Portobello Rd and Hyde Park

Today was a "neighbourhood" day, starting with wandering through the stalls of Portobello Rd. Nana's china and cutlery was heavily represented, along with every variety of beautiful and bizarre antiques. The food and vegetable stalls were rather mouth-watering, so we gathered our bag of fresh ciabatta and croissants for a leisurely lunch. Kath made sure I walked it all off afterwards with a very energetic ramble through nearby Hyde Park, starting at the ginormous Albert Memorial, then on to the more symbolic Diana memorial - I think that bit of water I am standing beside in the photo represents Camilla - a very rough patch indeed. We then came through the most expensive residential street in London - Kensington Palace Gardens - which is largely embassies, but some have now been sold off to private buyers. The one I am standing on front of is described below:

Kensington Palace Gardens is a private road running alongside Hyde Park, literally only a stones-throw away. There are just 21 buildings, most of which once served as embassies. But with cash-strapped countries starting to sell off their expensive embassy buildings, you may just get lucky, like these new residents:

- 18-19 Kensington Palace Gardens was recently sold to Indian-born steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal. The price-tag was a staggering 70m pounds, making this the world's most expensive private residential home. The 12-bedroom property has enough space for 20 cars, and the building's marble was imported from the same quarry that yielded the raw material for the Taj Mahal.

Tonight we are off to the fireworks beside the London Eye................