Living in the moment when thinking of the future is unavoidable...Photos from walks in South Kensington...

We walked past a Christie's location, the world famous auction house, that occupies of almost the entire block.

Living in the moment is a vital aspect to the depth of our appreciation in traveling the world. Anticipating the future with diligent planning leaves our minds free to revel in the moment.

One can't live in a perpetual state of anticipation with an occasional thought of the time and place of the moment. We've found that the opposite is true. Live in the moment with an occasional thought and warm fuzzy about the future.

Once in the heart of the area, the streets were jammed with cars and people.

At the moment, as much as we're finding London to be enriching and interesting we must admit, we're anticipating our upcoming two cruises, one on August 31st and the second on September 23rd with a flutter of excitement.

An old church stands out among the crisp white buildings.

We haven't been on a cruise ship since we toured the Mediterranean Sea ending in Venice, Italy on June 16, 2013. It seems so long ago. Now, as we mentally make every effort to free ourselves from those thoughts in order to embrace London while we're here, its still hard to believe we'll be on a cruise ship in 12 days.

There are several routes we've taken when walking the area, some less busy than others.

With only four months until we see our family in Hawaii, its tough not to let our minds wander to the joy of seeing all of them once again.

Look at this gorgeous display in this bakery. Yes, my food voyeur tendencies are in full on mode in London. Tom scoffs at these yummy looking desserts, preferring a boring plain cake donut or a Bismarck topped with chocolate frosting with custard inside. Dull! (Not the guy. Just his taste buds).

We got a kick out of the name of this store, Odd Bins.

Yesterday, we took off on foot toward the three museums in the area, able to enter only one of three with the lines of thousands of waiting visitors. We'll share our museum experience in tomorrow's post which we'll upload early in the morning.

The walkways and roads are beautifully maintained, making walking especially enjoyable.

Tomorrow, we have a 10 hour tour of Downton Abbey and Oxford University, leaving at 7:45 am from the hotel across the street. We'll upload the post before we leave so we won't miss a beat in our absence ad be back on Thursday with photos of the all day tour.

There was an auto showroom along the busy street , open by appointment only, displaying this yellow Lamborghini.

As avid fans of the entertaining British TV show since its onset, it will be fascinating to see the grounds and the castle that have become firmly entrenched in our minds after never missing an episode over several seasons

There was one bakery after another in the busy area.

Today, as yesterday, we'll walk around the beautiful South Kensington area trying another route. We couldn't be more thrilled that we ended up in this superb location in this 4 star hotel, The Regency Hotel Queen's Gate.

The entrance to Piccadilly line South Kensington was located in a small indoor mall.

We've worked out the kinks we encountered upon checking in including our blown plugins left us no alternative but to borrow the singular device they had available, suitable for US plugs which will only charge one computer at a time.

A pub we entered to read the menu had meat for sale and also to serve to dining patrons.

As for charging our phones and cameras, we have no option but to charge them via USB into the computer, one at a time, when one of our computers is plugged in. Timing this is cumbersome.

The historic building stand out in the lovely area.

As a result, we spend time in the morning in the lobby running off batteries, writing rather than sitting on the bed in the room. Once we've uploaded the daily post, we head back to the room and charge one computer while we go out and about.

Another church steeple in South Kensington.

Later, when we return to shower and dress for dinner we'll leave the other computer charging while away. We repeat this process over and over. Its annoying to say the least. Also, paying US $13.31, 8 pounds per day for Wifi is ridiculous when there have been no such charges at any other hotels in which we've stayed. This wasn't clear when we booked online months ago.

Architecturally interesting white buildings line many of streets in South Kensington.

Otherwise, this hotel is lovely with excellent service, reasonable amenities, a gorgeous décor and perfect location. Tonight, in an effort for an early evening, we'll dine in the hotel's beautiful restaurant. The inviting ambiance and comparable pricing to other dining establishments in the area make it a logical choice when we have an early start tomorrow morning.

We often take photos of nearby restaurants, later looking up reviews of TripAdvisor, such as in this case it rates #1572 of 17,134, making it in the top 9%, perhaps worthy of a visit. To see the review click here.

As indicated above, we'll be posting tomorrow morning with photos of our visit to the Victoria and Albert Museum and then Thursday with results of our 10 hour day tour on a bus with a bunch of "oldies" like us, all attempting to "live in the moment."
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Photo from one year ago today, August 19, 2013:

While living in Boveglio, we order the upcoming one year of prescriptions. When they arrived almost 60 days after ordering, we were worried when one box was missing. We had to reorder and have it sent to our mailing service who was sending us a package while we'd be living in Kenya. For details, please click here.