Three Castles in Three Days

 

[Wednesday, August 16, 2023 to Friday, August 18, 20233]

For efficiency sake, I've combined the last three days into a single post. Not near as many pictures as when on Safari.

DAY 1 - CASTLE 1 - Kensington Palace

This palace was the home to Princess Diana & Princess Margaret (among others) and currently the home of Prince William and Princess Kate. It was the only one of the three that allowed pictures to be taken inside. There was very little display of the architecture of this magnificent structure. Instead, a fashion display was setup in a number of the rooms portraying various outfits worn by celebrities at different events.

NOTE: The palace part of the vacation was a little more Laureen than Curt. I'm a huge fan of the architecture, history, art and the buildings in general. Laureen is a little more of a Royal watcher than I am. But even she was disappointed in this one. Neither of us were interested in what Lizzo wore at some award ceremony. Quite honestly, I would have enjoyed checking out the plumbing under the building more than I did seeing the celebrity clothing. 

On the grounds here is the newly unveiled statue of Diana which was presented by her sons just a few years ago.

There is also a memorial fountain for Diana in the nearby Kensington park.

A couple of photos from inside Kensington Palace.

There was also some of the Queen's jewelry there, so I tried to put them on Laureen.

C's Rating - 0 / 5 (would have been 1/5 if I could have plunged a royal toilet)

L's Rating - 2 / 5 (The memorial items in the gardens would rank higher.)

After we were done walking through Kensington Palace, we went for a walk down Carnaby street. Lots of shops. SQ told us about this place and it lived up to her description. Couple nice watch shops along here too...

We were a little early for our night tour of London, so we stopped at a park to rest our tired feet.

Then we hopped on our night tour bus. Caught a couple nice shots of the London skyline.

DAY 2 - CASTLE 2 - Buckingham Palace

This one was divided into three sections: the Queen's Gallery, the Muse, and the State Apartments. The only one of these three that we were allowed to take pictures in was the Muse. It's too bad because there was some amazing things in Buckingham Palace. 

We started in the Queen's Gallery which had dozens and dozens of very large paintings from different eras. We were given an audio guide device that we could make our way through the rooms at our own pace. If I had some of my own photos, I would post them, but I do not. So here is some from the website.

Next, we left the Queens Gallery and walked outside to the Royal Muse. The Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace is responsible for all road travel arrangements for The King and members of the Royal Family, from horse-and-carriage to car and from livery to harness. There was a display of a number of different horse drawn carriages and one older Rolls Royce (that was partially designed by Prince Phillip). But the piece-de-resistance was the gold state coach that was used in the recent coronation of King Charles III. It was designed by William Chambers and made by the coach-maker Samuel Butler. At 260 years old it has been used at every coronation since William IV’s in 1831. The huge coach is seven metres long, 3.6 metres tall, weighs four tonnes, and needs eight horses to draw it. Because of its age and and how heavy it is, it is only ever used at a walking pace.

There was also a carriage that you could get it and grab a photo of yourself riding in. Not quite as extravagant as the one above mind you. 

After the Muse, was the state apartments. This was VERY cool. You may have seen pictures of the halls/rooms of Buckingham palace before (maybe even from the series, The Crown), but being in there in person is something else. The place is...hard to describe. It comes across as very, monarch-ish. Huge high ceilings that are often ornately painted. All kinds of woodwork, chandeliers and incredible furniture. Now THIS is more like it!

Again, since I was not allowed to take photo's inside, here are some photo's from the website to give you an idea as to what these rooms are like. 

Lastly, we had the opportunity to step out back of the palace and see the grounds. It's truly a stunning place to see in person. 

C's Rating - 4.5 / 5 (would have been 5/5 if I could have taken my own photos)

L's Rating - 5 / 5

After this we escaped somewhere for lunch (I really can't recall where anymore, things are starting to blur). We also went into Harrods Department store and walked around with the rich people. I took one photo in there and it was of the chocolate room. I also walked through the expensive watch area. Was going to try on a Rolex Submariner, but Laureen wouldn't let me. Come on...they are only $20,000.00. ;-).

DAY 3 - CASTLE 3 - Windsor Castle

Ok, down to the last castle and it's of the Windsor variety. We were SUPPOSED to see this on our stop over in England prior to our trip to Kenya/Tanzania. However, due to delayed flights (not naming any names), we had to reschedule this for our stay in England AFTER our Africa trip. Thankfully the Windsor Castle people were very accommodating for this. The only catch is that we were staying in South Kensington now and the castle is in Windsor. Laureen was able to book us a train from Paddington Station to Windsor; so today is going to be a bit of trains, planes and automobiles (without the planes and automobiles). 

We got up in time to get to the station with enough time to get there by taking "The Tube" and using our non-resident Oyster cards. The trains here take a bit getting used to because they are EVERYWHERE. You really have to pay attention to which line you are on - because some of them are parallel but they don't end up at the same place. After frantically looking around, then seeing one of the destinations we needed, we jumped on a train. Ooops. This was not the right one. So, we hopped off at the next station and waited for the correct train to get us to Paddington. 

Once at Paddington, we were able to ask someone there how to find our train to Windsor. If you have ever seen a TV show that shows a UK train station, you will see a bunch of people standing around, seeming doing nothing. Well, they are not doing nothing. They are waiting for the main board to show what track their train is coming in on. Once that is displayed, you will see a bunch of the people, who you thought were standing around doing nothing, all head toward the same train track. I guess since there are so many trains, they have to do it this way. We waited (and stood around and did nothing), until our train platform was announced and headed over to it. The trip to Windsor required us to get off at the "Slough" station and switch to a different train that just went between Slough and Windsor. And - voila. We were in Windsor. 

It was a slightly soggy morning today so it was a good thing I grabbed one of the umbrella's provided by our flat owner for this trip. I did forget my hat though in the flurry to leave, so we wandered into a second had store that sold used and a few new items and I found a simple hat that I could use to keep the light off/on rain off my glasses. Laureen used the umbrella. 

Laureen wanted to go to a store we saw on our inbound portion of the trip called "Next". It appeared there was one in Windsor, so we headed over to the location provided by Google Maps, only to find that the store was no longer there. I submitted a correction. 

We stopped in at Esquire Coffee (the same place we went for breakfast when we stayed here), and grabbed a drink and watched the rain slowly come to a stop. we were lucky to get a table as the place really started to fill up.  I think the rain helped bring customers inside. 

Finally, our time arrived to go an join the "queue" (as they say here in England). They really like their queue's. We were shocked at how long the queue for our time slot actually was. It nearly wrapped around so that you could look into the front gates of the Windsor Castle (ok - not quite that long - but definitely heading in that direction). 

Yet again, we were forbidden from taking pictures inside the castle. On a couple of occasions I caught people taking pictures. This made me angry. 😡 I approached one of them and told them that it wasn't allowed. They meekly said ok and scurried off. The second I reported to one of the staff. Seriously people. So here are a few pictures from the website of the interior.

The place is just as stunning from the outside as it is from the inside. The outside pictures are mine. 

On the grounds of Windsor Castle is St. George's Chapel. This is the Chapel that Prince Harry and Meagan were married in as well as the final resting place for Queen Elizabeth II, her husband Prince Phillip and both of Queen Elizabeth's parents. We were able to walk by and look into the area as shown below from a CNN report.

As has been the theme, there were not photo's allowed inside, so here is my capture of the outside of this historic Chapel.

C's Rating - 4.5 / 5 (would have been 5/5 if I could have taken my own photos)

L's Rating - 5 / 5

After this we had lunch sitting on benches outside of the castle. I ran into the McDonalds there and grabbed a burger for both of us as something that was quick and to satisfy that burger craving. We then jumped back on the trains we took to get here, only in reverse. No issues with this journey.

Upon arriving back in London at Paddington station, we used our Hop-on-Hop-off passes and jumped on one of the busses. It was pretty full on the top and it took a few stops for us to get seats together in the open air of the upper deck. And we essentially stayed on this until they stopped for the evening which was a couple of hours. It was cool to drive around and see some more of the city. I took a few photos of St. Pauls Cathedral from here.

We hopped off at the last stop and walked until we found an nice little Italian restaurant, ordered an Italiana pizza with a nice glass of Sangiovese, and topped it off with an order of Cannoli that Laureen unwillingly shared with me. 

A very nice end to a great day.

G'nigh all.

Curt & Laureen