Notting Hill

Our first excursion this morning was to Notting Hill. As we were walking to Granger (a restaurant from Where Chefs Eat) we walked by a private park--the kind surrounded by a tall wrought iron fence, the kind where you have to peer through the wall of foliage to see the manicured lawns and walkways, the kind from the movie Notting Hill. And as we were oohing and awing (actually being voyeristic tourists) a sweet little man opened the gate and said, "would you like to come in?" Of course we said ,"yes". We walked in imagined for just a moment that we wandered these grounds as our own and then the nice little man let us out of the gate.

 

Then we enjoyed a full Australian breakfast, ricotta pancakes with honeycomb butter an hot chocolate with callebaut chocolate melting into the foamy hot milk. In my sister's words this is the best toast I have ever had. Yes, the toast and everything else was that good. Darn that means I have to continue to carry that  brick of a book.

Next, to Kensington Palace. We didn't see Kate or Will, but we did see their faces embroidered on pillows along with 20 other royals. Funny thing, Diana had a pillow but Charles did not. Also at Kensington we had afternoon tea at the Orangery. Good thing we practiced our pinky exercises last week so we could enjoy our scones with good form while gazing out the windows to Kensington gardens. 

   

Last but not least, I can't stop smiling because we just returned from a stage performance of Singin' in the Rain. And I'm really grateful we did not buy the orchestra seats in the splash zone.