Early breakfast today as we are off to continue our adventure in London – we arrive at the Gare du Nord station in time for our 9:10 train and arrive at London Waterloo at 11:13. Our London Guide, Hilda is there waiting for us and on the coach we get to go to our hotel and get settled in there. The remainder of this day is free to enjoy until dinner this evening. Our hotel is just as quiet and within walking distance to a lot of things to see.

Wednesday we tour London, visit a rooftop garden by Arabella Lennox-Boyd and visit the Museum of Garden History and Kenwood House. Kenwood House is a beautiful house full of artwork and surrounding the house are grounds that are so large and peaceful to walk in…there is a picture here of rhododendrons in splendid colour. Down the hill from the house there is a white bridge. The big white building is Kenwood House. The rooftop garden is fairly obvious, this wonderful patch of green with tops of buildings surrounding it. They were doing a shoot that morning and were very pleased that they allowed us to visit for a few minutes. There is also a terrace restaurant there and the white wisteria and irises looked very happy in their location.

The next picture with the sign that says ‘LIBA’ shows an arch .. do you notice the two cone shaped pieces on it? That was put there so that when people were walking back to their homes, they often had torches, and these were used to put the torch out before entering the home.
 

The Museum of Garden History…I have been here twice before and have other pictures as well, but you always see something you didn’t before! It is housed in an old church and the Tradescants are buried here. The planting of Tradescantia is right there as soon as you enter this wonderful little garden. The Museum was founded in 1977 to save the historic church of St. Mary at Lambeth and create the worlds first museum of garden history. It is a delightful place to visit and we always try and get there when the tour is based in London.

The red brick building with the statue of Queen Victoria is Kensington Palace. A couple of pictures of the sunken water garden are shown which was just about to get planted with the summer bedding plants. The red brick building with the long white windows is the Orangery and that is where we had lunch. Inside, all white and very pleasing to the eye with the sculpture and decoration, it was a very peaceful place to enjoy a wonderful lunch. We were all very proud to show you what we were eating! I had soup, fresh bread and brie and salad. The Orangery was built in 1704-5 and has an interior decorated with paneling, cornice and 24 Corinthian columns, all painted white. Above the arches at either end of the room are pine and pear wood carvings by Grinling Gibbons. We toured the gardens and house and had a wonderful time walking where perhaps Diana, Princess of Wales, and others, might have walked.

There are a few more pictures of the grounds including this lamp with the crown on top of it. Back to our hotel and dinner, then our very big day tomorrow!