After spending a long morning at Portobello Road Market, we decided to pay a visit to Kensington Palace, the childhood home of Queen Victoria.

Located in Kensington Gardens in London, Kensington Palace has been a residence for British royalty since the 17th Century and as such was the principal residence for King William and Mary, Queen Anne, and Georges I & II. We arrived in mid-afternoon on a Saturday which, in retrospect, was probably not the wisest idea with the crowds. Summoning up our courage, we paid our admission and entered…

Pushing our way past the crowds, we took a somewhat random approach to what we viewed, filling in where there weren’t people and then moving from display to display as crowds formed. The first area we looked at was in the oldest part of the palace:

The crowds were a bit large and constantly getting in the way so we weren’t able to get as many pictures as we would have wanted. However, this caught our eye:

 

There were a number of reproductions of period garments, in this case a 17th Century dress, that were made out of Tyvek and intended to be handled by the visitors. Tyvek? Wow, brilliant idea when you think about it- the same stuff that’s used for hazmat suits and mailing envelops. 🙂

Here were a couple of views that we were able to get on the fly:

Besides the older wing, there was also the wing that had been occupied by Queen Victoria prior to her ascension to the throne as well as a temporary exhibition of Lady Diana’s wardrobe. Both were pretty interesting but the crowds were intense and we were unable to get a good look.  Overall, it was an interesting visit BUT if you go here, be sure to go on a weekday morning to avoid the crowds.