Stiff and Sore!

We have been running hard for three days and we are feeling it. Thursday we bought our Travelcards and hopped the 390 bus. It runs from Notting Hill Gate to Archway and we rode front and center top the entire route. At Archway we caught a 210 up the hill through Highgate to Kenwood House. The view over London from there is wonderful, even on a misty day. The house just reopened after a two-year renovation and is lovely. The art collection is wonderful, small, and filled with gems. We then took a couple of buses (210 & 268) to Hampstead and wandered the village before heading back to our neighborhood on a couple of other buses. Have I mentioned how much we love buses: you can actually see parts of London you would never see traveling underground. And with a good bus map in your back pocket you can plan a seamless journey without horrible transfers: hop off one bus and catch another going your way. LOVE them. Our series of buses (46 & 23) dropped us right on Westbourne grove, just a across from Gourmet Burger Kitchen (GBK), where we ate lunch. On the way back to the Centre, we stopped in Whiteleys and walked up Queensway. After a short rest, we headed out on a park walk with a bus thrown in from the Royal Albert Hall to Hyde Park Corner. We finished at Westminster Bridge where we caught the 148 back to the stop at the top of Palace Court. Dinner in our flat was delicious Indian food from M&S.

 Coming up on Oxford Circus

 The 390s are the new buses

 London through the mist

 Conkers

 Kenwood House

 The location above London is beautiful

The view from the house of the lake and heath beyond

 Robert Adam designed the house

 This is my favorite Frans Hals painting

 I would walk a mile to see a Vermeer

 The beautiful alley of trees leading down to the heath

 Hampstead Village

 Ditto

 Back down to Westbourne Grove

 KBT at GBK

 These were delicious! 

 Once a department store, now a shopping center

 The central rotunda

 The strange fountain is gone, but the Body Shop abides

 Queensway

 Palace Court

 BYU Centre: we are on third floor up in the building on right

 Faculty dining

 Stairs in #27

 New servery

 The Adam-style mantel remains and looks great with new floor

 Sunken garden at Kensington Palace

 Orangery in the distance

 Round Pond

 Flower Walk

 Albertville

 That's a Boris bike in the foreground, named for Boris Johnson,
Mayor of London who made thousands of them available everywhere
with sponsorship by Barclay's Bank -- Google: boris bikes

Apsley House, #1 London, Wellington's House at Hyde Park Corner

Wellington Arch at Hyde Park Corner

Constitution Hill leads to Buckingham Palace from 

Hyde Park Corner

Green Park (because it has no flowers)

The Queen is in town

St. James's Park

Ditto

The Elizabeth Tower (aka Big Ben)

Westminster Bridge view

Westminster Abbey snapped from the top of the bus

Marble Arch seen from the top of the 148 bus

Queensway Station seen from the top of the bus

What a day! We return to Edenbridge tomorrow, so I'm not sure what will be in the next post. 

That's all for now.

OXO

D.