The Guard House at Kensington Palace Gardens.

After a good night’s sleep and no noticeable jet lag, we had a quiet breakfast, then headed out for the day.

Our morning target was Kensington Palace and gardens. We already knew tickets for the palace, which included a special new exhibition, had been sold out for months.

Getting off the Tube we came upon Kensington Palace Gardens, which has been called “the most exclusive address in London” and is also known as “Billionaires Row”.  There’s a guard house where you enter the street (and no photography allowed) which is lined with palatial mansions– many are the homes of foreign diplomats, or serve as foreign embassies. Prior to being renamed around 1870, the street was known as The Queen’s Road. It was the MI19 center, The London Cage, during World War II and the Cold War.

The beautiful tree-lined street was nearly silent under it’s shaded canopy.

Looking through the ornate gates at Kensington Palace.

This led us to the gardens of Kensington Palace. Not exactly sure where we were headed, we walked towards the palace, then around it, until we found the specific garden we were looking for.

I’d like to note that even if you aren’t touring it, you can still get surprisingly close to the palace, which also hosts a cafe that is open to the public. Last trip, we only saw Kensington from across the green of Hyde Park.

We passed the visitor’s entrance and came upon a maze-like path that wound us around to the Sunken Garden.

Our particular interest was that the garden has been transformed into the White Garden, in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of Princess Diana’s death. This was one of Diana’s favorite spots and it has been filled with many of her favorite flowers to mark the occasion.

The White Garden will be open to the public through the summer of 2017.

Remembering Princess Diana- The White Garden.

Beautiful arched trellises surround the Kensington Palace Sunken Garden, transformed into the White Garden to honor Princess Diana, 2017.

The Kensington Palace Sunken Garden has been transformed into the White Garden.

At the White Garden.

The Kensington Gardens, covering 242 acres are adjacent to Hyde Park, though crossing over from one to the other goes unnoticed.

Princess Diana Memorial Walk.

We’d visited the other formal gardens on the last visit, so this time we set out in a new direction, down The Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Walk.

As quiet and peaceful as it was, everywhere you looked you’d see joggers, sunbathers, people enjoying family picnics and walking their dogs.

We reached the Long River and in addition to the beautiful swans, we had a great view of artist Henry Moore’s The Arch positioned on the north bank of the river.

Henry Moore’s ‘The Arch’.

We were soon following the Serpentine River, finding many people out boating and even swimming in a public recreation area.

Along the Serpentine River in Hyde Park.

Beautiful plantings throughout Hyde Park.

We had successfully walked the entire length of Hyde Park, reaching the Marble Arch. John Nash, designed the arch as the official state entrance to Buckingham Palace in 1827. The design was partially based on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. After years of problems preventing it’s completion, it was finished quickly in time for Queen Victoria’s accession to the throne in 1937. But as Queen Victoria’s court and family quickly grew, it became necessary to build on to the palace, forcing the removal of the arch. It was moved to it’s current location at Cumberland Gate, the northeast corner of Hyde Park, completed in 1851.

The Marble Arch, originally the state entrance of Buckingham palace, moved in 1851.

If all we’d seen wasn’t enough, our day was just beginning, so to speak. It was just early afternoon and we still had two theatrical performances to attend.

School of Rock is a feel-good show for the entire family. A musical stage adaptation of the 2003 film, that starred Jack Black– it stays true to its source. (Michael and I actually just saw the movie again, shortly before our trip.) The show relies heavily on character stereotypes but that works well for this type of show.

This is an Andrew Lloyd Webber production and his theatrical roots have been based in shows with gimmicks.  School of Rock’s gimmick is that all the younger performers actually play their own instruments on stage– something the production doesn’t let you forget.

School of Rock, London.

We both really enjoyed it. It’s lively, uplifting– and just plain fun, with a positive message. It also made me ask the question again: Why are young British performers uniformly better than their American counterparts?

We had one of those frequent London come-and-go rains while we were in the matinee. The streets were wet and glistening as the sun quickly returned to brighten the afternoon. We headed over to Piccadilly Circus and picked up the tickets for our evening performance.

Piccadilly Circus after a short rain.

We decided not to eat until after the evening show and spent the little bit of time we had– people-watching and enjoying the street performers scattered around Piccadilly Circus. Michael became particularly captivated by one performer that required audience participation for his act. It was a pretty simple and clever concept– he stood frozen until someone dropped a coin or two in his box and then he would come to life, taking his benefactor and posing them in a variety of positions. He would then add himself to the ‘picture’ with some amusing results.

Here’s Michael becoming part of the act:

Michael gets into the act with a Piccadilly Circus performer.

The Comedy About A Bank Robbery. It’s hard for me to put into words how impressed I am by the creativity and ingenious work done by the Mischief Theatre Company. We saw and loved their production, The Play That Goes Wrong, last September and were excited to see what else they could do.

The Comedy About A Bank Robbery, London 2017.

Going in, I honestly didn’t think I could have been more impressed than I had been with their last one. Minutes after the lights dimmed, I was proven wrong. By the time we reached the interval (intermission), I had absolutely no idea how they were going to get back to the base premise of the show. Hysterically funny, brilliant and thoroughly entertaining!

If you love British farce, slapstick comedy and really creative word play. See this show!

Entering the Tube at Piccadilly Circus.

We’d walked over 8 miles today, enjoyed some of the best parks and shows London has to offer. We couldn’t have asked for a better day!

Travel Date:  May 14, 2017 Sunday (Day Two)