I'm a few days behind in my postings, so it's time to get caught up again before we head to France.

We went and saw Kensington Palace. I had read a review where someone was saying the palace was rundown, but everything looked pretty awesome to me...

One wing of the building was devoted to the living areas for the King and Queen, though specifically which has since left my mind. In any case it was much more plain with wood walls and not much decoration. This also may have been a result of damage incurred during WWII as I recall being told it had been damaged from fires at one point out another.

My favorite parts were the staircase and a room with a clock in the middle of it. What can I say, I'm a sucker for decoration.

Another thing of note was an exhibition of Princess Diana's dresses. Frankly this didn't really appeal to me *shrug* however as it was air conditioned I had no problem spending a few minutes there.

Lastly we were surprised to find an exhibition for some of Queen Victoria's jewelry. It's in an unassuming part of the building and as you round a corner there they are... 

Outside the Palace we spent a bit of time enjoying the Sunken Garden. There are some very pretty gardens that are boozed in by curved green trellis's. There's an added bonus that it was actually pretty cool in the shade.

The next day we went to see the Churchill War Rooms.

We spent a bit of time wandering the underground passageways and listening to the faithful audioguide that we were given. The worse my eyes get the more I am appreciative of this method of disseminating information.

My favorite bits were the map rooms where they charted the progress of the war as well as the exhibition that walked visitors through Churchill's life.

Following our visit we took a walk through the lovely St. James Park over to Buckingham Palace. As luck would have it the queen was at home.

Amanda suggested we go say hello, but I didn't think that was the best plan...

On our way back we happened across the Albert memorial. Completely unplanned, we just happened to be walking down the block when it popped out from a group of trees. It is huge! I knew what it was only because we had driven by on a siteseeing bus tour previously, but seeing it up close is much more impressive.  

I just think it's cool how we end up bumping into these really grand monuments by accident.  

That night we had one more activity in store: a Jack the ripper tour at night over on the east side of London. This was our first "free" walking tour (you pay what you feel like). We were paired up with a tour guide who is also an actor, which definitely aided in his performance.

Since not much is known about the actual murderer, most of the tour was spent understanding the area during that time frame as well as who the women were that he killed.

Each murder was a progression in terms of brutality, and the guide did a great job setting the mood and explaining the escalation murder by murder.

Oh, I've mentioned Westminster underground station looking like something out of 1984... Well you be your own judge: