Kensington Palace, the Guards of BP practice for the queen's birthday, Camden Locke

With the exception of trying to cross the street, the people of London are so, so very friendly.  The buses and cars just as soon run you over than wait for you to cross.  It's hard to remember to look left instead of right for oncoming traffic.

Bob and I went to Kensington Palace this morning.  Kensington Palace is where many members of the Royal family have had apartments.  It dates back many generations of royal families.  Princess Di lived here. When she died, people brought tons of flowers to the front gate - which is the scene we saw on the news. William and Kate are going to move here. Most of the areas we saw were dedicated to Queen Victoria and King Albert.  Queen Victoria's side of the palace was quite dowdy.  While the King's side was very grand.

Queen Victoria's War attire

King's apartment - where peasants ask for favors

 



The King's royal robe: the train is 12 feet long

 

 



 

Check out the size of the doors alone:  This is the King's drawing room
 



We then stopped at Buckingham Palace to catch the changing of the guard.  We were too late for the changing, but we did catch part of a show.  The guards were practicing for the Queen's upcoming birthday parade:  

The kids joined us in a trip to Camden Market.  It is a combination of international food courts and flea markets. Bob and I had Moroccan food, Brandon had Mexican.  Nick had American.  Quite the area for people watching.

 

Afterwards, I took the subway to Harrods and purchased more cheese:  Cornish Yarg is our favorite.  It's a white, semi-soft cheese.  I also stopped to take a picture of the chocolate display - but was told I could not take pictures of the chocolates.  Too bad, because they are so pretty.  

 

 

a very small part of Harrod's chocolate display