Kensington Palace with the kids

Let me just say I am a total fan of the Royal family and am looking forward to watching the William & Kate wedding on 29 April 2011. The last Royal wedding I watched on television was the Andrew & Sarah wedding and we all know how that marriage turned out. But I have faith that William and Kate will work on having a successful marriage together.

I am extremely devastated that I cannot be in London for the wedding to see all the preparations and be part of the very crowded street for the procession. The wedding will be held in Westminster Abbey where Prince Charles and Diana were married.

London is one of the cities I visited in 2010, unfortunately in the short time I was there with my family we were unable to visit Westminster Abbey. It will be one of my first ports of call when I visit London again. I must add that when I arrived in London city I fell in love with all of the architecture, fashion, large parks and even the traffic and crowds.

I spent a lot of time in the parks with my husband and sons climbing trees and chasing squirrels. Our favorite park was Kensington Park with the playground and Princess Diana Memorial. We spent several hours at the playground with the kids, it has so many activities for children of all ages. There is a large ship with a mast to climb, Indian tepees to hide in and musical toys to play with. We used the playground as a “bribe” at the end of a sight seeing day. It worked well especially when I wanted to visit Harrods and Kensington Palace.

We were very lucky that while we were in London, Kensington Palace had a fantastic exhibition that the kids could participate in. Now I must admit is was more suited to little girls but my sons did have fun looking for clues and working out which princess had which bedroom. My boys and I also learned a lot about the lives of the royal children. There was a display of the prince’s toy soldiers that the kids could actually play with.

Kensington Palace has been home to many Royal family members including Princess Victoria. The Palace in undergoing a transformation this year and hopefully be finished in 2012. The Palace gardens are being cleaned up and replanted (this was happening while we visited in Oct 2010). With the help of donations the Palace will be cleaned and refurbished too.

A family ticket for Kensington Palace cost £34.00 (2010) AUD$55.00

How to find Kensington Park and Palace:

Get the tube to Kensington South station and simply follow the signs to Kensington Palace, the Palace is in the park, there are many signs for the playground and the memorial.

London Tube prices:

Adult fares for city: £4

Children up to 11years: Free with an adult.

Happy New Year!!! Looking back over 2010...

Hello/Ciao everyone!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Well 2010 was a very exciting and busy one for us. 

We started 2010 with Iain having a split lip from some random guy who punched Iain in the mouth in our front yard, not a very good start to 2010.

My cousin Marie turned 25 in February.

We celebrated Easter at my Aunty Anthi's house, it was a huge family affair (Mum and Dad were in Kazahkstan).

Mum and Dad returned from a 1 year mission trip in Kazahkstan.

My cousin Kat celebrated her 30th at the Versace buffet on the Gold Coast.

Iain, Levi, Phoenix and I set off on our 3 month adventure from the Gold Coast Airport. 

A few days after we arrived in Florence, Josh and Holly welcomed baby Eli to the family. 

While my family were in Paris we heard that my sister had her 2nd  child a little girl.  Pepper is my parents first granddaughter.

We spent a week at the Cinque Terre in the sun, then came back to cool weather in Florence and a bit of rain.

I got to go to a dinner with some expat women in Florence and met Kimberly.  It was great meeting someone I had chatted to on the internet.  We were invited to Kimberly house for dinner and enjoyed wonderful crostini and pizza with her husband and 2 sons.

In our last week in Italy we spent 5 days with Paola (the owner of the flat we stayed in at Florence) and Sergio in Albugnano near Asti.  We visited the Alps and saw snow on the top of the mountains.  It was very cold in the Northern part of Italy in October.

When we left Florence it was very hard and we miss it everyday. 

London welcomed us with 24C and sunshine, the next day it was 12C and windy with a little rain.  We enjoyed London so much we would love to go back and spend a bit more time there and discover other areas of the UK.

After almost missing our connecting flight from London to Kuala Lumpur we arrived back in Australia to cool weather.  It has been raining ever since and only now in late December do we have warm weather.

We celebrated my cousin Andreas 30th birthday in November at the Fox.

For Christmas we headed to Rockhampton in the floods and rain to celebrate with Iain's family.

Now many towns in Queensland are flooded and many people have been evacuated from their houses.

We enjoyed a BBQ and games on the Wii with family for New Years Eve.

Our family at the Duomo in Florence-October 2010

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all and I hope the new year brings joy and happiness.  Please keep safe and healthy.