More of London

This is the entrance to Kensington Palace.

This is the actual "Palace". Yeah, that is what we thought, too. Grand entrance for not too much. We were very excited to go to this palace because this is where Princess Diana lived. We were pretty disappointed. Alex said it looked like a factory....and I agree. It got better inside, but still. The saving grace was this wonderful little building on the grounds called the Orangery. It was originally built to be a greenhouse for the palace. It is a white building with really tall ceilings and lots of tall doors. They opened all the doors and have tables inside and out. The tables were set with tiny orange trees. We had the afternoon tea, without the tea!! The "tea" included cucumber sandwiches, scones, clotted cream, jam, and a wonderful dessert, meringue. This meringue is unlike any I had ever seen. It was a very large dollop with and baked till hardened, but the inside was still a little softer, but tough. On the top they added clotted cream and raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries with the juice. This would become our favorite food in London. Yeah...don't go to England for the food. Not so great. But, this was.


Next, we went on to Harrod's the department store. We had to see this place. It was extremely grand. The building was beautiful, but unbelievably expensive. Shoes that would have cost us, because of the exchange rate, $13,000. I almost got some...yeah. They had this whole area I guess similar to a deli or food court. Not like any I had ever seen. Every type of exotic food you couldn't think of. I had never even heard of most things. There were many groups walking around. Arabic women with the full black robes and headdresses, but underneath they were dressed to the nines. Fine shoes, jewelry, make up, purses. I had never seen women like this. And then there were groups of Arabic men, also dressed inexpensive clothes and with fine watches and necklaces. They were all extremely wealthy looking. They kind of went around in packs like this. Interesting.
Another thing that happened in Harrod's.....when we were looking around the men's shoe department and gawking over the price of shoes, a man approached me with only socks on his feet and told me that he came into the store with no shoes on and then he would try some on and walk out with them on. He said he did it all the time. I couldn't imagine that, but went ahead and watched him the rest of the time. He did find a pair and went to try them on, but then he went to pay for them. To tell you the truth, we were a little disappointed. I thought he was serious. I wanted to watch. Bad, I know, but would have made an even more interesting story!!


Then we went off to see the musical, Wicked. Alex loved it. He was completely enthralled with it. GranJan and I.....not so much. It was a little hot in the theater, and I guess we were a little jet lagged. We kept falling asleep during the performance. We had a little difficulty understanding the actors....they were English. When they spoke quickly it was hard for us. But, the second half of the performance was better. And the story was really good. Once again, Alex loved it. He ranks it as one of the best things we did!! So that made it worth it. GranJan treated us to it..so Thanks, to the tune of $300. That exchange rate is nasty!