Today is the first of my London Bundles that ventures out into the neighborhoods outside the City, yet still considered fairly “central London” (i.e., Zone 1).
Let’s start our journey at South Kensington Tube station (which services the District, Circle, and Piccadilly lines). As soon as you ascend the Underground station’s steps into the light, you’ll find yourself at quite the center of action. Surrounding the station are endless choices of restaurants and shops, so you can dip into a cafe here if you didn’t grab breakfast at your hotel or flat (you know, the perfect abode where London Relocation Ltd. just successfully placed you). Might I recommend the darling Cafe Creperie just Northwest of the station and along the way to where your area tour will continue (make sure you bring cash, though, for those crepes…last time I was there, they didn’t accept credit or debit).
Continuing North on Exhibition Road, you will soon enough see the Victoria & Albert Museum to your right and the Natural History Museum to your left—take your pick (I am, however, partial to the V&A for its artifacts, artwork, and antique furnishings and textiles on exhibit, as well as the special Grace Kelly exhibition currently on display!) Best part of either museum is that they’re FREE.
All right then, mosey onward further North on Exhibition Road, past Imperial College, and hang a left at Kensington Road. You will see that Kensington Gardens is just across the street. You can enter the park if you stay on Exhibition Road, but by walking along Kensington Road, you can go past the famous Royal Albert Hall (the acoustically brilliant concert that hosts the annual Proms) and see the exotic Albert Memorial (that Queen Victoria commissioned in honor of her dearly departed husband in 1875) just across the way inside the park. Once you reach the Southwest corner of the park, enter onto a walkway that will lead you directly to Kensington Palace, where Queen Victoria was born and pronounced Queen and where Lady Diana lived the rest of her years (if you recall the footage of the masses of bouquets mourners piled up outside palace gates, this is the place where those vigils took place). The palace recently kicked off its Enchanted Palace exhibit to offer a bit of avant-garde eye candy while the building undergoes extensive renovation. Venturing inside does come at a price, but just touring the grounds for free is worthwhile—the blooms decking out the Sunken Garden and swans preening on the Round Pond being visual delights.
Enjoy a pleasant stroll on the main walkway (The Broad Walk) between the pond and palace as you continue North and exit outside the Northwest corner of the park. The main road you encounter here is just where Bayswater Road becomes Notting Hill Gate, so hang a left and continue into the well-known neighborhood. Just past the Tube station, you can jog over onto Pembridge Road for a couple blocks until you see the entrance to Portobello Road. Wandering the length of this road will take you past the antique, clothing, and produce stalls that give this area its character (and, yes, you’ll see sites from the movie, including the storefront of the travel bookshop in the film as well as the original shop on which it was based):
Notting Hill is an ideal neighborhood in which to close out your day, with no end to the pubs, cafes, and restaurants to grab your late lunch or dinner, or cinemas to enjoy some seated, passive time to yourself (try the Electric on Portobello for an ultra-cozy recliner as a seat or the Coronet on Notting Hill Gate for its history). From here, you can catch the Tube at the Notting Hill Gate station (District, Circle, and Central lines), or, first, pop down onto Kensington Church Street for more dinner options, including the Churchill Arms pub if you’re thirsty. Cheers!
It’s eerily quiet in London as the airspace over Europe is empty of anything but birds and clouds. A bizarre turn of events yesterday with Iceland’s volcano eruption, which has grounded the planes. Makes for an interesting and surely frustrating predicament for travelers who are stuck where they’re at.
I’m benefitting, though, because it means I get to catch up with a couple former colleagues of mine who had expected to only zip in and out of London for a conference and are now stranded here until at least tomorrow. We’re heading over to the Churchill Arms tonight, which provides the best Springtime eye candy with its exterior pimped out with flower boxes all a-bloom. As they seek to kill time with this unexpectedly lengthened London holiday, I also recommended to them a stroll through Hyde Park (near their hotel), perhaps visiting the Enchanted Palace exhibition at the opposite end in Kensington Gardens, and giving Portobello Road a wander. But I’m biased, of course, in bringing them in this direction because my office is located in Notting Hill .
Our fellow friend and former colleague who also lives in London likewise offered up an easy London-in-a-day sampler that I think is great to share with you if you’re relocating to London and want to familiarize yourself quickly with some its city center flavor or if you’ve already done the London move and are prepping to entertain your visitors. In addition to the usual touristed points-of-interest of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Tower Bridge, and the Tower of London, she recommends Borough Market (near London Bridge) for lunch and then a stroll along the water, with the option of either crossing the river to St. Paul’s Cathedral or delving into the arts on the Southbank at Tate Modern and/or the Globe Theatre.
And there you have it. The mild air outside my window is beckoning me outside, so I’m off to meet a friend first at Kitchen & Pantry here in Notting Hill before it’s pub time. Hopefully you’ll be able to spare plenty of time for exploring London like this with all those days London Relocation Ltd. will save you in flat-searching. Have a lovely weekend!
“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,” as Robert Frost once wrote, and while I need not cut through the woods to get to work, today I did contemplate the choice between two roads. While it isn’t the shortest way, today I couldn’t resist taking the Portobello Road route to the office. Most folks know the famed street as where shoppers come in throngs to rummage through the antiques and clothing at their Saturday afternoon leisure, yet there’s something so enchanting and intimate about strolling down this road in the morning when it’s only just waking up from its beauty sleep. The silence is delicious, my morning-walk soundtrack consisting of not much more than the whistling of a man painting the wrought iron fencing in front of a pastel mews (near where George Orwell used to live) and the odd shop owner beginning to unpack their wares out on the sidewalk. A truck rested patiently at a curb, waiting to bestow its casks of Liquid Happy at one public house.
In the quiet, then, was excited anticipation of what the day would bring. This is a street that is eager on a daily basis to welcome its people and hold them tight in its comforting embrace, bringing them cheer on so many aesthetic levels. Most would opt for this bustle of the later day, but me, I’ll take the morning Portobello Road less traveled by, and that will make all the difference.
(Of course, it may not be convenient to experience Portobello in this way unless you, too, work or live here…why not let London Relocation Ltd. help you out with that?)
This February-in-review blog post is brought to us all by Sue Hillman of It’s Your London touring company. Providing custom tours of London tailored to your personal interests, It’s Your London will help you make the most of your time in this phenonemonal city. (For more information, see our previous blog on It’s Your London as well visit www.itsyourlondon.co.uk)
Your London Relocation review of February 2010 in London is rather different from usual as I spent most of it in Africa! I was lucky enough to take a big trip by road from Cape Town to Victoria Falls and had a wonderful time seeing amazing scenery, beautiful animals, great sights, blue skies and starry skies and it was hot, hot, hot!
I’ve attached just a few snaps at the end to give you a flavour of southern Africa but will turn my attention to London first and let you know what the remaining week and a bit of February’s been like.
A weather update to start with. Returning from the heat of Africa to the on-going winter in London was a real shock although everyone kept saying that it was much warmer than it had been. Snow was still falling all around London, tho’ not in London itself, so much so that a long awaited visit from a friend in Oxfordshire was cancelled as they were snowed in and that’s only about 30 miles away! Since then we’ve been rained on, daily, so thank goodness for lots of indoorthings to do in London!
The weather was kind to us all for the big celebrations for the Chinese New Year as we welcomed the year of the Tiger to London. The area from Trafalgar Square through to Soho was packed with visitors and residents enjoying the explosion of red lanterns, firecrackers, Chinese music and the massive choice of restaurants packed into that small area. There are also the dancing dragons who visit each business in the area to bring them good luck by eating the salad left hanging for them, accompanied by huge drumming! The Chinese have been in London since the earlier 19th century and the UK has one of largest Chinese populations in Europe – our long association with Hong Kong having a major impact here. The focus of Chinatown is Gerrard Street and the local council have marked the area with bilingual road signs and you can’t mistake where you are even on a normal day as there is a massive arch and more Chinese restaurants than you could ever get through. I’ve attached a few photos to give you a flavour of the day and the area – it really is a fun time of year to be there. London is brilliant in this way, the world comes to us and sometimes a day out can feel like you’ve travelled far away!
One of my favourite shops in London is the Travel Bookshop, made famous by the film Notting Hill and I rarely visit there without buying something as my bookshelves will testify. They have all the guide books and travel literature you could ever want, and maps and CDs. For the movies buffs here’s a little Notting Hill the film info – this shop was the inspiration and you certainly get that feeling when you go in. However, the interior filming took place in a studio and the shots from the inside of the shop onto the street were taken in Portobello Road, round the corner from the Travel Bookshop itself as you can tell when you look out from the actual shop. This doesn’t stop the constant stream of tourists taking their photo in front of the shop (here’s a photo but without me in front of it). As well as selling lovely books they have just started a series of talks from travel writers so we went along to hear Hugh Thomson tell us about his book Tequila Oil Getting Lost in Mexico. It was an interesting and entertaining session so I bought the book (of course), got it signed and found out that tequila oil is a drink to be avoided at all costs for one’s health, the word tequila really is a clue here!
Gallery preview evenings are another joy on a winter’s evening. Muse Gallery on Portobello Road was hosting Justin Piperger’s new work. There were big bold colours, some cartoon works and others which incorporated household items like clocks and tea towel holders! I wasn’t really sure about it all but loved a couple of the big bright pieces and the prices were reasonable but money is a bit too short after the big trip to even start thinking that way….
One more outing to report was to see the Noisettes at the Roundhouse in north London. The Roundhouse is a fascinating building and derives its name from its shape, a round building which was formerly a railway turntable shed, somewhere that steam engines could be turned around as they could not run well backwards as happens now. Over the years it has had many reincarnations as an arts venue. Fingers crossed the current one seems to be working. It’s great for large scale events and I’ve been there to see amazing shows like one where the acrobatic group used the space on the walls and under the roof for their performance, while the audience stood, with some trepidation, in the centre of the floor space in the dark waiting for someone to fall on them! The Noisettes are high energy and fun with a good range styles but mostly a rocking sound. Their lead singer Shingai Shoniwa is a human dynamo and hard to photograph as she never stands still! The other photo is of the amazing Roundhouse ceiling.
March’s blog will be back to normal and I’m looking forward to a bumper month.
Here, as promised are just a few photos from Africa: Cape Town, Namibian sand dunes, elephants, close up to a cheetah, lions and there are so many more…..
Sure, the name Notting Hill garners instant recognition for its famed Portobello Road Market and summer Carnival, and, oh I suppose a bit from that little film that I think did okay at the cinemas…what was it’s name again? The one that starred What’s-His-Name from “Four Weddings…” and That American Actress from “Pretty Woman”? I’m sure it will come to me…Anyways, there is much that one can learn of the Notting Hill neighborhood from the city guides and tourist word-of-mouth, but what better way to REALLY know Notting Hill than by getting the scoop from its own residents?
Given that our office in situated in this locale, I’ve done much perusing of area resources and stumbled upon this lil’ cyber nugget-o-local knowledge, www.notting-hill.org. Maintained by locals for locals, Notting-Hill.org is a potpourri of information on local history, entertainment, and even celebrity spottings at area venues.
We find that a lot of our American and Canadian clients are drawn to the borough of Kensington & Chelsea, and Notting Hill specifically. So, once you move to London, when London Relocation Ltd. helps you get situated into your lovely flat here, we recommend this site as a resource for getting better acquainted with your new environment.
This January-in-review blog post is brought to us all by Sue Hillman of It’s Your London touring company. Providing custom tours of London tailored to your personal interests, It’s Your London will help you make the most of your time in this phenonemonal city. (For more information, see our previous blog on It’s Your London as well visit www.itsyourlondon.co.uk)
Your London Relocation review of January 2010 in London comes a bit early as I’m off to Africa for a few weeks but didn’t want you to miss out and there seems to be plenty to tell you about even in a shortened month.
For those of you who live in places that have snowy, cold winters you’ll think we’ve been making a huge fuss in London about our snow and freezing temperatures. However, it’s the worst spell of wintry weather since 1963 so it’s been a bit of a shock for us all! Snow laying on the streets and pavements in London is an unusual sight and has made life difficult for many, but on the upside it has been beautiful at times. I’ve posted some photos for you to see Portobello Road empty of its famous market and one of Notting Hill’s beautiful little gardens for which it is well known and one of our local flower stalls.
London is a key city in the art world and at any one time has amazing exhibitions on. In January I got to see 2 contrasting but equally interesting shows on the South Bank of the river Thames which has a wonderful concentration of galleries, theatres, sights and is a great walk at any time of year. A short list of what you can find there includes: the London Eye, National Theatre, Hayward Gallery, British Film Institute, Royal Festival Hall, Tate Modern, Globe Theatre and Tower Bridge – phew! Up to about 10-15 years ago this area was very underdeveloped but local and Millennium funding has transformed it into a must see and must walk destination. It was first cleared as part of the 1951 Festival of Britain which aimed to lift post war spirits, an arts complex was then built in the 60/70s but this century has seen it find its proper place for locals and tourists alike.
The Hayward Gallery was hosting Ed Ruscha: 50 Years of Painting, a fascinating show of power of words and graphics in an American context. The Tate Modern was our second venue, an amazing ex power station which hosts changing exhibitions in the massive space of its turbine hall. Miroslaw Balka’s huge black box was an intriguing and disturbing experience. You walk into the gaping entrance to a 13 metre high steel box and ease your way to the back into the increasingly black interior. Hands were held and other hands put out in front in case of banging into the rear wall as you really can’t see anything. We eventually met the velvet end and turned round to see that from a different angle the box was flooded with light. The thinking behind it references Polish history of the ghettos and concentration camp trains, which is especially sobering as we saw it in the week that the last of Anne Frank’s helpers has died. I have attached a photo of the exterior of the Tate Modern as it’s a wonderful building.
Restaurants and pubs to mention this month are La Sauterelle and Langtry’s. La Sauterelle is in the Royal Exchange, which was founded in 1565 by Sir Thomas Gresham as a centre of commerce for the city. This is the third building on the site and was completed in 1844. It is no longer used for the original form of trading but is now an upmarket shopping area and bar and restaurant. The photos show you the impressive exterior and interior of the building which make a wonderful setting for a meal. The restaurant’s name La Sauterelle is grasshopper in French and comes from the building’s weathervane which incorporates the Gresham family crest. The food is excellent and we took advantage of one of the many January special deals so didn’t have to break the bank (which would have been ironic as the Bank of England is just next door!).
One more restaurant to mention is Langtry’s which was more notable for its history than for its food. Lily Langtry, a well educated vicar’s daughter from the island of Jersey who rose to be a London socialite, Prince’s mistress and actress, lived on the site of the restaurant. It was during her stay here, when the building was the Cadogan Hotel that one night in 1895 in room 118 Oscar Wilde was arrested. History does not tell us whether she was in that night and whether she saw what was happening! Lily, of course, went on to tour America as an actress and eventually become an American citizen trading in horses and producing wine. Oscar sadly went to prison for 2 years of hard labour and died penniless but also abroad, in France. London is full of amazing history at every turn and even a restaurant visit can leave one full of new information as well as a meal!
I’ll be back to report on February and although only half will be spent in London I’m sure they’ll be plenty to tell you about.
As an American living in London, one of the most difficult adjustments of an already tough transition was accepting the fact that if I ever wanted to eat remotely passable Mexican food again, I would have to either book my next flight home or, more economically, run out to Somerfield and buy an Old El Paso taco kit to experiment with at home. I have yet to find that Elusive Enchilada oozing with spicy yet sweet mole sauce in the UK, suffering instead through well-intentioned, yet poor attempts. It’s like all the right components are there, but it’s just the wrong stuff: the wrong kind of cheese, the wrong kind of beans (use refried, not kidney!!!), the wrong kinds of toppings (I recently ate pub nachos topped in “salsa” that was really tomato sauce belonging on pasta). In Ireland, there were actually alfafa sprouts. Blasphemy!
The light at the end of the churro? Well, I don’t see enchiladas on the menu per se (get those at Crazy Homies–amazing!), but the hands-down most authentic Mexican (and I mean Mexican-Mexican, not American-Mexican) cuisine that I’ve tasted in London is at Taqueria, on Westbourne Grove in Notting Hill. The soft-shell tacos are served tapas style so that you can order up a plethora of choices to share with the table. I miss the shallow bowl of a standard margherita glass, but sipping this nectar of the Aztec gods from a martini one suffices just fine. My latest beverage discovery was the Michelada de Guadalajara, which is basically the cerveza version of a Bloody Mary.
Located just down the street from London Relocation Ltd.‘s Notting Hill office, the restaurant is a local treasure for which we’re muchas grateful. Adios alfalfa enchiladas, hola Taqueria!
De-de-de-DE de-de-de-DE, de-DE DE-de-DE-de-DE-de…de-de [insert screech of needle scratching vinyl record album here]–STOP!!!! DON’T GET IT STUCK IN MY HEAD!!!! I’m not talking about the Suzanne Vega song, “Tom’s Diner,” for cripe’s sakes…I’m talkin’ TOM’S DELI!!! It’s a most fabulous daily sandwich stop for me. Yes, primarily because I’m lazy and don’t often walk much further than across the street from the office, but also because their sandwich variety is top-notch, and if you did want to dine-in, they offer cosy seating in a nostalgic atmosphere of vintage decor and retro packaged treats. As I wait for my afternoon cappuccino to brew, I delight in the selection of pre-packaged sandwiches constructed from fresh and healthy ingredients (well, mostly healthy…there’s a chorizo and cheese baguette I’ve been eyeing for a while…) or the cakes–oh, the cakes!–propped so sweetly in both the figurative and literal sense on their lil’ cake stands (one of my goals in life is to own one of those stands, with a newly baked, spongy cake frosted as a candy-coated marvel being the focal point of my kitchen each day). Even though my dash-in and dash-out habits typically render my daily stay at Tom’s no more than 5 minutes, it’s a charming bit-o-my day that gives me that warm fuzzy feeling of coming home. Better yet, the owner, Tom Conran, likewise runs the fine establishments of Crazy Homies and Lucky 7, two nearby venues (click here for our previous blog post on the former).
Speaking of HOME [insert shameless plug here]…let London Relocation Ltd. find you one close to good ol’ friends like Tom’s restaurants!
No, not as in the film that captured the trials and tribulations of a cubicle existence ever so accurately…
Ironically, the relocation agency needs to relocate itself, and we are literally in the market for OFFICE SPACE!
Business has reached record levels, and we are looking to expand. This means that we’re outgrowing our current space and would certainly appreciate any recommendations of available office space in the Notting Hill neighbourhood. Our present office is located in Notting Hill, which we adore, so we want to stay! Obviously, working in the property industry we have contacts of our own, but we’d like to leave no stone unturned if it means finding the optimal opportunity. We would require occupancy of up to 10 personnel.
If you yourself work in Notting Hill or know of someone who does that is aware of commercial space for let this fall that could help supplement our search, please do not hesitate to contact us at 020 7229 0757 or colleen@londonrelocation.co.uk.
The stars come out before the sun even sets here in London. While Los Angeles is riddled with shameless star-struck tourists and paparazzi on a perpetual basis, it seems that celebrities have a better shot at experiencing a relatively normal existence in London. I stress “seems” and “relatively,” of course, as the British are probably a worse tabloid culture than Americans and certainly have their share of flash photography glittering London’s streets. Yet it just seems to me that there’s a significant difference from a city like LA that is primarily known for its entertainment industry, much like New York is known for Wall Street and D.C. for American government. London bears the burden of being all of this for the UK–it’s the centre for media, finance, politics, fashion and culture; basically serving the functions of every major U.S. city. Such is what makes it such a humming, thriving hive of activity and enrichment contributing more and more layers to the depth of its history.
In any case, this all comes to mind because last week as I was leaving work, I passed by Liev Schreiber on his way to the gym across the way. Then, just yesterday, a segment of my usual walking route to our Notting Hill office was in the midst of a “rain test,” serving as a set for the latest Woody Allen film starring Naomi Watts, Antonio Banderas, and Anthony Hopkins. Bummed that I didn’t get to catch a glimpse of Woody himself as my colleagues had upon walking back from their lunch, I was rewarded today in finding that I’d been sitting next to Maggie Gyllenhaal all during my morning coffee with a good friend at a local cafe. No huge hoopla, no gawking or begging for an autograph…we simply watched her and friend walk away looking like anyone else one would encounter on the street (except, of course, Maggie is as darling a doll in person as she appears on film). This same friend with whom I visited this morning likewise commented that this is how casually one might regularly encounter Paul McCartney or Jude Law at a coffee shop in her neighbourhood. I don’t know if it’s Londoners simply being more tactful about not infringing on one’s private life (again, the abundant tabloids call this into question), or perhaps because London is not thought of in the same vein as Hollywood, so people aren’t as alert in watching who they walk by in the event that it’s that elusive “Somebody” (deemed such by some arbitrary definition that renders the likes of the rest of us lowly “Nobodies”…), so we’re not as closely observant in distinguishing these gods and goddesses of the screen in the guise of their daily mortal forms. Either way, I do indeed hope that it’s the case that these celebrities can find some semblance of the ordinary so they can likewise enjoy the London that I’ve fallen in love with. We here at London Relocation Ltd. hope you fall in love with it, too, when you relocate here…we’ll have made the transition easier for you so you can just take a calming inhale, look to the sky, and bask in the celestial glow of the stars.
In follow-up to my last post, Crazy Homies was a success! As the name would indicate, it’s a crazy-fun environment that exudes Mexican elements with urban edge, East Los Angeles-style. Probably the smallest restaurant in which I’ve ever eaten (so getting a seat is likely difficult at its busier times, though we were seated right away on a Friday night), the flashy 70s-ish/Day-of-the-Dead decor compensates for the size with dazzling projected light and upbeat music. The margaritas were indeed splendid, but the best part for me was FINALLY an enchilada that tasted like what I knew back home (for as authentic as ”American Mexican” food can be regarded). Honestly, so, SO good, at least in my personal opinion. I know what I like; if doesn’t meet your preferences, I think if you’re an American moving to London, it’ll at least be enough to tide you over until your next trip home. Satisfied in this respect, I now further refine my quest to one specific aspect: mole sauce. In the meantime, while it can be a complex sauce to make on one’s own, I have a great short-cut recipe if you’re interested :) Adios for now!
With the vast variety of cuisines to be found in London, sometimes you just still crave what home had to offer.
A common North American ex-pat gripe in London is the utter deficiency in decent Mexican food. All the basic components might be there–the cheese, the beans, the sauce, etc.–but there is always something a little off in the TYPE of the aforementioned ingredients that is included–what you might use in lasagna is not necessarily going to achieve success in an enchilada. A much-lauded venue for its authentic cuisine is Notting Hill’s Taqueria on Westbourne Grove, which I will vouch for–the tacos are served tapas-style so that you can mix and match a variety of choices to share with your table. So, I am satisfied to an extent, but still…where’s my enchilada?! The good news is that Old El Paso is marketed in London, so you can still buy all the fixin’s to prepare your own home-cooked deliciousness just when one would think a taco shell and refried beans would be scarce in these here parts. But tonight, I am far too lazy for this, so I am taking an American friend’s recommendation from long ago to check out Crazy Homies on Westbourne Park Road (be wary of all those London streets in close proximity with nearly identical names, by the way)…from what I hear, it’s a bit of a dive (which is not necessarily a bad thing…the best king crab legs to be found in Chicago are in a subterranean armpit of a restaurant) and the food may leave something to be desired, but the margaritas are allegedly fabulous. God willing, I’m going to try them out tonight. Will keep you posted.
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Kensington and Chelsea is a popular borough for Americans in London. The neighborhood of Notting Hill has great markets and are great places to get fresh fruit and Veg. Every morning these guys are up at 5am getting set up for the massive market day ahead…YUMEEEEE!!
Also, if you arrive at six in the evening, vendors must sell all the stock or it spoils…So you can achieve mass amounts of fruit and veg for next to nothing (good prices!).
Copious amounts of coffee are being served to onlookers arriving at curious times to watch the millions who flock to see the prestigious, funky market do its thing.
The French, Italians, English, Americans, Canadians, and Germans all come for the weird allure of Notting Hill.
The day is beautiful in Notting Hill, and many Americans and Canadians are out looking for deals and bargains on Portobello Road…Coffee shops are overflowing with people trying to get a seat in the sun. On the corner of Westbourne Grove and Portobello Road, the Negzio Classica coffee and wine bar is a perfect place to eat, drink and catch some rays.
Continuing North on Exhibition Road, you will soon enough see the Victoria & Albert Museum to your right and the Natural History Museum to your left—take your pick 
(I am, however, partial to the V&A for its artifacts, artwork, and antique furnishings and textiles on exhibit, as well as the special Grace Kelly exhibition currently on display!) Best part of either museum is that they’re FREE.
You will see that Kensington Gardens is just across the street. You can enter the park if you stay on Exhibition Road, but by walking along Kensington Road, you can go past the famous Royal Albert Hall (the acoustically brilliant concert that hosts the annual Proms) and see the exotic Albert Memorial (that Queen Victoria commissioned in honor of her dearly departed husband in 1875) just across the way inside the park. Once you reach the Southwest corner of 
the park, enter onto a walkway that will lead you directly to Kensington Palace, where Queen Victoria was born and pronounced Queen and where Lady Diana lived the rest of her years (if you recall the footage of the masses of bouquets mourners piled up outside palace gates, this is the place where those vigils took place). The palace recently kicked off its Enchanted Palace exhibit to offer a bit of avant-garde eye candy while the building undergoes extensive renovation. Venturing inside does come at a price, but just touring the grounds for free is worthwhile—the blooms decking out the Sunken Garden and swans preening on the Round Pond being visual delights.
