Started the day with a leisurely wander through Hyde Park on our way to Kensington Palace. Gazillions of water birds at the Round Pond near the Palace that are so used to people they don't even try to get out of your way. It felt like we had to wade through a sea of ducks to get to the entrance of the Palace. There were four different areas the public could explore: the King's State Apartments, the Queen's State Apartments (One room just has 18 little wooden chairs of various sizes with a sign saying 'Queen Anne's eighteen little hopes' - how heartbreaking!), a Queen Victoria section which included some of her personal belongings such as dresses and fans, and a gallery. The exhibition in the gallery when we were there was a selection of dresses from the 1950s through to the 1980s which had been worn by the Queen, Princess Margaret or Princess Diana. They were beautiful frocks, of course, and I was particularly struck by how tiny the waists of the Queen and her sister were when they were young women. I also liked the names of the rooms behind the doors marked Private like Butler's Plate Room, Pages Room, The Backstairs Room, The Book Room and my favourite Guardroom Corridor - Palace Guards Only.
We walked back to our motel to collect our luggage via our local for a shared Ploughman's Lunch before catching the train to Portsmouth. Our motel was five minutes walk from the Portsmouth Harbour railway station and it was only five minutes walk in the other direction to Gunwharf Quays which is a recently developed area with shops and restaurants. We had dinner at Jamie's Italian Restaurant (Jamie Oliver's latest money-making venture). I had the Pea and Ham Soup which was more like a broth with whole peas, chunks of carrot and bits of ham floating in it. Very yummy and quite filling. I also had a Brambles cocktail which was just gin, blackberry liqueur and lemon juice. I will be trying to re-create it when I get back home!
