi!!)
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