Certainly one needs to have tea in England, but how was I to choose?  There were so many choices.  I had seen pictures of tea at the Orangery at Kensington Palace, and I had read reviews that were favorable.

 

Kensington Palace is one of the Royal Residences.  It had its beginnings in the late 17th century when William III bought Nottingham House.  Kensington Palace is the former home of Princess Diana and the future home of Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge. Surly a Royal Residence would serve a proper English tea.

See the scaffolding?  (I have decided that the scaffolding business is the business to be in in England.  Everywhere you look there is scaffolding.  The old buildings are always in need of repair.)  I wonder if  the area being repaired is the future London home of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge ( I am trying to use their correct names.)  I read that their home in Kensington Palace will be a twenty room apartment – twenty rooms.  Can you imagine?  Prince Harry will also have a one bedroom apartment at Kensington Palace.

We were short on time, so we did not tour the palace. (Another reason to return to England.)

Now, tea is not served in Kensington Palace, but it is served in the nearby Orangery.

Be still my heart!  This is beyond beautiful.  Meals are served here as well as tea.

Pretty China always impresses me.  Beautiful!

The tea stand came with sandwiches, scones, and sweets.

Sandwiches were egg salad, watercress, and smoked salmon.  They were good, but not overly impressive.

The scones were delicious, but they were different than I expected.  They were lighter in texture (more like a biscuit) than the scones I have previously had.

The sweets were as wonderful as they look.  We really liked the lemon tart.

After tea, we felt the need to stroll the gardens.  Again, the gardens are more like a large park.  In front of the Palace is this beautiful statue of Queen Victoria.

There are not many flowers in the Kensington Gardens, but I thought these flowers were interesting.

It was the first day it had not rained in the four days we had been in London, and people were taking advantage of the beautiful weather.

Children and adults were playing in the pond.  You can rent bicycles all over London.

Sweet Mother of Pearl.  Does this not remind you of Mary Poppins?  It was a beautiful carousel with the brightly colored horses and flashing lights.

What a wonderful afternoon we spent at Kensington Gardens.  The food was delicious, and the gardens enjoyable and restful.

Blessings to you and yours,

We kept seeing signs for a Princess Diana Memorial, but we never found it.  Later I learned that it was a playground.  (Will find it next time.)

FYI:  On Friday nights, many of the museums are opened late.  We took advantage of this to go to the Victoria and Albert Museum.