Kensington Palace, London Eye, and a Train to Cardiff

I woke up especially excited to go site-seeing on Friday, Dec 28 because we were going to see Kensington Palace where Queen Victoria was raised. Ever since I saw the movie, "Young Victoria" I have been a bit of a fan. Plus, who doesn't love most of the things that came out of the Victorian era?

Once again we hopped on the tube and then made a bit of a walk through the park where the palace is located. When it came into view, I tried to hide how giddy I was to be laying eyes on the palace.

In front of Kensington Palace

The Christmas tree in front of the palace

One thing that was kind of a letdown about this trip was how little everything was decorated for Christmas. Apparently loads of lights and decorations is a US thing. We thought London would be a site at Christmas with all the lights... too bad there really weren't any.

Queen Victoria's cradle and busts of her children

Prince Albert's uniform

A portrait of Queen Victoria

I seriously loved touring Kensington. There was only one section that was all about Queen Victoria, and then there were two others that showed the difference between the male and female quarters of the palace. Obviously the Victoria section was my favorite.

It wasn't until after I got home that my mom reminded me Kensington is also where Princess Diana lived, and where Kate and William currently reside. If I were royalty, I'd make Kensington my home too.

The rest of the day was really low key, much to Hubs' disappointment. We found lunch at an Italian restaurant, and then went back to the hotel for a nap. We spent the rest of that day just relaxing and watching American TV.

The next day was our last in London. We packed up our suitcases that morning and checked out of the hotel. We left our bags with the concierge while we did some final souvenir shopping and rode on the London Eye.

Hubs and Little Bean on the London Eye

It was raining that day (shocker), so we didn't get very good pictures from the London Eye

This was our hotel. Our room was located in the arch. (Marriott County Hall)

Not my best picture. I'm sure I was telling Little Bean to smile.

Big Ben, Little Bean, and Hubs

After the London Eye, we made our way to Paddington Station, grabbed some lunch, and then hopped on the train for a 2-hour ride to Cardiff. If I haven't said it before, Hubs gave Little Bean and I awesome Christmas presents for moments like this. We both watched movies and played games all the way to Cardiff.

When we got to Cardiff, we made a very long, arduous walk of five minutes from the train station to our hotel, which was visible from the train station. Honestly, we were really glad it was so close because we had six pieces of luggage.

We closed out the evening watching more American TV, eating candy, and just taking it easy. Perfect!