Day four: Palaces

Happy Fourth of July Independence Day to everyone! It's been quite strange over here. While my group hasn't done anything terribly outrageous, we did see some fun things today. We caught a group of Americans singing (in a beautiful a Capella harmony) the Star Spangled Banner right outside Buckingham Palace after the changing the guard. Gutsy and earned much applause.

The changing of the guard was fun to watch, though we missed the beginning due to a late start. We knew we were in the right place when we could hear the drumming, then the music, of the band (see them in red to the right). The ceremonial aspect of the pageantry is impossible to portray in pictures, but it was impressive. When the guards began to move you could see the entire crowd take off after them. Talk about a mob!

We followed at a distance and watched the guard march toward Buckingham Palace. All in all, this even took over an hour.

After that, we decided to head toward Kensington Palace. My young classmate told us it was "within walking distance," once again emphasizing the gap between 20 and 40 and the mentality we have at these different ages. That said, I'm glad we walk through some of it. We walked by St George's Hospital and then through Hyde Park. I have never seen a park so huge in all my life! This park was beautifully kept and filled with families just enjoying the day. And swans. And mallards. Tons and TONS of swans, mallards, and pigeons. These birds are no joke, let me tell you. The swans are almost as tall as my eight year old son!

We saw the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain and her Memorial Walk. There's a legend that says that she used to sneak out of Kensington Palace occasionally through these little manholes in the park. After her death in 1997, these covers were changed to gold and turned into a memorial walk in her honor.



Queen Victoria Outside Kensington
 After a quick lunch at the shop in the park, we finally reached Kensington Castle. King George II and Queen Caroline lived here. Queen Victoria grew up here until Buckingham was built. Princess Diana lived here from the day she married Charles until she died. There are pictures of Diana and William & Kate everywhere.

Scott, Courtney and I went through the first floor and then the top floor, which is the King 's personal apartments. Amazing! The first floor has a memorial wall to Diana that includes many various painted scenes of her--dressed to the nines, with the boys, alone and more. The kings apartments are quite impressive, too. You could hold a ball in just one of the rooms in his apartments, never mind the others--sitting room, privy room, Caroline's closet and more.

 Two of the rooms include examples of dresses and suits the royals wore. This one belonged to Princess Amelia, reminiscent of those very wide gowns that court women wore. They had a display that showed the hip holster the women had to wear to make their dresses sprawl like that. Never been so thankful to be common if you know what I mean.

All in all, it was a good day, if quite a bit longer than I intended. Tomorrow we go to Oxford for the day and need an early start, so Cheerio!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New Pattern: Neapolitan Baby Shrug

Image
While I was traveling with my mom, I came up with this idea for a little shrug for a baby at our church. (Enjoy MacKenzie!) I pretty much just made it up as I went along, but have now written it up and am posting it here. For larger sizes, repeat rows 1-6 an extra time before you continue. I like using the various stitches, because it adds a bit of a texture to it, almost like ice cream ripples. My mom called Neapolitan and that name has stuck. Enjoy and please post any questions you have. This pattern is free for personal use, but please do not use it for commercial purposes. download now Neopolitan Baby Shrug by Jenna Moore Materials: 1 skein each white yarn, chocolate brown yarn, and strawberry pink yarn. I use dk or sport weight Size H hook Shell stitch: *Sc in first stitch, sk, 5dc in next st, sk, sc in next stitch.* Body of Shrug: ch 56 with White Row 1 Sc in second ch from the hook and in each remaining chain. Row 2 Turn and sc in each chain across. Change to...
Read more

Peppermint Stripe Scarf

Image
While I was walking through Michael's Arts and Crafts a few weeks ago I saw a skein of Red Heart Shimmer yarn. I had already been seeing visions of a peppermint swirl design in a scarf or a hat. When I saw the Shimmer in red and white I knew I had to make those little balls of shiny goodness into something fun for Christmas! As you can probably tell by the name of this scarf, I had visions of peppermint sticks in mind. I tried a number of ways to make the strips go diagonal, but after starting a few different designs, I decided that vertical strips would be better. I really love the way this came out, so I'm sharing it with you. Supplies: 1 ball Red Heart Shimmer white 1 ball Red Heart Shimmer red H size crochet hook Piece of cardboard or similar item to wrap your yarn to size the fringe Yarn needle Scissors Scarf Body Using the white yarn, ch 252. (I like my scarves really long and this reached about to my knees. You can make it any length you w...
Read more

Update on Migraines and Herbs

Image
Back in April I posted about trying a new therapy for my migraines . Most preventative medications that are prescribed do not work for me or I cannot take them due to my low blood pressure. So in April I started taking a daily dose of feverfew as a preventative. Since that time I have gone from three day long migraines on a weekly basis to only two shorter migraines. One of those I was able to identify a new trigger--the chicken hot dogs we had for dinner. I haven't eaten hot dogs in over a year and it made sense due to the nitrite/nitrate issue involved. The other blindsided me. All in all, I've decided that this therapy is working pretty well. Now I'm researching ways to easy the physical pain. My most common issue is bad knee pain. I am started physical therapy this week, but in the meantime I'd like to lower the inflammation. After a few hours of research this weekend, I've decided to try pineapple for it's bromelain content . It's an enjoyable therapy...
Read more