Delta is killing it with amazingly smooth, event free flights. A nice tail wind got us to Heathrow a half hour ahead of time, and we were through Immigration before 7AM – I had both bags off the carrousel and cash from an ATM before Michele was back from the ladies room.

We took the Elisabeth Line train in from the airport and picked up the Central Line at Ealing/Broadway – I just love the no-ticket-needed system where you can simply tape your credit card and the turnstiles open for you. We got off at Notting Hill Gate hours before I ever thought possible.

But we were dropping our bags off using the Bounce app at a currency exchange store – that didn’t open until 9AM, so we chilled at a nice bakery, Cherry On, until then.

Once free of the luggage, we headed off for Kensington Gardens, next door to the former home of the Princess of Wales herself, Lady Di.

We made our way to her memorial garden next to the palace.

Poor Lady Di; even her sunken garden created a stir as her fans were confused by the child figures standing with her – are they her sons? Who are they? The sculptor simply wanted to honor her charity work on behalf of the children of the world, the horror.

And there is no actual access to the garden; you can only peak at her statue from holes in the shrubbery.

We then decided to go visit the Sanbourne House, the preserved residence of a Victorian Age artist. Not exactly high on the list of “must do” things in London, but it was our first day on the ground and we were taking it real slow. And it afforded us a walk through some lovely neighborhoods.

On the way we popped into Saint Mary Abbots church, which boasts the highest steeple in London if you can believe that. A church has stood on this spot since the 12th century; this one dates back to the 19th. It survived The Blitz with some damage. Neo-Gothic in style, it’s a pretty church.

Sanbourne was a famous illustrator in his time and liked acquiring nice things.

Nary a spot on a wall or surface was free of some photo or bowl or objet d’art.

Bottom line it is a musty old place with a lot of stuff. Still a nice take.

From here we thought we would pop over to Holland Park and check out the Kyoto Garden.

Now mind you, we were doing a bit of rambling as we made stuff up as as we went, so some of our travels were not as efficient as they could have been, we just wanted to stretch our legs to get a feel of the place.

Holland Park is another nice green space, much more wooded than say Kensington. The garden was as pretty as you would expect a placed named Kyoto would be. It’s funny -for a contemplative garden, it had only two measly benches.

We had some time before we could check in so we decided to visit a small museum near the flat – The Brand Museum, dedicated to the marketing of iconic British (and some American) products. I think the nicest thing I can say is that our 10 pound ticket provides entrance to the museum for an entire year. It is best described as a 1950’s A&P supermarket merged with your grandfather’s basement workshop. It’s a lot of cans, bottles and boxes of a lot of things.

We wandered into a room where there was a special event going on – we missed the small sign indicating it was a private affair. No one paid us any attention. A young woman came up to us and asked us if we wanted some champagne – I have only one answer to that question. We browsed and sipped, and eventually a woman asked us if we were part of the event…and then kicked us out.

The flat is serviceable but annoying devoid of some items such as facial tissue, paper towels and napkins – poor attention to detail. But like Traci warned us, the Airbnb market in London is the wild west, this place is one of many managed by one guy (named Guy), so while disappointing it is somewhat expected.

Our energy was flagging but around 6 we rallied and walked around the corner to The Pelican Pub sans reservation in hopes they could fit us in. We are glad they did. The food was delicious and the place was cozy and relaxed; I had the pork pie, savory and meaty.

It was a good first day. We thought we had the bus system knocked, but ended up on one taking us on a tour of Kensington and part of Westminster. We will figure it out

With love,

M&T