Hotel and Surrounds

We are in the Radisson Blu Edwardian Vanderbilt Hotel in Kensington, London.   This must be the best location in London if the house prices are anything to go by.  One three bedroom unit was £14,999,999.00.

Pinched from the web site, this is very similar to our room but we have a corner window onto Cromwell Road.

Here we are.

Stairs to our room.

Around the Area

We've had a few walks around the area to go for coffee and dinner and just to look around at the homes and hotels in the area.

As you might expect, most homes are in the form of apartments such as this.  Some have private gardens but most are just on the street.

A mews is a row or street of houses or flats that have been converted from stables or built to look like former stables.

London Taxi.   There are thousands of these things in the city buzzing backwards and forwards.   They are all diesel as far as I can tell.   Very efficient but very very expensive I've been warned. 

 

 Speaking of cars, these are a few of the ones that the local residents drive.   They also leave them on the street because there is no secure parking in these homes.






A mews with houses all resembling stables.   Some with wide doors.

Mews gates from Cromwell Road.

These flats are called mansions.   They may cost more than you'll ever earn in a lifetime but they are still flats to me.

These beautiful gardens are actually private gardens for residents and not available to the public.   Even the residents have rules: no dogs, no noise, no music, no sports and no more than three guests.

The blossoms are out in London; absolutely beautiful displays of colours.    Flowers are coming up too.

This little bit of park is on Cromwell Road not far from the Natural History Museum.  We didn't get there because of the huge crowds.

Bath

After Windsor Castle we drove through the beautiful countryside to the town of Bath.   Bath is famous for the Roman period baths that still exist in the town.  Bath is a city in the ceremonial county of Somerset in South West England. It is situated 97 miles (156 km) west of London and 13 miles (21 km) south-east of Bristol. At the 2011 census, the population of the city was 88,859. It was granted city status by Royal Charter by Queen Elizabeth I in 1590, and was made a county borough in 1889 which gave it administrative independence from its county, Somerset.

Here's a tidbit of information for you.   There are four Avon rivers in England (eight in the UK).   Bath is on the Avon river but not the same one as Stratford on Avon.

A panorama of the baths.  The crooked effect is from the camera angle and not the baths themselves.

The waters can't be used today as they are quite contaminated with algae and bird sh..t.

Ruth almost falling into the bath.

Wall detail from the original baths.

Hail Caesar!

Birds have pooped on him a bit.

Outlet into the baths.  (Spielberg would be jealous.)

Windsor Castle

We took a short ride on a bus (330 Miles) that included a visit to Windsor Castle.   The Queen was in residence as she was entertaining the Prime Minister of Ireland but she didn't have time to have a cuppa with us.   Well it was to be expected as we didn't give her any notice of our visit.  How can you tell if the Queen is in residence?,  I hear you ask.   Well, when the Queen is in residence the Royal Standard flys over the castle.




We weren't allowed to take photos of any of the insides of the chapels and buildings but here are some photos of the outside.  I did find this virtual tour of some of the insides at http://www.royal.gov.uk/virtualtours/Flash%20Panoramas/low_flash_004.html.  It is worth a look.

Battlements with the standard flying.












Had to get a picture of the lamps.   Even they have a crown surmounting them.  :)

I wonder if the Queen planted these tulips?   If she did she did a great job.

Saint George's Chapel.   The Queen attends services here every Sunday when at Windsor Castle.   It's open to the public in the afternoon for services.   You can see more of the inside at: http://www.stgeorges-windsor.org/.

People actually live in these apartments.

Amazing workmanship is everywhere.

   

This is all I got from the changing of the guards at Windsor Castle.

Stonehenge

The word henge refers to a particular type of earthwork of the Neolithic period, typically consisting of a roughly circular or oval-shaped bank with an internal ditch surrounding a central flat area of more than 20 m in diameter. There is typically little if any evidence of occupation in a henge, although they may contain ritual structures such as stone circles, timber circles and coves.

The third stop of our tour was Stonehenge.   A truly remarkable place of which little is actually known.   They believe that it was to do with timing the summer and winter solstices and that it was built in more than one stage.   That's about it.   The rest is conjecture.

Of course I couldn't get an aerial picture of the rings but I found this in the information hall.   Today people aren't allowed near the stones.   Where Ruth is standing is the closest you can get to them.

People can't get to the stones but the birds can :)

These stones aren't local; they come from Wales some distance away.   The questions are:  Why these particular stones and why here?   It is quite possible that no-one will ever know as there were no pictographs or images left behind.   Under some stones they found human remains but it is not believed to be a burial monument.

Each top stone has a hollow that is located to the uprights by this tenon.

Family Dinner

Almost the whole of Miklos' family joined us for a great family dinner.  

We had some excellent food prepared by Iren and Miklos (with absolutely no help from the cats, or me for that matter).   I forgot to take pictures of the food except for the beautifully laid out "savanyú" salad that Miklos made:

 Here's some photos:

The dinner table.

Miklos' second son, Andras and family.

Youngest son, Zsolt and family.

Miklos Junior and family minus one who was away in Austria at a swimming competition.