The Orangery in Kensington Gardens is next to Kensington Palace.
It is a good place to have tea after walking in the gardens.

I go to Kensington Gardens almost whenever I visit England, because I want to see Peter Pan. Usually, I don't have much time. Therefore, so after I say, "Hello, I'm here again." to Peter Pan, I walk for a little, then I leave. Probably, that's why, until several years ago, I hadn't known that I could have tea in the Orangery. Since I knew the Orangery, I began to think,"I want to have tea there.", but I didn't have time for a few years. Then, finally, in 2004, I could take tea there!
That time, I visited England with my parents for the first time. Every morning, our family got up early and before eight o'clock, we were ready to leave our hotel. I thought that walking in parks was good way to start sightseeing at such an early time in the morning. Therefore, on our fifth morning, we went to Kensington Gardens.
We entered Kensington Gardens from Lancaster Gate station. Soon, we found the statue of Peter Pan. From the statue, we began to walk to Kensington Palace.
That day, I planed to go to Hampton Court Palace, but my mother said, "I want to relax." I thought, "So, why don't we have tea in the Orangery?" Until around ten o'clock, we spent time watching swans gathering around the pond. After that, we visited Kensington Palace and went to the Orangery to have tea.

The Orangery has great many windows, so it was very light and airy. Around the entrance, many cakes and scones were displayed on a large table. In the room, you won't feel cramped because the tables and chairs are positioned in a spacious fashion. Some people talked with their friends and some people put some documents on the tables. In other words, it wasn't so busy, so everybody did as he or she wanted to do without thinking about the time. You can be relaxed looking at the scenery through the windows.
In order to chose which cakes we wanted to eat, we left our seats and went towards the large table, on which many cakes were displayed. After a few moments, we discovered a cake named "orangery". We all thought it must be good so we selected this house speciality cake. To accompany the cake, I asked for camomile tea

I had a bite of my orangery cake while sipping my tea. This combination seemed to make my feet recover from the fatigue after walking in the garden since the early morning.
I really enjoyed an elegant tea time in the Orangery.

* If you want to know about my other afternoon tea, please click here.

(2005.3.5)

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Trip to England