Serenity Swan at Hyde Park

Today provided us with a taste of two very different Premier Inns, Aldgate and Kensington.

After a nice breakfast in the very good Aldgate Premier Inn we set off on our tour across London. A bit like an open top bus tour but paying just the congestion charge and the ULEZ fee. We drove from the City along the river, past Big Ben and Buckingham Palace to Hyde Park, stopping to take a look at LAMDA and get a picnic for the park. There were plenty of parking spaces in the park itself and we found a perfect one shaded under a tree. Then we were lucky enough to find a bench with this view of the Serenity Swan to have our lunch. After chilling out for a while in this spot we slowly walked round the Serpentine lake, stopping to rest and cool down several times.

The plan had been that after this we would check into the Kensington Premier Inn then head to the Natural History Museum for the last, quieter couple of opening hours. But this seemed quite daunting after quite a tiring walk in the sunshine. So when we had to wait a good while to check in and then were given a room that had other people’s things in it, we took that as a sign and an opportunity to reconsider our plans…

We decided to set off there and then on our journey home to Scotland rather than do it all tomorrow. And we managed to find a lovely converted barn Airbnb near Didcot that was a far cry from another night in a Premier Inn family room. The owner was originally from Glasgow and we had a long chat with him including about the huge difference in climate down here. A decision to change plans always seems to pay off very well.