A Surprise Visit to Abby Road

then lunch in a pub and a walk through Hyde Park

Kevin decided to surprise me with a secret itinerary into central London today. We walked to the Arsenal Station and took the Piccadilly line to Green Park and then transferred onto the Jubilee line. Three stops later we got off at St. John’s Wood.

As we started walking Kevin hesitated for a moment and checked his phone for directions. A kind man asked if we were looking for Abby Road. Our destination was no longer a surprise but I was very moved by Kevin’s plan. He knows that I was and still am a big Beatles fan.

The famous crossing on Abby Road

The actual studio is heavily guarded but there is a gift shop that is open to the public.

We considered going to some of the other iconic Beatles landmarks but they were all very far apart and not easy to walk to so we opted to get some lunch instead.

We headed to Bakers Street and had a nice meal at the Allsop Arms. I had the steak sandwich and lemonade and Kevin had the chicken BLT and a non alcoholic Peroni.

The forecasted rain held off and we made our way south to Hyde Park. We entered from the north east side and continued along the path towards the Serpentine Lake. As we got closer to the lake we were happy to see benches to rest our weary feet.

After a short rest we continued heading south to the south end of Hyde Park.

On the way out of the park I saw the rose garden and suggested to Kevin that he could rest some more while I quickly checked out the flowers.

All in all it was a great outing and when we got home Brendan cooked us dinner and Sevin set up her hairdressing parlour and gave Oma and Big Papa a makeover. If our son shares his photos with me I might share them with you. All I can say is that it was crazy fun and there was a lot of laughing.

Thursday Doors – More From London

….thanks to Norm for hosting Thursday Doors

All these doors are in the South Kensington area of London. The Queens Gate Lodge was owned by the Museum of Natural History and was built in 1883 to accommodate an engineer and messenger who worked at the museum. This tiny 2-bedroom house sits in Hyde Park just inside the Queen’s Gate and can be yours for a mere 6 706 000 pounds. When I first saw the sign at the gate to the house I actually thought that it belonged to the Queen. It wasn’t till I returned home and started to research the place that I discovered that the place was named after the famous gate that leads into the park and has nothing to do with Her Majesty.

 

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London – Day 4 (Harrods, Hyde Park)

….day four was another busy day with lots of walking

Today my Andrea, Josie and I headed to Harrods and Hyde Park. We left Kevin at home to rest and agreed to meet up later in the afternoon.

Harrods is probably one of the most famous stores in London. It is not centrally located and is about a mile from Kensington in the area known as Knightsbridge. Knightsbridge is a very exclusive area, one of the wealthiest parts of London where some of London’s most expensive hotels are situated. Needless to say that we didn’t go there to shop but merely to look around. The food hall was most interesting and beautifully set up with gorgeous display cases of chocolates and pastries and the seafood was displayed on mounds of ice in the most  attractive way.

While we were there we were told about the Egyptian escalators that were built in 1998 to reflect the Edwardian style of the building. Harrods built the first ever escalator in the UK in 1898. Nervous customers using the contraption were offered brandy when they reached the top to help them recover from their “ordeal”.

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From Harrods we walked over to Hyde Park and walked along the Serpentine Lake. People actually swim in this lake along with the local ducks, geese and swans.IMG-8686
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The installation art that you see in the lake is from the world famous artist, Christo, who unveiled his work The London Mastaba (2018) earlier in June. It is a 20-metre-high floating sculpture on London’s Serpentine Lake, constructed from 7,506 oil drums.

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Stay tuned for part 2…….