First Day with Karen

My friend Karen (Kitchener Karen, not Toronto Karen) arrived in from Toronto last night safely. David kindly offered to drive us back to my place in Barking. Then this morning after a brief sleep-in (9:15 for Karen), I roused her out of bed to start the day in London. We got to Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the Guards at 11:30, and proceeded to walk through Green Park, take a brief stop at the Wellington Arch (from where we could get a nice view of the surrounding area while eating our sandwiches), and then carried on to Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens/Palace. The gardens were every bit as lovely as I remembered them being last fall...they must employ a host of gardeners who work from 9 pm until 7 am keeping the flowerbeds in tip-top condition. At Kensington Palace, they had a mystery you were supposed to solve, using the clues provided, decide which 7 princesses were being described who had lived at Kensington (including Victoria, Margaret, and most recently Diana). Karen really wanted to go on the London Sightseeing Tour bus, so we had a good two-and-a-half hour trip around the main sights in London. Karen was absolutely fascinated with all the different forms of transportation available in London and wanted to try them all--tube, train, and especially double-decker bus.

We ended off the day at Maxwell's, a yummy American (I think, since it listed "fries" and not "chips") restaurant. I highly recommend their burgers--very tasty indeed.

Tomorrow we hope to get to Hampton Court Palace, and take a trip on one of London's iconic red buses--which we didn't get a chance to do today--and Karen really wants to visit the original Hard Rock Cafe, something which was pointed out by our tour guide on the bus today. We want to get an early start, so I should get to bed now.

Ciao.