kensington

The dreaded last days! My trip, as you have seen, had been amazing and to realize I was in the final days of my much-needed personal vacay, was definitely hard to swallow. I was anxious to get home and be with the husband and kids again but yet, at the same time, I was enjoying my time in London immensely.

 My sister's husband agreed to let us have a day out sans kids. Saturday we aimed for the British Library. Everyone asked us about all the millions of books stored there and the rows upon rows of shelves. Well, actually, the only reason we ventured there was for the Sir John Ritblat Gallery. Are you ready for the list of treasures it holds? Are you sure? Okay. Here we go:

• Magna Carta
• Lewis Carroll's original manuscript of Alice's Adventures Under Ground
• The Duke's Plan, an early map of New York
• Original score of Handel's Messiah and hand-written lyrics by The Beatles
• Leonardo Da Vinci's notebook
• The Gutenberg Bible, one of the first printed books
•  a seven volume Islamic manuscript, hand-written in gold
• first plays of Shakespeare
• hand-written scores from Mozart and also his marriage license
• Jane Austen's writing desk, glasses and hand-written manuscripts
• scores from Schubert
• hand-written manuscripts from the Bronte sisters

...and much, much more. I was most excited about seeing The Beatles hand-written lyrics and the story behind it. They were:

• Michelle
• Yesterday
• Hard Days Night
• Ticket to Ride
• Help
• I Want To Hold Your Hand

Just to be standing in a room with so many historical and amazing features left me awe-struck. It was hard to really soak it all in. I wish I could've taken pictures but they were, of course, prohibited. If you do find yourself in London and aren't sure where to start, go to the British Library. You might also want to take a look around rather than stay in the Gallery the whole time like we did.

We then needed to start back towards the flat to relieve my sister's hubby. But on the way we stopped at Sainsbury's and stocked up on all my favorite English sweets and biscuits. Here I am showing the love for one of my favorites:

I didn't realize but Beatrix Potter's house was just around the corner from my sister's flat. Now a school sits on the spot where her house used to be. It was bombed during WWII (curses!!) and so a school was built there. There is a placque though telling of her time there:

Sunday we headed to Kensington Garden. It was raining so we took our time before venturing out. We also got to take a black cabbie ride to the park which was awesome:

Black Cabbie Ride from Nells Bells on Vimeo.
I was most excited to see the Peter Pan statue, a gift from J.M. Barrie:


At the base of the statue there were many of the characters and images from the book:

The whole of Kensington Garden is quite large and absolutely beautiful. There is also a Princess Diana Memorial walkway throughout the park.


We walked over to the Royal Albert Monument that Queen Victoria had built for him (I really want to see that movie, BTW) and it was larger than I had expected.


That bench reminded me of the movie Finding Neverland and I tried to imagine Johnny Depp sitting on that very bench. :) < sigh >
We then walked over to this giant pond in the garden and on towards Kensington Palace. We didn't go inside to the museum but opted to walk around the grounds.

Kensington Garden pond from Nells Bells on Vimeo.






By this time we were all pooped and ready for a rest. Well, my sis and I were pooped but the kids were up to doing something other than walking. Princess Diana had this giant playground built for her boys and it now is a public park area. It is super cool and the design was based on the story Peter Pan. There was a pirate ship, a Lost Boys hideout, tepee's and a rocky shore with a crocodile.


I must mention that at this park we spotted an Aussie soap star. My sister used to live in Australia and recognized him right away. He was pushing his kids on the swings. My sis tried to be discreet and snap a shot of him. The other funny thing is he was singing, quite loudly, a Lady Gaga song. I had no idea who he was but he was quite handsome. I can understand why he would be a star in his native Australia.

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