This was a spontaneous and completely unplanned visit of London city. And what a pleasant one!
I was dropped off at the airport at about 1pm, completely tired. And would have had to kill time, really feeling like that, until about 8pm for when I was booked (another unfavorable reservation but nothing to do about it). I realized instantly that if I would have stayed at Heathrow my mood would have so gone down the drain, even more when being tired already. 6 hours at an airport just aren´t pleasant.
So I quickly „woke up“, dropped my luggage with Excess Baggage, bought another tube daypass and off I went, indulging into England and London again. Happy.
But what did I want to do today? Oh, I had forgotten to take my city map out of the suitcase, stupid. So I looked at the tube map which I had grabbed at the station. Thinking… Hammersmith again looked nice to me, have to find out if it is nice, because that is the closest to Heathrow, and if it is worth a visit, that would be next, later. Tubed on…. and suddenly I heard „… next stop… museum“ and thought, that must be a nice area.
So I disembarked (from the tube? same word as for ships?) at South Kensington station. Wohoo! Where was I? Amazing. Beauty, richness, money, cars. Ferrari, Porsche, Mercedes, BMW allover the streets. I wondered for a second but I guess those cars can be left out on the street here in London, in England, as they would not get far, when stolen. Boat or tunnel, not a big chance to escape secretly and stay unseen.
I quickly saw a park and remembered my friend K. mentioning that it must be beautiful here now, all blooming. So I opened a slightly open gate to a park and saw the sign „private park“. Hm… how private? Are all parks here maybe private and that is just a normal sign?… I slowly stepped in. To right away meet an elderly lady in her 80s walking her little dog, who looked at me and nicely talked to me, while I was making an expression of being curious and maybe lost. I was. She explained to me that this was really private, from the surrounding inhabitants, and that she payed as much as 750GBP per year for her key. I also found it interesting that the vegetation was so thick you could not see inside from the outside of the park. I denied here sweet offer to let me in and wonder around by myself, as she lived opposite and would watch me to let me out later.
Instead I walked on, admiring all the posh cars. And suddenly getting to what was announce in the tube… the museum… > The Victoria & Albert museum. I had heard the name but no clue about it really, so I googled a bit. And I remembered, that most museums in England are free, no entrance fee, except for some exhibitions. What a great offer, thank you England!!! I felt I had to go in, and luckily I did so. What a beautiful building, inside and outside! I admit I did not spend too much time on the exhibitions (but want to do so during another visit, the weather was too good outside and I was still discovering London walking and watching life outside on the streets). But what I ALWAYS do in museums, I visit the museum shop. I love museum shops!!! This one was wonderful (of course). So many beauty-beauty-beautiful handicrafted goods, so delicate. I bought a little mother of pearl bracelett as a souvenir to remember this day and visit.
Then I walked on, strolled, watched, enjoyed.
Here are my photos for this portion of the lovely day in London
