Kew & Kensington - London Day 3

Easter morning we woke to a little girl standing at our bed saying "Mummy, Easter Bunny has been!" I said "Wow, really?... You better hope in bed with me and wait until Emily wakes up." She said 'Okay.' And got in bed and went back to sleep!! It was great! 8am-ish came and we all re-woke and got up to find eggs everywhere! Easter is fun. And it was especially nice to be having Easter in the Spring. We have seen heaps of birds nests in the trees over the past few weeks - some of them are huge,  it's been nice to think about Easter and the meaning of it, whilst watching spring arrive - bright green leaves now cover the sticks in the trees, nests filled with new baby chicks, little lambs in the green paddocks, baby rabbits and gorgeous bulbs springing into full bloom. 

We got into the Easter spirit by catching the Tube to Kew Gardens for an Easter egg hunt. We had to follow a map and find 3 different characters, who would give us a wooden egg token - once we had all 3 we could go and meet Easter Bunny and collect our prize. 

Kew Gardens is huge and we didn't even get to see half of it. It was our coldest day today, not much rain but a low temperature. So we collected our tokens and joined the queue at Kew to meet Easter bunny!

Emily was rapt with her special eggs from the Easter Bunny! Green and Black donated all the eggs - and boy were there a lot. I over heard someone say that Green and Black are a notch above Cadbury!! Not sure about that but they were pretty good!

Leilani was just a little excited too!

This is me trying to get a photo taken with Emily..... pretty funny...

... yeah, I said trying!! Lani was quite happy to stand under the blossom tree and sing 'Pop Corn Popping On the Apricot Tree' for everyone!

Leilani is a very interesting little girl, sometimes she just loves the camera and attention and will stand up and do anything for you, but other times she won't have a bar of it. And either way if she has made up her mind you can't get her to do the other one. 

Here is Leilani very excited to find her 'Tasmanian Home' on the world map.

And also her 'England Home!'

You could spend a day or 2 at Kew Gardens, it is just amazing and a perfect place for a picnic on a warm day. It was much easier to walk around than Hobart's Botanical Gardens because it is all very flat. But I do miss Tasmania's hills very much.

After Kew we headed to Kensington Gardens and Palace. It was really nice here too! And the big lake set a beautiful scene. We didn't have time to walk down to Diana's Memorial Fountain which was a bit of a shame, but I'm sure we will go there when some of our visitors arrive!

Emily saying hello to a squirrel before we went into the Palace.

Kensington Palace has been a residence of the British Royal Family since the 17th century. It is currently the official residence of The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester; the Duke and Duchess of Kent; and Prince and Princess Michael of Kent. These offices and private accommodation areas of the Palace remain the responsibility of the Royal Household and not open to the public (as far as I am aware). We went inside the State Rooms which are now managed by the charity Historic Royal Palaces. 

In 1981 apartments 8 and 9 were combined to create the London residence of the newly married Prince and Princess of Wales, Charles and Diana, and it remained the official home residence of Diana after her divorce until her death. 

 

Many royals were born at Kensington, and a few also died here.  Queen Victoria was born here and also living here when she was told about her accession to the throne at the very young age of 18. She reigned for 63 years - longer than any other British monarch before her. This is her below.

After Kensington Palace our weekend in London was over. We saw so much but still have even more to see. I really liked London and am looking forward to going back.

Watching the Sun go down from the train window on our way home to Taunton. It was good to be home.