Kensington Church, Lambeth, Tate Britain, Westminster, Borough Market, Kensington Gardens and Palace, Holland Park, and Home

Warning: this is a big post.
 Friday was our last day in London (sob, sniff). The Montezes went to the Tower and we went to the Tate Britain. We walked down Kensington Church Street and went into St. Mary Abbots before catching the Tube to Westminster from the High Street Kensington Station. We crossed Westminster Bridge and walked down the east side of the river to Lambeth Palace and Lambeth Bridge, putting us just a few steps from the Tate Britain. We walked back through Victoria Tower Gardens and past Parliament. The Jubilee Line took us to London Bridge Station, and nearby, at Southwark Cathedral, we met the Montezes for lunch at Borough Market. I had a brainstorm, and walked us around the corner to the Old Operating Theatre on St. Thomas Street behind London Bridge Station at the foot of the Shard. It seemed like a nice medical connection for Rob, and I think everyone enjoyed the too-short visit. We tubed back to the Italian Fountains in Kensington Gardens and made our way to Kensington Palace. The grocery stores on Queensway were calling to us, so we headed to Sainsbury's and purchased a huge load of treats to take home. We had supper at Zizzi again before taking an evening walk to Holland Park and the Kyoto Gardens there. The walk back up Holland Park Avenue and Bayswater Road was a lovely but bittersweet finish to the day and the trip.

 The Churchill Arms on Kensington Church Street is

an Instagrammer's dream

 Kensington Church Street with Kensignton Church in the rear

 These guys have been selling flowers since we first went to 

London in 1978

 Kensington Church has a name: St. Mary Abbots is a 

splendid  example of Victorian Gothic Revival

Kiddos at the door

 Anna's fine shot of Westminster Bridge and Westminster Palace

with Elizabeth Tower, usually called Big Ben

 My wonderful fellow travelers

 Headed to Lambeth, doin' the Lambeff walk, oi

 Lambeth Palace, the London residence of the 

Archbishop of Canterbury, is a fine Tudor building

 This is where Anna learned to love art

 Millais and Waterhouse are favorites

 And I really like David Hockney

 This Sargent called The Mountains of Moab, 1905, stunned us 

because it looked like it could have been Moab, Utah

Headed back toward the Lambeth Bridge from the Tate

 When you don't carry water, you hydrate where you can:

Victoria Tower Gardens

Victoria Tower Gardens south of the Parliament Building on our
way to the Westminster Tube Station

 I love the Westminster Tube Station: like something

from Star Wars

 Borough Market with The Shard looming large in the background

 Lunch at Southwark Cathedral

 Pie and mash with minty mushy peas were delicious

 That's Rob in Southwark Cathedral

St. Thomas tower window view of St. Thomas Street

 The Old Operating Theatre is accessed by way of the tower

of Wren's St. Thomas Church

The Herb Garret of Saint Thomas Church where

herbs were dried, is filled with medical memorabilia

 1822 Victorian operating theatre at St. Thomas Hospital was 

built in half of the Herb Garret of St. Thomas Church

 Saint Thomas Church, associated with the hospital of the same 

name, was built in the 17th Century by Christopher Wren

 She was an Engergizer Bunny: cartwheeled hundreds of feet

to the Italian Fountains

 The Italian Fountains at Kensington Gardens

 The Long Water becomes The Serpentine in Hyde Park

 The Peter Pan Statue: J.M. Barrie lived on Bayswater Road just

across from Kensington Gardens and they were the setting for

his first Peter Pan story

 Regrouping with treats at the Round Pond; Kensington Palace

and Kensington Church in the distance

All sorts of wildlife

Kensington Palace

 Royal clothing collection: 1950's Christian Dior for Princess Margaret

 Modest English Baroque interiors at Kensington Palace were

to Queen Mary II's taste

 Clara and Anna at the Kensington Palace Sunken Garden

Lime (linden) arbor at the Kensignton Palace
sunken garden

 Tucker's video of a portion of the treats being scanned at Sainsbury's

 Headed along Moscow Road with treats in tow

 Father, Daughter, and Treats at the BYU Centre

 The Churchill Arms was busy on our way to Holland Park

Some of the remains of Holland House

 Kyoto Gardens at Holland Park

 Kyoto Gardens

 Rob's photo of the evening walkers

 Splendid hydrangeas at Holland park

Melancholy view as we depart

Saturday morning, 9 July, we packed, cleaned up the flat, and headed to Heathrow for our flight home. It all went very well: customs at JFK was fantastic and we made our connection perfectly. Katy and Stephen picked us up at SLC and the whirlwind tour of England and London was sadly just a warm and wonderful memory.

 Departing for home from the Notting Hill Gate Station

Virgin Atlantic to New York

 Provo on our approach to SLC

This trip was a dream. I am so glad the Hastings invited me and then twisted my arm and made me "pull the trigger" and buy tickets. I can't imagine why I was reticent. I genuinely enjoyed every moment (with the exception of the four disappointments detailed in the previous posts). Rob was a great driver and the kids were troopers. They never complained, were always excited (in a Hastings kind of way [Clara being the exuberant exception]), and never flagged. Thanks as well to Rob and Anna for several of the photos in these 13 posts. That's all for now.

OXO

D.

Hampton Court, Saint Paul's, Museum of London, South Bank, and Piccadilly

On Thursday, 7 July, We caught a Central Line train at Notting Hill Gate. A transfer to the Jubilee Line took us to Waterloo Station so we could take a train to Hampton Court where we spent the morning. We returned to Waterloo for lunch because the kiddos had spotted some tasty-looking pasties on the way to the train. A direct City-and-Waterloo-line train took us non-stop to Bank. We made our way to St. Paul's where almost everyone climbed to the lantern. The photo nazis were out in force, but that never stops me when I have paid a hefty entrance fee. They have hired lots of unfriendly folks to watch over the tourists, many of them eastern Europeans. We swapped the Museum of London for the Courtauld Galleries, which was a good call. At the end of the day we walked the South Bank, which was packed, as far as Westminster Bridge where we caught a bus to Piccadilly Circus. A few-blocks walk took us to the Cath Kidston flagship store on Piccadilly Street, where some fun purchases were made. We also popped into the Burlington Arcade and the Royal Academy for a quick look-see. For supper, we ate kebabs and the like at Taza on Queensway.

 Morning toilet (in the French sense) in our great Airbnb flat

 Central Line eastbound platform

Arriving at Hampton Court Station

 Hampton Court Palace lies just across the Thames 

from the train station

 Tudor crenelation, turrets, and Roman roundels on the gate house

 These kiddos are spectacular travelers; they have been well trained

 Words I live by: "If there is no picture, it didn't happen"

 All dressed for a morning at the Palace

 Tudor brick work, Tudor arches, and fanciful Tudor columned chimneys 

 The kitchens are the best parts of the great houses

 Faux Tudor lads watching the fire catch

 The Fountain Court in the Wren-Baroque part of the Palace

 Up the King's Staircase

 The Orangery and the Tudor and Baroque bits of the palace

 Sunken garden

 I had a border as pretty as this for a couple of years long ago;

garden envy

 Elegant dining at Waterloo Station

 Like forbidden fruit, stolen photos are the sweetest: St. Paul's

 The history of London on display

 The Lord Mayor of London's extravagant rococo coach (still used)

 Back across the Millennium Bridge for a walk along the South Bank

 Our crew with the river and the City of London beyond

 Making it happen for the Montezes

 Westminster and the London Eye

 Cath Kidston makes some fun stuff

 Burlington Arcade: these arcades were the original shopping malls

 The elephant-trunk-like sculpture has a camera that captures
 and projects the scene below or above
on the large screen on the building

 Tasty

Such a great time.

OXO

D.