Sep 29 2009: Plot points like Kensington Palace, the Orangery, V&A, and a Croissant at Harrods

Sep 29, 2009 by Rochelle

Tuesday we were back in London. Our agenda: go into the park, visit Kensington Palace, have tea at the Orangery, go to the Victoria and Albert museum, and do some shopping at Harrods.

And that’s exactly what we did. We stuck to it pretty well. On this particular day, I was feeling a little under the weather, so as the day progressed, I stopped taking pictures.

So we started in Kensington Gardens, which was right across the street from our hotel. I was eager to go in there because there are two scenes in my book that take place there and so I wanted to get a real feel for it. We strolled down a walk way and then meandered toward the palace by way of the Round Pond. We were delighted at the sight of swans and ducks. It was a lovely morning and the animals were quite active.

My sister and mom in front of the Round Pond.

We approached the palace and stopped first at the Queen Victoria statue. I’d seen a million pictures of this piece but I couldn’t help taking a million of them for myself. The light was beautiful and the sky was really blue that morning.

Well hello Vickie.

Afterwards, we explored the grounds a little bit and then we went for the tour inside the palace. It was a mixture of eras. There was a pretty decent sized Diana display since she lived there before and after her divorce. William and Harry were raised there too. I have to say, it wouldn’t be a bad place to grow up!

We got to see some of the dresses Princess Diana wore to such amazing events as the "Back to the Future" film premier.

And there was a lot that dated back to William III (late 17th century) and then of course Victoria who was born and raised there until she was awoken with the news that she had become queen.

A throne fit for a king who would appreciate a little more elevation.

It was neat to see the King’s staircase in person since I’ve written a scene there too, albeit a short scene.

King's Staircase

The palace also displayed an exhibit about Debutantes and how they were presented to the King or Queen for quite a while. Apparently Elizabeth II put a stop to that pretty early on in her reign. It was an interesting display though.

Actual "Debs" describe the experience.

After the palace, I had to walk back to the hotel to get my extra camera battery. Of course when the time came to change the battery I wasn’t prepared, even though I had been overly prepared up until this point. But it turned out to be a good thing. I got a little alone time and a nice walk through the park without feeling like a total tourist. When I got back over to the palace we went to the Orangery for lunch and tea. This was one of the best parts of the trip. I’m really glad we stopped in. The tea was great and we had some excellent sharing plates. Then we each ordered our own desserts, which were really good. The best part about the Orangery is the building itself and the open airiness to the place. Lovely white marble and white table cloths and little accents of orange and green. It felt really fresh.

Marissa at the Orangery.

With not a lot of time to spare we marched over to the Victoria and Albert museum. Like Kensington Palace and the Orangery, the V&A makes an appearance in my book. My character spends almost two whole days in the V&A and I’m glad I wrote it that way. There was so much to see there and we barely scratched the surface with our hour and half visit. It was completely overwhelming and so we had to water it down. We got high speed glances at incredible artifacts and artwork with little time to really appreciate it or understand it’s context. But that happens. A return visit will be first on my list when I return to London.

The amazing Victoria & Albert Museum.

After the V&A we walked down the road to Harrods. Now by this point I was really feeling poorly, which probably wasn’t the best time to visit Harrods. I had heard a lot of hype about the joint and so I expected to be let down when it didn’t live up to the hype. And since I’m not a shopper, I expected to be bored as well. So with all this working against Harrods (sickness, etc), I couldn’t believe that I was indeed dazzled by it. Once again, it was overwhelming and amazing. We stopped first for more dessert, which probably didn’t help my weak feeling, but my mom and sister enjoyed a gigantic $40 ice cream sundae. I stuck to a croissant and a diet coke. Slightly recharged, I went off in search of the men’s section to buy a gift and the other two stuck around the food halls (which by the way was just insane in it’s own way), and eventually had to ask for help to find it. I found what I was looking for and got fantastic customer service. I eventually found my way back to the food halls and somehow found my sister and my mom. By this point I was pretty exhausted and it was nearly closing time.

So we left Harrods and headed toward the Knightsbridge tube station. On the way I got a good glimpse of the Mandarin Oriental hotel which is the model I’m using for my book. It was nice to see how it was situated and it’s distance to the park. I had no idea originally just how close it was to fine shopping and Harrods and the like. I wish so badly I could have gone inside to see the lobby, but I was just too tired. And truthfully, since I’m not calling it the Mandarin Oriental hotel and it’s simply a model it’s probably best to leave it up to the imagination.

We had to change trains twice to get back home and so it was a bit of trek, but when we did get back across the park to our area, we got off at Lancaster Gate and went to the Swan once again for a little bit of dinner and for some drinks. The hunky waitstaff were there once again and we stayed for a little while. I never did improve and so I stuck to water while my mom and sister enjoyed wine and beer respectively.

Once back in the room we made our phone calls to our loved ones and then it was back in bed after another great, albeit long and tiring, day in London.