On Friday last week I took myself off to Kensington Gardens to explore. I have been before, but only as far as Kensington Palace to see the tokens of affection left for Princess Diana at the main gates. This time around I took myself farther afield to see what else there is to discover. I also wanted to find the elusive (till now) Peter Pan
Peter Pan - the boy who would not grow up
statue and visit the Italian Gardens which I had a glimpse of one day whilst travelling along Bayswater Road on the bus.
Italian Gardens
There are so many wonderful places to see in London and Kensington Gardens should definitely be on your itinerary of things to do 
aerial map of Kensington Gardens
I entered via King’s Arms gate and headed diagonally towards The Dual Walk which takes you to the gates and give you a fabulous first view of the palace. This is also the walk and gates that you saw in the news scenes after Diana’s death in 1997. People have left mementoes for a great number of years since then but these appear to have all been removed now. Not sure what I think of that, but there you go.
The gates to the palace are very impressive and beautifully decorative.
beautifully decorative gates
Just beyond is a statue of William of Orange; King of Great Britain & Ireland 1689-1702. To the right of the building and just around the corner is the tourist entrance. (If you wish to visit the palace, buy your tickets beforehand as the queues can be very long).
I had a very happy 2 hours meandering about the gardens from one side to the other and along the way saw the Albert Memorial (this is very impressive), a fabulous sculpture of a man on a horse, the Round Pond, the Long Water which appears to be the top end of the Serpentine, the Peter Pan statue and the Italian Gardens. There are a number of marvellous things to see in the gardens besides the palace and if you have a look at the aerial map at the gates you can get a fair idea of where everything is. In the meantime, here is a video giving you just a glimpse of some of what there is to see.
To see this and much, much more while you’re in London, click here for your very own self-guided itinerary. This can be downloaded onto kindle, iphone, ipad, android and many more.
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