On Christmas we walked around the neighborhood some more and found a local church.
Then we walked through Kensington, and up through Notting Hill. We passed through Antique Row, however, all the shops were closed since it was Christmas. We walked through Kensignton Gardens, which covers 275 acres. There are so many beautiful trees and a huge pond with swans! It was so great to see some of them out of the water. They stood on their hind legs and shook their feathers. I tried to get really close, as you'll see in one of the pictures.
Some history: The Gardens are the setting for Kensington Palace, the choice of William II and Mary II for their London home. The Gardens were closed to the public for most of the 18th century. Eventually they were opened, but only to the respectably dressed. (Of course, we were too!) Queen Victoria was born in Kensington Palace and lived there until she became queen in 1837.
We went to the Old Swan pub for lunch but unfortunately they weren't serving food. There was a sign inside that quoted Julia Roberts saying they serve the sexiest fish and chips in Notting Hill. We got falafel from a Lebanese cafe. They were just okay, which made me crave the strongly recommended ones in Paris. We went back to the flat to rest.
So, that night for dinner we took a cab over to Cafe Anglais. The taxi driver said, "Are you sure it's open." And Dad said, "Absolutely, we have a reservation." We get there and all the chairs are on the table. Apparently there was some misunderstanding, even though Dad had a confirmation email from them. So, we ended up eating Chinese with a bunch of other tourists.
Love Actually was on that night. What a great British, Christmas movie!
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