The Orangery @ Kensington Palace

Another birthday celebration, this time in London with some old uni friends. With an endless list of possibilities for an afternoon tea in London, I choose The Orangery 

restaurant @ Kensington Palace, mainly based on price and the fact that there was an 

outside terrace. The whole experience was pretty fun, only criticism is the scone was a 

little big, I would have liked the one big scone to be two little scones. Following on 

with the orangery theme, the scone was lightly flavoured with orange.

The Orangery Terrace

Four flavours of delicious finger sandwiches

Lovely London Ladies

Some of the gardens in the Kensington Palace grounds

Afternoon tea served from 12:00-18:00 in the summer, 12:00-17:00 in the winter. Reservations not necessary.

Castle Cottage Cafe

What a delightful little Castle Cottage Cafe we found in Oakham, about an hour's drive from MK.

Loved the mis-matched cups and saucers

Barnsdale

A birthday outing, this time to Barnsdale, the site of the 'Gardener's World' programme, filmed by the BBC, presented by Geoff Hamilton who had a pro-organic, DIY style of gardening. Way back, when I was a lot younger, I vaguely remember watching the show with my parents in a time when organic wasn't that popular in the supermarkets. There are thirty eight different types of gardens for every type of gardener, to name but a few...

• Gentleman's Cottage Garden
• Ornamental Kitchen Garden
• Woodland
• Reclaimed Garden
• First Time Garden

Before and after to make a cute, apple ball tree.

Each of the thirty eight different plots are fairly compact making it easy to walk between each style, picking up ideas and inspiration from everywhere. Around the allotment feels very much like Peter Rabbit or Benjamin Bunny might peek their ears out from the watering can. There were a lot of seating in and around each garden, which I guess is to accommodate the large numbers of older people who seem to like to nap in and around each garden.

Courtyard Garden

They use a lot of combination planting in the veggie gardens, using certain flowers to boarder the vegetable plants to bring in the insects and keep the pests down naturally. They have rows and rows of fruit trees, all neatly and sometimes severely pruned back. When I have my cottage in the country with my horses down the road, chickens in the yard, I would love a veggie patch that is just as impressive as the ones at Barnsdale!


Photos from the gardens.

War Horse

A little early birthday outing in London to see War Horse, a fantastic piece of theatre following Joey, a horse, and Albert, Joey's young owner. Joey is sold to the British Army during the first world war, Albert, who is too young to enlist, is left behind in Devon. The story follows Albert's search for Joey in the battle grounds in France. The best part of the show is that the horses are portrayed by life size puppets that are pretty stunning and amazingly live like, from their ears all the way down to their tails.

New London Theatre

The play is based on a book of the same name by Michael Morpurgo, which is now being made in to a movie directed by Steven Spielberg.

Dinner, in a cash only restaurant.

Right in the heart of London's theatreland, we took an evening stroll to China Town and though Covent Garden where we stumbled upon the biggest Apple store in the world. With three hundred staff, a prime real estate spot that has been refurbished with ''English oak and York stone''. People have been queuing for hours to get in, crazy the amount of buzz this 300th Apple store has created.

The biggest Apple Store in the world

Sunset from Trafalgar Square

I am a tourist

Car Camping in Kent

A truly British weekend in Kent by the seaside, staying at Kingsdown International Camping Centre.

Morning tea time

Out and about

Afternoon trip out to near by Deal, a visit to the pub and a top up at an ATM.

Group shot on Deal pier

What British trip to the seaside wouldn't be complete without fish and chips?

A local's recommendation

A Kentish Cream Tea

The White Cliffs of Dover

Mum's Sunday roast

More photos from our camping experience

How many waterfalls?

Not technically a tour, but something that was essential when spending more than a long weekend there was, hire a car. Sarah and I hired one Opal Astra to travel to the south east part of Iceland. We were lucky to get a smaller car at short notice, thanks to the free Internet at the International Youth Hostel and their staff, we were able to search and book our ongoing trip from the city.


There is one main road round Iceland, route one. Generally, when we turned off the main road, the road turns into gravel tracks where we had to slow right down. Off these gravel tracks and into the interior, the roads are known as F roads, which even in summer, you'd need to have a 4x4 vehicle to even attempt to go down it. Most, if not all rental car companies don't cover you if you go down an F road in a normal drive car.


The waterfalls we went to see were all on gravel roads and easily to reach from route 1, all different, all pretty impressive. The scenery went from old lava fields, grassland, large cliff faces and a distant glacier. Though the grassland there were numerous little herds of Icelandic ponies, mostly mothers with new foals. 


We stayed in Vik, a place with three hundred residents in the south, a compact little village that made a good place to stay a couple of nights at Hotel Lundi. 


Summer is Iceland is the place of eternal sunshine, the sun starts to set around midnight, then by 3 a.m. the sun is back up. Makes it really hard to slept in later than about 7 a.m. I would have liked an eye sleeping mask.


More photos from road tripping in Iceland.

Touring in Iceland

Outside of Reykjavik, without a car it’s a bit of a trek to get to places in Iceland, public buses outside of the city run about once or twice a day. It’s a lot easier to book on to a tour, the whole week we were there we did at least one tour a day.

The Golden Circle Tour – A very popular all day tour to a few of the major sites around Reykjavik, Gullfloss – a massive two tiered waterfall, the geysier site with the original geysier - the one all others are named after and the rift valley between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates in Pingvellir national park. They also a trip to a local geothermal power station.

Whale and Puffin Watching – The pictures in the brochure lead you to believe that you’ll see a humpback whale jump out of the ocean. We didn’t see a tail or a whole whale jump out of the water. We saw the back of a couple of minke whales as they came to the surface to breath.

Glacial Walking – One very outdoorsy guide, who for fun, abseils down the holes in a glacier and hikes around underneath. Different experience to trample around on a glacier. With the crampons on it's like stomping around like a stroppy two year old. Met a couple of guys taking a week long viking tour, who work for TerraCycle, a really interesting company who recycle packaging into usable products.

Iceland Pony Trek – Ponies were all cute, tough little things and the ride though the lava fields was fun. They needed some serious operational improvements, tour started about an hour late.

Blue Lagoon - There's no guide, it's bus transfer and entrance, which is  cheaper to take than get the bus and entrance separately. An Icelandic onsen experience, you need to shower naked in the changing room then put on a swimming costume to go out into the large communal pool.

Glacial Lagoon Boat Tour – One of the most stunning places I’ve been to in a really long time, the boat tour out in the lagoon is worth taking to see the lagoon from a different angle. I like that this place is constantly changing, pieces of ice breaking off, moving around. So, everyone's photos of the lagoon wouldn't be the same from day to day.

Fun Facts About Iceland

·      70% of energy that supplies the capital city is from renewable sources.

·      The pipes that carry geothermally heated water to Reykjavik are insulated so that only looses a few degrees on the journey.

·      The pipe is raised and is on wheels to that it moves when there is an earthquake.

·      The corners of the pipes are able to expand and constrict in the summer and winter.

·      There is no McDonalds on Iceland.

·      There is one main road that circles the island, route 1.

·      Puffins spend the first five years of their lives out at sea; when they are sexually mature they come back to land to mate.

·      Puffins mate for life, and return to the same nesting hole each breeding season to wait for their mate.

·      Home to Europe’s largest glacier, Vatnajokull.

·      Icelandic ponies are not vaccinated and are a ‘pure’ breed. To wear your own riding gear that has been in contact with other horses when riding the Icelandic ponies it has to have been washed in water hotter than forty degrees.

·      Icelandic ponies have the ability to perform two extra gaits, the tolt and pace, usually used in showing.

·      Sara is the most popular girls name in Iceland.

·      After lambing in spring, the sheep are released into the wild until they are rounded up in the autumn. There are marks on their ears to tell who the sheep belong to.

·      Iceland has a population of 300,000 people which is about the population of Leicester.


More photos from Reykjavik & Around