Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Journey to Kensington Gardens, London

My big travel dream was to visit the U.K. and Ireland and this time last year that finally happened.    I thought I could relive the trip this week and next vicariously on the blog, and at the same time share it with all of you.  Sometimes the tea connections will be a bit tenuous, but I'll try my best to make it blog appropriate :).

Let's start with the first day of my trip April 21, 2013, which, appropriately enough, began with afternoon tea at the Orangery at Kensington Palace.  Queen Anne built the Orangery in 1704, which she used to house citrus fruit trees and for entertaining.



 My traveling friend and I were both jetlagged (her more than me, much to her disgust I'm sure, I was running on adrenalin since it was my first trip abroad and she had previous world travelling experience).  We took the Tube to Kensington Gardens and waited in line in front of the Orangery until they had a seat available.  We ended up sitting outside because it was the first seat available, which let us people watch while we sipped warm tea in the slightly chilly spring air.



It was a wonderful tea with beautiful china made for the Historic Royal Palaces (an independent charity that looks after the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, the Banqueting House, Kensington Palace and Kew Palace).


The Kensington Palace gift store offered this lovely china for sale, and I almost bought them  as my souvenir...but then I found even better ones (but more on that another day).

We each got our own tiered tray with assorted goodies:

 
The sandwiches were smoked salmon and cream cheese, cucumber mint, egg mayonnaise and cress (doesn't egg mayonnaise sound fancier than egg salad?), and English mustard (of course) with ham.  The scones were currant and (appropriately enough for an orangery) orange scented.  The three desserts were a chocolate mousse cake, mango cheesecake, and a piece of Victorian sponge cake (also appropriate as you will see).
 
After the tea, we walked up to Kensington Palace. 
 
William III and Mary II bought a house located in Kensington Park in 1689; this house was later transformed into the current palace.
 




There were beautiful gardens:


Each of the rooms in the palace told about William and Mary's reign through imaginative exhibits:

(Queen Mary's State Apartments)

(Staircase in the Queen's State rooms)

(the King's staircase)

(Cupola Room)

(The King's Gallery--decorated as it was for King George I in 1727)
 

The palace also had wonderful exhibits on royal fashion:
 

 
 
Finally, Kensington Palace is also where Queen Victoria was born and grew up.

(statue of Queen Victoria).
 
The palace had a special exhibit "Victoria Revealed" dedicated to her childhood in the palace, her family life, and her public life as queen.
 
(One of few surviving suits owned by Prince Albert and Queen Victoria's wedding dress)
 
 
Kensington Palace is still owned by the Queen and is the official residence of Prince William and Princess Kate.  While we were there, work was being done (left side of the picture) on the wing of the palace that is now their residence.
 

(Gates on the South approach to Kensington Palace)
 

 
Even the street lamps are regally crowned.

 
I'm sharing this post on
 Friend's sharing tea @ http://blog.bernideens.com/



15 comments:

  1. Looking forward to hearing more about your trip. That china is gorgeous!

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  2. Hi Carrie,
    How I would love to have visited that tea time with the beautiful cakes, sandwiches and china! Absolutely gorgeous. Wonderful pics of Kensington Gardens tto. I would also love to visit London someday -it sounds like such a delightful holiday. Thank you for visiting me! Have a wonderful week! Karen

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  3. What a wonderful trip that you and your friend took. My late beloved hubby and I visited Ireland. Someday I'd love to visit England. Your tea time looks fabulous.

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  4. What a fabulous trip you took with your friend! Your tea time looks marvelous with all those English treats; lovely! Would love to visit England someday. Thank you for sharing with us and joining me for tea. Have a lovely day.

    Blessings,
    Sandi

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  5. Hi Carrie,

    What a beautiful post. You brought back so many memories. I visited the U.K. a few years ago and had the pleasure of having tea at Kensington Palace also. Took the same tours and it was a once in a lifetime event. I love it all. So glad you had the chance to experience this magnificent place.

    Janet

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  6. Carrie!! I LOVE all of your photos and they gave me so much nostalgia. :) Except for the jetlag part, which I still feel badly about, haha. Next time we'll have to be sure to schedule a naptime for me since extended sleep deprivation obviously turns me extra-crotchety. ;)

    Can't wait to see more of pictures and re-live the trip along with you!! :-D

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    Replies
    1. Ack, there's a typo in here and I can't fix it. *flails*

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    2. I enjoyed your photos of England and the tea you had. It is on my bucket list to have tea there myself some day.

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    3. Katherine!! You've outed yourself as the unnamed friend :). Now I can use your name in the blog posts. It is making me more sad as I go through the trip...I want to go back so badly! Oh well. Please feel free to chime in with additional info or corrections if I leave anything out. I had to pull out Rick Steves again while doing the posts! I think the problem with the jetlag was that I wouldn't let you sleep...I wanted to explore! And then we ended up exhausted in the random pub that night with no clue how to get food.

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    4. I feel a little bit better that you have been consulting Rick Steves, as I was feeling ashamed of myself for forgetting everything that I learned. I was incredibly impressed with your recall! :-D

      And yes, the dinner that gave me a lifelong fear of pubs... hahaha. Too funny.

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  7. I too enjoyed all your pictures and know you have wonderful memories. Lovely afternoon tea!

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  8. What a lovely tea time you had with your friend. We visited London about 6 years ago and just loved it. I see from your about section that you live in N. VA. I do too! See you again soon!

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  9. Hi Carrie! So glad you dropped by at The Writer's Reverie - and I'm even more delighted to have spent the past half hour or so strolling through all your trip posts - MY dream trip, too. Although, I would prefer more time in the countryside - about three months or so in a thatched roof cottage in a village in walking distance of a tea room. Me, my books, and frequent literary tours. Your college major sounds delicious!! I am largely self-taught via a zillion books on English history and literature and copious doses of BBC period drama. LOL.

    Now - here's the thing. I see you're new to Blogland - WELCOME!! I just celebrated three years blogging and started my own linky - once a month - 4th Monday of the month it goes live on May 26. My suggestion: Add links to ALL YOUR TRIP POSTS to all your trip posts at the end of them, numbered Part 1, Part 2, etc. Then, on May 26 link-up with my All Things Bright and Beautiful Link-up - info here: http://www.thewritersreverie.com/all-things-bright-beautiful-link-up

    I hope you will be introduced to others who you will enjoy reading - and I KNOW our ladies will love your trip journal of all your UK adventures! Would love to have you linking the "encore performance" of your best and brightest posts from that past month. Even though this series starts in April - it goes through til May and you did a great job of it - as though I was there with you. Especially the scones - which I now need to run to the kitchen and prep one for myself, I'm hungry for it just reading about it!

    Joy to you, milady - will be following you and hope to hear more on your ruminations of medieval and Victorian literature!!

    Joy!
    Kathryn Ross

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  10. Hi Carrie! So glad you dropped by at The Writer's Reverie - and I'm even more delighted to have spent the past half hour or so strolling through all your trip posts - MY dream trip, too. Although, I would prefer more time in the countryside - about three months or so in a thatched roof cottage in a village in walking distance of a tea room. Me, my books, and frequent literary tours. Your college major sounds delicious!! I am largely self-taught via a zillion books on English history and literature and copious doses of BBC period drama. LOL.

    Now - here's the thing. I see you're new to Blogland - WELCOME!! I just celebrated three years blogging and started my own linky - once a month - 4th Monday of the month it goes live on May 26. My suggestion: Add links to ALL YOUR TRIP POSTS to all your trip posts at the end of them, numbered Part 1, Part 2, etc. Then, on May 26 link-up with my All Things Bright and Beautiful Link-up - info here: http://www.thewritersreverie.com/all-things-bright-beautiful-link-up

    I hope you will be introduced to others who you will enjoy reading - and I KNOW our ladies will love your trip journal of all your UK adventures! Would love to have you linking the "encore performance" of your best and brightest posts from that past month. Even though this series starts in April - it goes through til May and you did a great job of it - as though I was there with you. Especially the scones - which I now need to run to the kitchen and prep one for myself, I'm hungry for it just reading about it!

    Joy to you, milady - will be following you and hope to hear more on your ruminations of medieval and Victorian literature!!

    Joy!
    Kathryn Ross

    ReplyDelete

Thank you so much for your comment! I hope you have a wonderful day :)