V&A, Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens (Day One)

Because our flight had been changed we got in a lot later than we had planned. We had to bag some of the things that we had on the schedule for the day. It was still such a great day! I felt like pinching myself every few minutes that I was actually in London! We rode the train into town, caught the "Tube" and were on our way. This is the train station.

Right of the bat we tried a Samosa. They were so good! They were like little vegetable pies.

Our first stop was the Victoria and Albert Museum. The Church had a chapel right down the street so this is what we saw upon exiting the Tube Station.

I thought it was a great welcome. There is a little visitor center in here. They let people come in and look around the building, so we did.

The Victoria and Albert Museum was damaged in WWII. The decided rather than fix it they would leave it. It was so interesting to see all of the spot that had been hit by shrapnel.

Everything is beautiful in England. The architecture is amazing and ornate on everything. I couldn't stop taking pictures of it all.

There were such incredible things in this museum. We were bummed because the British exhibits were closed, but it was still amazing.

I loved all of the Christian art. It is so neat to see all of the tributes to The Savior. Of course a lot of them are a little over the top, but I still thought they were beautiful.

This is in the lobby of the museum. Isn't it beautiful. The English definitely have the beauty thing down.

There was an exhibit on the clothing of the actress and later princess of Monaco, Grace Kelly. I wish that we had time for it (or wanted to stand in line to get in). This was one of her dresses. Isn't it beautiful? Grace Kelly is one of my favorite actresses, oh well. The little purple cluster in the center of the dress is actually dried flowers. It must have been so beautiful when she wore it with live flowers on it.

There was a whole section on clothing through the ages. So interesting. I seriously doubt many men nowadays would wear this.

I would totally have been sporting these.

Gorgeous.

There was a special gallery for these Raphael originals. You weren't supposed to take pictures of them...but I didn't know than until too late. Oh well, at least I can remember them. They were huge and beautiful!

I loved the Asian art.

This is a picture of the front of the museum.

After the V&A Museum we went to see Hyde Park. This enormous monument to Price Albert is at the entrance. It was beautiful. I watched "Young Victoria" on the way over, so this meant a whole lot more to me. Queen Victoria was so in love with Prince Albert. There are pictures and statues, etc all over London.

Wow. Now that is elaborate.

Around the monument are statues of different things. This one is depicting America.

The entrance to Hyde Park.

I loved the English street signs. All I could think was "charming" through this whole city.

There are also tributes to Princess Diana everywhere.

Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park are not the same thing, but they are attached to each other. In the book Peter Pan it says that when Peter is not in Neverland, he lives in Kensington Gardens. I told the boys I would keep and eye out for him, but I never did see him :) We did go back later and get a picture of the statue of Peter Pan. We didn't see it this day, the Park is HUGE!

Just random flats. Like I said, everything is beautiful here. I couldn't help myself.

I loved all of the huge old trees. It was a dry year so things weren't as green as I have heard England can be, but it was still beautiful.

We were trying to figure out where we were on a map and I looked up and saw this. It is one of the things that I had wanted to see while in London and we found it without looking! Sad to say I didn't get a picture of the house itself. What was I thinking???

We ended the day with a Kebab. I had expected this to be like a Kabob, it isn't. The bread that we had it in had been freshly baked and it was amazing. Josh and I decided to share one, but I could have eaten one by myself (to be honest I nearly did eat this one all by myself, sorry Josh).

A close up of this amazing dish. Loved it!

Each night when we went to bed, I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. I was so blessed though, I worried a lot about being jet lagged, but I really wasn't. We went to bed late and woke up early, but I was okay through the whole trip. I really think this was a blessing because this isn't typical of me. I went to New York when I was 20 and pretty much slept through the whole trip. I am so grateful!