Day 28 - Tours, Shopping & Theatre
Brigit’s Bakery Tour, Mr. Fogg’s Society of Exploration and Crown to Couture
July 19, 2023: I accidentally skipped writing about Day 28, so now it is out of order, which is going to bother me every time I look at my blog. 🙄
So, on Wednesday, July 19, we had a very full day. We started out by talking the train to Kensington. Originally, we were going to walk, but after over 30,000 steps the day before, we were not up for it. Our tour Kensington Palace was scheduled for 10:00am. As well as being a popular London tourist attraction, the palace is home to the Prince and Princess of Wales and their children. Kensington Palace's previous residents have included The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Diana, Princess of Wales, HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, and Princess Margaret. Diana was particularly fond of the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace and in 2017 the planting scheme was transformed into The White Garden in her memory. Her famous memorial fountain is also located here. Kensington Palace was also the childhood home of Queen Victoria, the great, great, great, great grandmother of The Duke of Cambridge and and The Duke of Sussex. It was at the palace that Victoria met Prince Albert, her future Consort, and was woken with news of her accession in June 1837. It was interesting to learn the stories of Queen Victoria during our visit though the palace. One of the main reasons I wanted to visit the palace was the Crown to Couture exhibit. There were so many famous gowns and costumes on display including my favorites, Blake Lively’s gown from the Met Gala in 2022, the custom Moschino chandelier-inspired outfit Katy Perry wore at the 2019 Met Gala, Dan Levy’s Met Gala outfit from 2022, Beyonce’s 2017 Grammy Awards look and Audrey Hepburn’s ivory lace three-quarter length flared dress designed for Roman Holiday that was then altered by Givenchy for Audrey to wear to the Oscars in 1954. These were just a few of the amazing dresses and suits on display.
From Kensington Palace we walked to the famous Harrod’s Department Store. It was built in 1834 by Charles Henry Harrod when he was only 25 years old. Covering over five acres of land and having more than 1,000,000 square feet of floor space, this iconic location is a quite a landmark. The store’s motto is “Omnia Omnibus Ubique”, which, translated from Latin, means “All things for all people, everywhere.” The motto reflects the store’s goal to provide everything a shopper could want. The store has 330 departments and shoppers can get everything from the latest fashions to toys and even Krispy Kreme donuts. It was a bit overwhelming and very expensive! We ended up purchasing a book, a card, some chocolate covered strawberries and macaroons.
We still had three big items on our agenda for the day. Next up was Brigit’s Bakery Bus Tour. I found out about this on Instagram and we were so glad we did it. What a fun and creative concept. They serve afternoon tea while taking you on a tour of the city. We had finger sandwiches, mini desserts, scones and of course…english tea! We also had a bottle of Prosecco which went great with our desserts 🥂🍾
After dropping us off at the bus station, we headed back to our hotel to change before our final two activities of the evening, Mr. Fogg’s Society of Exploration and the Back to the Future Musical at Adelphi Theatre. Mr. Fogg’s wasn’t orginally planned, but we walked by it the day before and decided we had to check it out. Home to the world’s first Mechanical Mixologist, they call themselves “an atmospheric speakeasy cocktail bar for the truly adventurous”. Founded by Phileas J. Fogg, Esq., The Society is located only a stone’s throw away from Charing Cross station – the starting point of his famous voyage around the world! (Phileas Fogg is the protagonist in the 1872 Jules Verne novel Around the World in Eighty Days. Inspirations for the character were the American entrepreneur George Francis Train and American writer and adventurer William Perry Fogg.) It was a very fun experience.
Our final activity of the day was seeing Back to the Future - the Musical. We were not sure what to expect, but we were pleasantly surprised that the performance was really good and brought back memories of the Michael J. Fox years. We haven’t been to the theatre in a while, so it was nice to be able to get immersed in the story and enjoy being entertained. A great ending to a very busy day.
Jimm’s rating for the day: *****