While I worked, the rest of the family had a great morning and picnic lunch at the Princess Diana memorial playground, which is in Kensington gardens right next to Kensington Palace. It is an amazing space, complete with a pirate ship for climbing!
And some tunnels to crawl through!
I met everyone in front of the palace, which was all decorated for Christmas.
We then toured the four major exhibits in the palace. First was the Queens State Apartments, which were the home of Queen Mary II and King William III.
We then saw the Kings State Apartments, a grand set of rooms with some impressive tapestries.
As we walked between the exhibits we came across a bench which had pillows depicting the line of monarchs. It was so impressive that Sammy decided to use the bench for a little nap.
Next we moved on to an exhibit on Queen Victoria, who was the longest reigning monarch (before the current Queen Elizabeth). She made many shrines around London to her late husband Albert and always wore black after he died. Their marriage was depicted as a true love match. The kids had an amazing time in this exhibit because there were toys! That they could touch and play with! Here they are crawling all over the floor playing with said toys, in front of a fancy dollhouse.
They also had a very cool diagram of Victoria and Albert's immediate family tree, with pictures of the monarchs and their 9 (!) children.
Lastly, we saw the fashion exhibit which included incredible dresses from the current queen in her younger days, Princess Margaret (who was a real trendsetter), and of course Princess Di.
After all that royalty, we went for an early dinner at a pub we had visited before - the Leinster Arms. It was pretty packed with Christmas revelers around the bar, but we were one of only a few who were having dinner that early. We highly recommend this place for great food!
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